Worship Shiva as a dear Vaisnava and beg, “Give me bhakti ! "

krsna · July 14, 2004

Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja

Two Types of Mercy

Therefore vaisnavas worship Shiva. The gopis worship Shiva to get Krishna as their husband. That is Gopiswar Mahadev in Vrindavan. Similarly, vaisnavas offer worship to Shiva as a dear vaisnava, maha-bhagavata, and beg, “Give us bhakti.” They never ask for anything material. It is the demons that ask for material gains, material wealth, position, and strength.

Shivaji has two types of mercy, sakapata-krpa, and akapata-krpa, mercy with duplicity, and mercy without duplicity. The demons get the mercy with duplicity. In his purport, Srila Prabhupada has given the example of the demon Ravan. He got mercy with duplicity. The demons want material things, so they get material wealth, power, strength, prestige, and position — everything they want. Shiva gives it, “All right, tathastu! Take it! Take it!” But Shivaji never accepts it for himself. Shivaji’s form is naked. He wears garlands of bones and snakes. His whole body is smeared with ashes. He lives in the cremation ground and dances naked like a madman. This means that he kicks out all material assets, wealth, and enjoyments. But he gives them to demons, “All right, take it!” This is mercy with duplicity, sakapata-krpa. But the vaisnavas, bhaktas, they get akapata-krpa, mercy without duplicity. They get bhakti. Therefore the gopis pray to Shiva, “Let Krishna be our husband.” Shivaji has these two types of mercy.

Pankaja_Dasa · July 14, 2004

I said I would chant 'Om Namah Sivaya' but I never did. I just prayed in my mind to Lord Siva and the devotee who came to my House before. A devotee said to me as service for him. Which I said I would do I will chant Hare-Krsna instead of Om Namah Sivaya. And hope this pleases him.

Anyway moral of the story is best thing to do is chant hare krsna.

The thing that swung it for me is the pastimes of when Lord Siva gives benediction to Brahamana for Touchstone. He goes to Sanatana Goswami's house but the touchstone is in the Bin. Anyway later its reavealed that theres nothing greater than well you know the Holy Name. So with that I hope I can please Lord Siva devotee ==Lord Siva. And meet perosnally my Eternal Spiritual Master. And gain his association even IF for 2 seconds.

krsna · July 15, 2004

Lord Rama's Worship of Lord Shiva

By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur

In the Siddhanta-ratnam, third ., texts 22, 23, 26 and 27, it is stated: “By displaying the pastime of worshiping His own form as Rudra, Lord Vishnu taught the worship of Rudra not to His own sincere devotees but to the insincere living entities who desire religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation. The Lord Himself has confirmed this fact when He spoke in the Narayaniya to Arjuna as follows: ‘O Arjuna, I am the soul of the universe. My worship of Rudra is worship of My own self. Whatever I do, common people follow. Examples set by Me should be followed. That is why I worship Rudra. Vishnu does not offer obeisances to any demigod. I worship Rudra, considering him to be My own self. I am the indwelling supersoul of the entire universe. Rudra is My own part, just as a hot iron rod is non-different from fire. I have set the standard that the demigods headed by Rudra should be worshiped. If I did not set the example of worshiping Rudra then people would not follow that standard. Therefore I teach the worship of My servants through My personal behavior. There is no one greater than or equal to Me. Therefore, since I am the greatest, I do not worship anyone. But since Rudra is My part I display the example of worshiping Rudra and other demigods to teach ordinary people.

In this connection, Brahma told Rudra that Vishnu alone is the supersoul of everyone including Brahma and Rudra. He said, ‘Lord Vishnu is the supersoul of me as well as of you and all other embodied living entities. No one can restrict Him within the confines of their mundane knowledge. If simply because Sri Ramachandra displayed the pastime of worshiping Lord Shiva to teach the worship of that great vaisnava, Shiva should be considered the Supreme Lord and Ramachandra his subordinate, then since Sri Ramachandra worshiped the ocean, the ocean should also be considered the Supreme Lord. It should be understood that whenever the associates of the Supreme Lord have enacted the pastime of worshiping the demigods, their purpose was to teach the worship of the demigods, who are subordinate to Vishnu. It is the pastime of the Lord’s associates to teach, “All demigods are subordinate to Vishnu.” Their worship of the demigods should never be accepted as the ultimate conclusion. Lord Vishnu is certainly the controller of everyone. His activity of maintaining the universe, like Brahma’s activity of creation and Rudra’s activity of annihilation, and His interaction with the demigods is just like a king’s interaction with thieves. Actually, Brahma and Rudra create and annihilate only after being empowered by Vishnu. Therefore Lord Vishnu is certainly eternally worshipable by all the demigods headed by Brahma and Rudra.”

— Purport to Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, antya 2.399 by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada.

krsna · July 15, 2004

Krishna's Intimate Friend

Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja

If some occasion arises to offer worship to Shiva, a vaisnava offers worship to Vishnu or Krishna in the murti of Shiva, because there is no difference between them, “priyasya sakhyuh”. One example of this is found in Visnu-dharmottara:

There was a very dear, parama bhagavata devotee of Vishnu named Viswaksena. He was traveling throughout the world. Once, feeling tired, he sat down in a forest. There was a village close by. The son of the chief of that village happened to come by. Seeing the brahmana Viswaksena, he said, “I am the son of the village chief. I have a very bad headache today so I cannot offer worship to my ista, Shivaji. So I request you, please offer worship to Shivaji today on my behalf.”

Viswaksena said, “I am a visnu-bhakta, I am a dear devotee of Vishnu. I only offer worship to Krishna and His forms such as Vishnu, Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. I never offer worship to demigods. I never offer worship to anyone else. You may go elsewhere.”

The son of the village chief became angry and drew his sword, “If you do not obey me, if you do not worship my ista, Shiva, on my behalf, then I will cut off your head.”

In order to save himself from death, Viswaksena said, “Yes, yes. I will worship. I will worship.” He thought to himself that Shiva is Rudradev, the incarnation of ignorance, tamo-guna. As Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport to Bhag. 9.9.7 [see the beginning of this lecture]:

The material world exists predominantly in the mode of ignorance. Therefore Lord Shiva is compared here to the longitude and latitude of the entire universe, which resembles a cloth woven of threads extending for both its length and breadth.

Rudra is the incamation of tamo-guna and Nrisinghadev is the killer of the demons, in whom tamo-guna is predominating. So Viswaksena thought, “I must worship Nrisinghadev in the Shiva murti to kill this person’s tamo-guna.” So uttering the mantra, “sri nrsimhaya namah” — “I offer my obeisances to Lord Nrisinghadev.” — he offered flowers to the Shiva deity. When the son of the village chief heard him chant that mantra he got angry and drew out his sword to cut off his head, “What are you doing? You are uttering nrisingha-mantra? You are not worshipping my ista, Shiva!” When that person drew his sword to cut off Viswaksena’s head, immediately Nrisinghadev appeared from the Shiva murti and cut off the head of that person and all of his family members. All were finished.

So where is the difference between Shiva and Vishnu? This siva-linga that Lord Nrisingha came out of is still there in South India. It is known as linga-sphota. You may go and see it.

Siva-tattva and Guru-tattva

Vaisnavanam yatha sambhuh — Shivaji is a great devotee of Lord Vishnu and Krishna. In Brahma Purana, Lord Shiva says:

yo hi mam drastum iccheta brahmanam va pitamaham

drastavyas tena bhagavan vasudevah pratapavan

A person who yearns to see me or to see grandfather Brahma should yearn to see all-powerful Lord Vasudeva.” (Brahma Purana 226.46 quoted in Bhakti-sandarbha 106.27)

Shiva says this because those who know Vasudeva and those who have gotten Vasudeva, they know Shiva and Brahma, they have gotten Shiva and Brahma. Therefore in his purport Srila Prabhupada has described that Shivaji, Brahma, and Vishnu are not equal:

yas tu narayanam devam brahma-rudradi-daivataih

samatvenaiva vikseta sa pasandi bhaved dhruvam

A person who considers demigods like Brahma and Shiva to be equal with Narayan is to be considered an offender, or pasandi. (Padma Purana quoted in Hari-bhakti-vilasa 1.117, and Cc. madhya 18.116)

They are not equal. But they are equal in the sense of “priyasya sakhyuh”, equal because they are very intimate, dear friends. This is guru-tattva, saksad-dhari, Shivaji is sevaka-bhagavan, servitor Bhagavan. He is asraya-vigraha bhagavan, not visaya-vigraha bhagavan. This is tattva.

This siva-tattva and guru-tattva are the same. Guru and Bhagavan, Shiva and Bhagavan, have a very intimate relationship, priya-sakhya; a relationship of lover and beloved, premi-premastata . In that sense there is no difference between Shiva and Krishna, guru and Krishna.

In the Caitanya-caritamrta (adi 1.45) it is said, guru krsna-rupa hana sastrera pramane — according to all revealed scriptures, the spiritual master is non-different from Krishna. Therefore we say that guru is Krishna massaging His own legs with His own hands. sadhu-guru-rupe krsna aila nadiya — Krishna took birth in the form of sadhu-guru in Nadiya. This siva-tattva and guru-tattva are the same tattva. It is a very deep tattva. But if someone thinks that Shiva is svatantra-isvara, the independent supreme controller, he commits offense. He becomes pasandi and he will lose bhakti. However, if someone offers worship to Shivaji as a very intimate friend of Krishna, vaisnavanam yatha sambhuh, as the chief of the vaisnavas, he gets bhakti.

Two Types of Mercy

Therefore vaisnavas worship Shiva. The gopis worship Shiva to get Krishna as their husband. That is Gopiswar Mahadev in Vrindavan. Similarly, vaisnavas offer worship to Shiva as a dear vaisnava, maha-bhagavata, and beg, “Give us bhakti.” They never ask for anything material. It is the demons that ask for material gains, material wealth, position, and strength.

Shivaji has two types of mercy, sakapata-krpa, and akapata-krpa, mercy with duplicity, and mercy without duplicity. The demons get the mercy with duplicity. In his purport, Srila Prabhupada has given the example of the demon Ravan. He got mercy with duplicity. The demons want material things, so they get material wealth, power, strength, prestige, and position — everything they want. Shiva gives it, “All right, tathastu! Take it! Take it!” But Shivaji never accepts it for himself. Shivaji’s form is naked. He wears garlands of bones and snakes. His whole body is smeared with ashes. He lives in the cremation ground and dances naked like a madman. This means that he kicks out all material assets, wealth, and enjoyments. But he gives them to demons, “All right, take it!” This is mercy with duplicity, sakapata-krpa. But the vaisnavas, bhaktas, they get akapata-krpa, mercy without duplicity. They get bhakti. Therefore the gopis pray to Shiva, “Let Krishna be our husband.” Shivaji has these two types of mercy.

gHari · July 15, 2004

A commentary on Sri Caitanya Bhagavata by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami, now that would be the nectar of the nectar!

krsna · July 15, 2004

Mercy and Cheating

by Madhavananda Das

Common people generally judge a great personality according to the qualities of his or her followers. They also usually think that the dearest follower of that personality must be the one that has received the most facilities, attention, and position from that great person. How then do we understand Lord Shiva and his distribution of mercy? Many powerful demons such as Ravan, Banasura, Vrikasura, and Sudakshina worshiped Shiva. By all appearances it seems that each of these demons were very dear to him and received his mercy. Shiva even went so far as to fight against Lord Krishna on behalf of his devotees Banasura and Sudakshina. Certainly those were signs of his mercy! Or were they?

Merciful to All

Lord Shiva is famous as asutosa, “he who is easily pleased”. He is very easily pleased and he is very quick to give benedictions. Like Lord Shiva, his consort Maya-devi is also very free in distributing mercy to everyone, including even the demons and impersonalist mayavadis. In his footnote to Hari-nama-cintamani (7.61), Thakur Bhaktivinode comments on the nature of their mercy on such persons:

In the material world the mayavadis worship Goddess Maya and chant her names like “Durga” and “Kali”. Lord Krishna’s spiritual potency is His personal potency. Maya is the shadow of that spiritual potency. Gradually purifying them, Goddess Maya convinces the rebellious souls who have turned their faces away from Lord Krishna to turn and face Him again. Maya has two kinds of mercy: sakapata-krpa, mercy with cheating, and niskapata-krpa, mercy without cheating. When she gives sincere mercy, she gives to the conditioned soul true knowledge and devotional service offered to Lord Krishna. When she gives cheating mercy she gives to the soul temporary material pleasures. The limit of this cheating mercy is when she throws the soul into the state of merging with impersonal Brahman. When that happens to the soul, all is lost.

Lord Shiva has two types of mercy, niskapata-krpa, mercy without cheating, and sakapata-krpa, mercy with cheating. An intelligent person should understand the difference, and aspire for Lord Shiva’s niskapata-krpa. Although it appears that Lord Shiva is being merciful to the demons when he grants them benedictions, in actuality they are not recipients of Lord Shiva’s real mercy.

Service Not Accepted

A good example is Ravan, the demoniac king of the raksasas. Ravan worshipped Lord Shiva, and it would seem that Shiva favored him since he granted Ravan so much wealth and power. However, Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur has given a penetrating look at Ravan’s service to Lord Shiva and shown that actually Ravan did not please Shiva at all. In his Sri Caitanya-Bhagavata (madhya 10.148-149), Vrindavan Das states:

siracchedi bhakti yena kare dasanana

na manaye raghunatha — sivera karana

Ravan worshiped Shiva but would not worship Lord Ramachandra. For this offense Ravan’s ten heads were cut off.

antare chadila siva, se na jane iha

seva vyartha haila, maila savamse pudiya

In his heart, Lord Shiva rejected Ravan and did not accept his service. Ravan did not know this. Ravan’s service to Lord Shiva was all in vain. In this way he and his family were all destroyed.

Siva-tattva is Guru-tattva

Aside from being worshiped by the demons, Lord Shiva is also the guru of many great krsna-bhaktas. The fourth canto, twenty-fourth chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam describes how Shiva bestowed his mercy upon the Prachetas, by which they became great devotees of Lord Krishna. The twelfth canto, tenth chapter describes how Markandeya Rishi worshipped Shiva to get devotion to Krishna. In the Brahma-vaivarta Purana (4.13.72) Garga Muni describes himself as a disciple of Lord Shiva. He says that Lord Shiva taught him the glories of Krishna’s name. The Narada-pancaratra, first ratra, chapters eight and nine, describes that Shiva acted as guru for the great devotee Narada Muni.

In his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam (4.2.2), His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada describes Shiva as being guru for both the demons and the devotees:

"Lord Shiva is described here as caracara-guru, the spiritual master of all animate and inanimate objects. He is sometimes known as bhuta-natha, which means “the worshipable deity of the dull-headed.” Bhuta is also sometimes taken to indicate the ghosts. Lord Shiva takes charge of reforming persons who are ghosts and demons, not to speak of others who are godly; therefore he is the spiritual master of everyone, the dull and demoniac, as well as the highly learned vaisnavas. It is also stated, vaisnavanam yatha sambhuh — Shambhu, Lord Shiva, is the greatest of all vaisnavas. On one hand he is the worshipable object of the dull demons, and on the other he is the best of all vaisnavas, and he has a sampradaya called the Rudra-sampradaya. "

In His Sivastakam prayers (text 7), quoted by Murari Gupta in his Sri Caitanya Carita Mahakavya, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu describes Lord Shiva’s position as guru, sivaya sarva-gurave namo namah — “I repeatedly offer my obeisances to Lord Shiva, who is the guru of everyone.”

In many places it is described that the guru is considered to be a manifestation of Lord Shiva. Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa (4.139) says:

gurur brahma gurur visnur guru devo mahesvarah

gurur eva param-brahma tasmat sampujayet sada

The guru is Lord Brahma. The guru is Lord Vishnu. The guru is Lord Shiva. The guru is the Supreme Absolute Truth, therefore always worship Sri Guru with all you possess.

Narada Purana (63.121) says:

diksaya guru-murti-sthah sarvanugrahakah sivah

Through diksa, Shiva, the giver of all benedictions, is manifested in the form of the guru.

The same point is made again in Narada Purana (65.58):

om namas te natha bhagavan sivaya guru-rupine

I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Shiva, who has assumed the form of guru.

Substance and Appearance

Siva-tattva and guru-tattva are also the same in the sense that both Shiva and guru are krsna-krpa-sri-murti — manifestations of Krishna’s mercy. In Bhagavad-gita (4.11) Krishna has described, ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham — “As a person surrenders to Me, I reciprocate with him accordingly.” Similarly, as manifestations of Krishna’s mercy Shiva and Sri Guru also reciprocate according to the motive of the worshiper. Although they are merciful to all, it’s not that everyone who approaches them gets the same thing. To sincere persons they give niskapata-krpa, mercy without cheating, and to duplicitous materialistic persons they give sakapata-krpa, mercy with cheating.

Pankaja_Dasa · July 15, 2004

Wow!

I am not sincere although I endevour to be. I am so surprized that I did not pray to Lord Siva so much. I did not even chant on beads. Its mercy of Lord Nityananda. For sending me Krishna devotee at my house. MERCY