Canto 3 -
Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Chapter 43: Sītā Sees the Magical Deer
Text 3.43.7
अस्य मायाविदो माया मृगरूपमिदं कृतम्।
भानुमत्पुरुषव्याघ्र गन्धर्वपुरसन्निभम्॥
asya māyāvido māyā mṛga-rūpam idaṁ kṛtam
bhānumat puruṣa-vyāghra gandharva-pura-sannibham
asya = by him; māyāvidaḥ = who is a knower of magical tricks; māyā = magical creation; mṛga-rūpam = in the form of a deer; idam = this; kṛtam = created; bhānumat = bright; puruṣa-vyāghra = O prince; gandharva-pura-sannibham = is like a city of the gandharvas.
O prince, this magical creation in the form of a bright deer created by him, who is a knower of magical tricks, is like a city of the gandharvas.
1 Technical note: gandharva-puraṁ nāma ramya-bhavanākāra-viśeṣa-kṣaṇa-bhaṅguram abhram.
Mārīca had [magically] transformed [himself] into a deer.
Gandharva-pura-sannibham: The deer was as astonishing as a transient and fleeting cloud that seemed to be like a city of the gandharvas—a city filled with wonders of several kinds.
NOTE. Gandharva-pura (“a city of the gandharvas”) is sometimes described as a fleeting cloud that has the appearance of a beautiful palace.1
This very expression appears in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in philosophical contexts:
atheśa-māyā-raciteṣu saṅgaṁ
guṇeṣu gandharva-puropameṣu
rūḍhaṁ prakṛtyātmani viśva-kartur
bhāvena hitvā tam ahaṁ prapadye
“Therefore I should now give up my attachment for things created by the external energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I should engage in thought of the Lord and should thus surrender unto Him. This material creation, having been created by the external energy of the Lord, is like an imaginary town visualized on a hill or in a forest. Every conditioned soul has a natural attraction and attachment for material things, but one must simply give up this attachment and surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (Bhāgavatam 9.9.47)
In his purport to this verse, Prabhupāda writes:
When passing through a mountainous region in an airplane, one may sometimes see a city in the sky with towers and palaces, or one may see similar things in a big forest. This is called a gandharva-pura, a phantasmagoria. This entire world resembles such a phantasmagoria, and every materially situated person has attachment for it. But Khaṭvāṅga Mahārāja, because of his advanced Kṛṣṇa consciousness, was not interested in such things.