SB 4.24.18
TEXT 18
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TEXT
आत्मारामो ऽपि यस्त्वस्य लोककल्पस्य राधसे ।
शक्त्या युक्तो विचरति घोरया भगवान्भवः ॥ १८ ॥ atmaramo 'pi yas tv asya
loka-kalpasya radhase
saktya yukto vicarati
ghoraya bhagavan bhavaḥ
atmaramaḥ-self-satisfied; api-although he is; yaḥ-one who is; tu-but; asya-this; loka-material world; kalpasya-when manifested; radhase-for the matter of helping its existence; saktya-potencies; yuktaḥ-being engaged; vicarati-he acts; ghoraya-very dangerous; bhagavan-His Lordship; bhavaḥ-Siva.
TRANSLATION
Lord Siva, the most powerful demigod, second only to Lord Visnu, is self-sufficient. Although he has nothing to aspire for in the material world, for the benefit of those in the material world he is always busily engaged everywhere and is accompanied by his dangerous energies like Goddess Kali and Goddess Durga.
PURPORT
Lord Siva is known as the greatest devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is also known as vaisnavanam yatha sambhuḥ, the best of all types of Vaisnavas. Consequently Lord Siva has a Vaisnava sampradaya, the disciplic succession known as Rudra-sampradaya. Just as there is a Brahma-sampradaya coming directly from Lord Brahma, the Rudra-sampradaya comes directly from Lord Siva. As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam, Lord Siva is one of the twelve great personalities. This refers to the twelve great authorities who preach God consciousness. The name Sambhu means Lord Siva. His disciplic succession is also known as the Visnusvami-sampradaya, and the current Visnusvami-sampradaya is also known as the Vallabha-sampradaya. The current Brahma-sampradaya is known as the Madhva-Gauḍiya-sampradaya. Even though Lord Siva appeared to preach Mayavada philosophy, at the end of his pastime in the form of Sahkaracarya, he preached the Vaisnava philosophy: bhaja govindam bhaja govindam bhaja govindam mūḍha-mate. He stressed worshiping Lord Krsna or Govinda three times in this verse and especially warned his followers that they could not possibly achieve deliverance or mukti simply by word jugglery and grammatical puzzles. If one is actually serious to attain mukti, he must worship Lord Krsna. That is Sripada Sahkaracarya's last instruction.
Herein it is mentioned that Lord Siva is always accompanied by his material energy (saktya ghoraya). Material energy-Goddess Durga or Goddess Kali-is always under his control. Goddess Kali and Durga serve him by killing all the asuras or demons. Sometimes Kali becomes so infuriated that she indiscriminately kills all kinds of asuras. There is a popular picture of Goddess Kali in which she wears a garland composed of the heads of the asuras and holds in her left hand a captured head and in her right hand a great khaḍga, or chopper, for killing asuras. Great wars are symbolic representations of Kali's devastation of the asuras and are actually conducted by the Goddess Kali.
Asuras, however, try to pacify the Goddess Kali or Durga by worshiping her in material opulence, but when the asuras become too intolerable, Goddess Kali does not discriminate in killing them wholesale. Asuras do not know the secret of the energy of Lord Siva, and they prefer to worship Goddess Kali or Durga or Lord Siva for material benefit. Due to their demoniac character, they are reluctant to surrender to Lord Krsna, as indicated by Bhagavad-gita:
Lord Siva's duty is very dangerous because he has to employ the energy of Goddess Kali (or Durga). In another popular picture the Goddess Kali is sometimes seen standing on the prostrate body of Lord Siva, which indicates that sometimes Lord Siva has to fall down flat in order to stop Goddess Kali from killing the asuras. Since Lord Siva controls the great material energy (Goddess Durga), worshipers of Lord Siva attain very opulent positions within this material world. Under Lord Siva's direction, a worshiper of Lord Siva gets all kinds of material facilities. In contrast, a Vaisnava, or worshiper of Lord Visnu, gradually becomes poorer in material possessions because Lord Visnu does not trick His devotees into becoming materially entangled by possessions. Lord Visnu gives His devotees intelligence from within, as stated in Bhagavad-gita:
tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-pūrvakam dadami buddhi-yogam tam yena mam upayanti te "To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me." (Bg. 10.10)
Thus Lord Visnu gives intelligence to His devotee so that the devotee can make progress on the path back home, back to Godhead. Since a devotee has nothing to do with any kind of material possession, he does not come under the control of Goddess Kali or the Goddess Durga.
Lord Siva is also in charge of the tamo-guna, or the mode of ignorance in this material world. Both Lord Brahma and Lord Siva are incarnations of Lord Visnu, but Lord Brahma is in charge of the creation whereas Lord Siva is in charge of the destruction, which he carries out with the help of his material energy, Goddess Kali or Goddess Durga. Thus in this verse Lord Siva is described as being accompanied by dangerous potencies (saktya ghoraya), and that is the actual position of Lord Siva.
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