PURPORT

Sometimes we see a picture of Lord Siva engaged in meditation. This verse explains that Lord Siva is always meditating upon Lord Saṅkarsana in trance. Lord Siva is in charge of the destruction of the material world. Lord Brahma creates the material world, Lord Visnu maintains it, and Lord Siva destroys it. Because destruction is in the mode of ignorance, Lord Siva and his worshipable Deity, Saṅkarsana, are technically called tamasi. Lord Siva is the incarnation of tamo-guna. Since both Lord Siva and Saṅkarsana are always enlightened and situated in the transcendental position, they have nothing to do with the modes of material nature-goodness, passion and ignorance-but because their activities involve them with the mode of ignorance, they are sometimes called tamasi.