Yogeśvara (Cakshustīrtha)
Yogeśvara · yoga-īśvara, “the master of Yoga”
Yogeśvara, “the master of Yoga”, also called Yogeśa and Hari, the master of Yogas, is Bhagavān Vishṇu as he dwells at Cakshustīrtha on the southern bank of the Gautamī. Brahmā tells Nārada in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa that before Yogeśvara the righteous vaiśya Maṇikuṇḍala lost his eyes and was made whole again by a herb that had fallen there, and that Vibhīshaṇa, lord of Laṅkā, comes on every śukla ekādaśī to bathe in the Gautamī and worship him. The tīrtha bestows beauty and happiness in marriage.
The vaiśya before Yogeśvara
In the mountain city of Bhauvana lived the brāhmaṇa Gautama, son of Vṛddhakauśika, a man of perverse nature, and his friend Maṇikuṇḍala, a rich vaiśya devoted to dharma. Gautama drew the vaiśya out to seek wealth and, arguing that adharma brings happiness, won from him by wagers first all his wealth and then his hands. Wandering on, the two came by chance to the Gaṅgā and to Hari, the master of Yogas, and there the vaiśya praised the Gaṅgā, the master of Yogas and dharma alone. Gautama wagered their lives, and in front of Yogeśvara, on the southern bank of the Gautamī, he threw the vaiśya down, plucked out his eyes, took leave of him and went away. Maṇikuṇḍala, without hands or eyes, sat alone on the ground, still thinking only of dharma.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100
Vibhīshaṇa’s pūjā
On the ekādaśī of the bright half of every month, Vibhīshaṇa comes to this place at the end of the day, in the night after moonrise, with his son and surrounded by rākshasas. He bathes in the Gautamī Gaṅgā and duly worships Yogeśvara.
That night his son Vaibhīshaṇi found the vaiśya and told his father what had befallen him. Vibhīshaṇa told how Hanumān, the friend of his guru Śrī Rāma, had once brought a great mountain of healing herbs to Rāma and carried it back to Himavat; as he went swiftly, the herb Viśalyakaraṇī fell on the bank of the Gautamī, where the deity is Hari, the master of Yogas. “Bring that herb and, remembering Hari, place it on this vaiśya’s heart.” Vaibhīshaṇi recited the Vedic mantra “Ishe tvā” and cut a branch of the tree where the herb had fallen, and at its touch the vaiśya regained his hands and eyes. He kept the twig, bathed in the Gautamī Gaṅgā, bowed to Hari, the master of Yogas, and went out into many lands. With that twig he gave sight to the blind daughter of the king of Mahāpura and won her hand and the kingdom. Later he found Gautama, robbed of everything by gamblers, honoured him, taught him the power of dharma and had him bathe in the Gaṅgā. The two friends with their kinsmen, chief among them Vṛddhakauśika, performed yajñas near Yogeśvara, worshipped the devas and went to svarga.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100
The tīrtha and its phala
From that time the tīrtha is known as Mṛtasañjīvana, Cakshustīrtha and Yogeśa. It bestows beauty and happiness in marriage, gives puṇya even when it is only remembered, delights the mind and destroys all miseries.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100