worship of Shiva

[Guest guest]

Morning walk Chicago 10 July 1975

Devotee: ®r…la Prabhup€da, in Winnipeg there is one very pious east Indian

man who for many years has been worshiping somewhat, worshiping Lord ®iva.

And his wife is also a very quite chaste woman and sincere follower—and so

were her parents—of Lord ®iva. And he is reading your Bhagavad-g…t€. He

visits our temple. And I have given him the first volume of Canto Four which

discusses Lord ®iva a great deal. And he has read in one of your purports

that KŠa is more pleased when you worship His devotee than when you

worship Him directly. And Lord ®iva is a very great devotee of KŠa. So he

has now interpreted that to mean that if he worships Lord ®iva so nicely,

then actually he is pleasing KŠa more. So he is experiencing some

difficulty because of this and I’m not quite sure how to instruct him that

actually...

Prabhup€da: Difficulty?

Brahm€nanda: That... Our Godbrother has difficulty in replying to this

interpretation that KŠa says, “You can please Me by worshiping My

devotee,” and Lord ®iva is the devotee of KŠa. So therefore this man says,

“Then I shall worship Lord ®iva. In that way I shall please KŠa.”

Prabhup€da: But if he accepts Lord ®iva is devotee of KŠa, then by

worshiping Lord ®iva he will be benefited. If he thinks Lord ®iva is

independent, then he will not be benefited.

Devotee (3): I’ve got him to accept that Lord ®iva is devotee of KŠa, but

there’s no practical instruction in his worldly activities coming.

Prabhup€da: No, vaiŠav€n€m yath€ ambhuƒ: “Amongst the VaiŠavas, ®aˆbhu,

Lord ®iva, is the greatest VaiŠava.” So we worship Lord ®iva as VaiŠava.

We gives respect to VaiŠavas. So why not Lord ®iva? Lord ®iva is a big

VaiŠava. But generally, the devotees of Lord ®iva, they take Lord ®iva is

independent God. That is offensive. If you know that Lord ®iva is also a

devotee, you can give more respect to Lord ®iva. KŠa will be pleased.

Devotee (3): ®r…la Prabhup€da, he does not chant Hare KŠa, he chants oˆ

iv€ya namaƒ.

Prabhup€da: That’s all right.

Devotee (3): It’s all right?

Prabhup€da: He will gradually become devotee. When God, Lord ®iva, will be

pleased upon him, he will advise to worship.

Devotee (3): He is already trying to tell him to follow in your footsteps

surely, so just before I left he said he will try once again to chant

sixteen rounds of japa, Hare KŠa. He has tried already. He has a taste

for...

Prabhup€da: If he simply understands that Lord ®iva is a VaiŠava and if he

worships Lord ®iva, then he will get the benefit.

Brahm€nanda: I was just thinking that in Hyderabad you also spoke something

very unpopular when you were discussing about the worship of Lord ®iva and

Lord KŠa. And you used the example of the milk and the curd.

Prabhup€da: Yes.

Brahm€nanda: And one man in the audience, he asked you, “Who is the milk and

who is the curd?” And you said that “KŠa is the milk, and ®iva is the

curd.” And he did not like that.

Prabhup€da: There is milk and the curd. So one must become milk, one must

become curd. So if KŠa is the origin of everything, then He must be the

milk. Sarva-k€raŠa-k€raŠam [bs. 5.1].

…varaƒ paramaƒ kŠaƒ

sac-cid-€nanda-vigrahaƒ

an€dir €dir govindaƒ

sarva-k€raŠa-k€raŠam

[bs. 5.1]

So He is the cause of all causes. So if milk is the cause of curd, then

KŠa is the milk. Come on. (some children enter room) Cause of all causes.

Come forward. (end)