The Glories of the Greatest Vaisnava

Krsna Kirtana Songs est. 2001 www.kksongs.org

The Glories of the Greatest Vaisnava

nimna-gānāḿ yathā gańgā

devānām acyuto yathā

vaiṣṇavānāḿ yathā śambhuḥ

purāṇānām idam tathā

“Just as the Gańgā is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Śambhu [Śiva] the greatest of Vaiṣṇavas, so Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the greatest of all Purāṇas.” (Srimad Bhagavatam 12:13:16)

On March 6, 2008, many devotees around the world will engage themselves in worshipping the personality who is considered to be the greatest devotee of Lord Visnu. He is worshipped by many great and exalted personalities, while He worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is The Auspicious One, the Lord of Kailasa Mountain, Lord Siva. His festival is celebrated all over the world, where devotees offer Him milk. In addition, although not required, one can fast until evening for this auspicious occasion. As this movement and website is focused strongly on Krsna Consciousness, Lord Siva’s glories are not as shown or known. This article will examine the glories of Lord Siva, so that one may worship Him for advancement of Krsna Consciousness.

Lord Siva is considered to be one of the three modal expansions of Lord Krsna. According to the Srimad Bhagavatam, the three modal expansions check the three modes of material nature. The mode of passion is checked by Lord Brahma. Lord Visnu checks the mode of goodness, while Lord Siva checks the mode of ignorance. In the Brahma Samhita, it is said that “ahańkārātmakaḿ viśvaḿ tasmād etad vyajāyata” or “the function of Śambhu in relation to jīvas is that this universe enshrining the mundane egotistic principle has originated from Śambhu (another name of Lord Siva).” (B.S. 5:16) Later on in the same scripture, Lord Brahma glorifies Lord Krsna and Lord Siva through the following verse.

kṣīraḿ yathā dadhi vikāra-viśeṣa-yogāt

sañjāyate na hi tataḥ pṛthag asti hetoḥ

yaḥ śambhutām api tathā samupaiti kāryād

govindam ādi-puruṣaḿ tam ahaḿ bhajāmi

“Just as milk is transformed into curd by the action of acids, but yet the effect curd is neither same as, nor different from, its cause, viz., milk, so I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whom the state of Śambhu is a transformation for the performance of the work of destruction.” One can deduce that although They are qualitatively the same, they are not the same. Thus, He is uniquely situated what many call “siva-tattva.” It is important to make this distinction, because it is an offense to consider demigods like Brahma and Siva to be equal to, greater than, and independent to Krsna. (Brahma Samhita 5:45)

He is also the founder of the Rudra Sampradaya. The Rudra Sampradaya is one of the four original bona fide schools of Krsna Consciousness. Although it is not prevalent as the Sri Sampradaya and Brahma Sampradaya, it is still followed throughout Southern India. It’s founder is Sripada Visnuswami, who came around the onset of Kaliyuga.

Lord Siva has a great number of pastimes in Krsna lila. The first is found in the eighth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam. In order to obtain the nectar of immortality, the ocean must be churned. The devas (demigods) were not able to do it, so they invited the daityas (demoniac race) to aid them in the churning of the ocean. They agreed that whatever comes out of the ocean was going to be split evenly amongst both parties. With the mercy of Lord Krsna taking form as Lord Kurma-deva, the tortoise form, the churning took place. The first item that came out was a pot of poison. No party was willing to consume that, so the devas sought refuge to Lord Siva to consume the poison. Lord Siva drank the poison, however, his neck turned blue due to this effect. Hence, He is named “Nila-kantha” (“The Blue-throated One”).

In the Rama lila, Lord Siva manifested in the form of Sri Ramacandra’s eternal servant, Hanuman. The pastimes of Hanuman are just as endless as his glories. Hanuman was a vanara, (an ape-like race) who met Lord Rama when He and His brother, Laksmana, were in search of Sita. Through the aid of the vanara army, Hanuman did a long leap crossing the strait separating India and Sri Lanka. Through this, he conveyed the Lord’s message to Sita and destroyed Lanka by burning the entire city. During the war between Rama and Ravana, Ravana’s oldest son, Meghanada, had used the sakti spear to slay Laksmana. (Of course, Laksmana is Lord Balarama, so He cannot be killed, but in Rama lila, Balarama also had to act as a man.) Laksmana became unconscious and was on the verge of “dying.” Hanuman went to Lanka during the middle of the night to fetch Susena, the Ayurvedic physician, to aid Laksmana. Through Susena’s advice, Hanuman leaped from Lanka to the Himalayas, carried the entire mountain, and brought it back to Lanka, so that the Susena can cure Laksmana. Lastly, how can one mention Hanuman and not forget his intense moment of devotion when Sri Rama and Srimati Sita were inaugurated as king and queen of Ayodhya. They were giving gifts of gratitude to those who have aided Them during Their exile and war with Ravana. As a very special token of gratitude, Sita gifted Hanuman with a necklace. Immediately, he ripped the necklace to search the name of Rama. As none of the pearls contained Rama’s name, he found the gift without worth. He immediately tore his chest open to reveal the Divine Couple, Sri Sri Sita Rama, in his heart. Sriman Hanuman was so dear to Sri Rama that right before He disappeared from the earth, He ordered Hanuman to stay on earth to preach His name until the end of Kaliyuga. Top-class devotees, like Hanuman, do not even desire liberation. All they hanker for is service of the Lord, regardless of time, place, and circumstance.

In Krsna lila, Lord Siva took three important roles. The first role is during the rasa lila, Lord Siva took form as Gopisvara Mahadeva. When Lord Siva wanted to witness such an event on earth, Lalita and Visakha stopped Him from entering, as He was a male. Therefore, Lord Siva bathed in Radharani Manasarovara lake to attain a gopi form. After being able to enter, Lord Krsna blessed Him with the boon that He will be the guard of the rasa-lila. No one can enter the rasa mandala (the main site of the rasa lila) without Gopisvara Mahadeva’s permission. His name is glorified in the song by Dina Duhkhi Krsna Dasa, “Jaya Radhe Jaya Krsna Jaya Vrndavana (I)”. The second instance is the story of the deliverance of Lord Siva. Lord Siva granted the demon, Vrkasura, the boon that any head he touches should crack open and the person should die. Upon receiving such a boon, Vrkasura headed to touch Lord Siva’s head. Fearfully fleeing all over and receiving no shelter, Lord Narayana, took form as a brahmacari and attracted Vrkasura’s attention. He convinced him that Lord Siva’s words were questionable. Therefore, in order to test the validity of such a boon, Vrkasura should test it on his body. Being fooled by the Lord’s words, Vrkasura’s head cracked open and was killed. The pastime can be read in detail in the Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10 Chapter 88. Lastly, in Lord Krsna’s lila, Lord Siva, as Hanuman, resided on the flag of Krsna and Arjuna. In the Mahabharata, it is said that it was Hanuman’s mercy that the chariot survived. Otherwise, one arrow of Karna, Arjuna’s half brother and rival, could have destroyed the chariot. Just as Hanuman was active with Lord Rama during the war in Lanka, Hanuman was actively serving His Lord, who is non-different from Lord Rama of Treta Yuga.

In Kali Yuga, Lord Siva played three very important roles. His first role was assuming the form of Adi Sankaracarya. After the onset of Kaliyuga, unqualified brahmanas were conducting unauthorized slaughter of animals in the name of Vedic sacrifice. In order to prevent such gross misinterpretation of the Vedas, Lord Krsna came on earth as Lord Buddha to bring the people away from the Vedas. Thus, voidism became the norm to protect the Vedas from the influence of Kaliyuga. However, the spiritual goals were revealed in the Vedic literature. Therefore, He had to find ways to bring people back to the Vedas slowly. The first step was done by Lord Krsna’s order to Siva to take form as a preacher on earth to teach deviant philosophy to bring people back to the Vedas. While this will not bring back the total acceptance of Vedic literature as it was in the past, this was a start. Adi Sankaracarya, although he worshipped the Lord in His personal form and was a devotee of Lord Krsna, preached impersonalism, or the notion that God was not a person, but a mere light, known as brahmajyoti. Adi Sankaracarya wrote many prayers and glorifications of many Vedic personalities, but His heart was purely Krsna Conscious.*

The two other instances of Lord Siva in Kali Yuga tie into Gaura lila. There is a temple known as the Hamsa Vahana Siva Mandir located at Navadvipa. Hamsa Vahana is the name of Lord Brahmadeva’s swan carrier. When Lord Siva wanted to hear Suta Goswami’s narration of Gaura lila, He was going to ride Nandi, His bull vehicle. However, it was too slow for Him, so He rode the Hamsa Vahana to reach Suta Goswami’s quickly to hear the nectar-like pastimes of Lord Caitanya. At the Hamsa Vahana Siva temple, it is said that the siva-linga, the worshippable symbol of Lord Siva, gets hot because of His desire to see Lord Caitanya. Therefore, many devotees participate in cooling His linga with water for three days while chanting Lord Caitanya’s names and glories. The other instance of Lord Siva is through Hanuman in Kaliyuga. Hanuman, during Gaura lila, took form as Murari Gupta. He has written the book, Sri Caitanya Carita. The book has two astakams uttered by Lord Caitanya, but transcribed by Murari Gupta. The two astakams are the Ramastakam (“Rajat-Kirita-Mani-Didhiti”) and the Sivastakam (“Namo Namaste Tridasesvaraya”). The Sivastakam is one of the few Gaudiya bhajans in glories to Lord Siva.

Although Lord Siva is not worshipped formally at Gaudiya Vaisnava temples, He is a personality who devotees should respect, as He is indeed the greatest Vaisnava, through His glories presented above. Although in the Bhagavad-Gita, Krsna instructed that worshipping demigods is inferior to worshipping Krsna. However, if done with the proper consciousness, worshipping Siva as the devotee of Krsna can be a very Krsna Conscious experience. “Sambhu! Mahadeva! Sankara! Sivaya!” kirtan by Vaiyasaki Dasa is an example of this.

* Examples of songs by Adi Sankaracarya were given during the original presentation of this article. A separate article of Adi Sanakracarya is under the works for KKSongs.org where many examples are given.