Sivji Maharaj—Param Vaishnav

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
20 January 2016, translated from Bengali

Some say, "You are a Siva bhakta, I am a Krishna bhakta!" You must not say such things. Siva and Krishna are not different from each other, and at the same time Krishna and Siva are one. Siva is a particular expansion of Krishna.

vrajendranandana krsna sarvesvarsvara
mahesvara adi tanra sevana-tatpara

(Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Dasa-vidha Nama-aparadha)

Question: We have a big temple of Lord Siva at home, what is the position of Lord Siva?

If you worship Lord Siva, it is not a problem. Siva is a param Vaishnav (great Vaishnav), but you must not imitate Lord Siva. Siva swallowed poison—can you take poison? Siva can take ganja, but if you take ganja it is very bad.

Our Gurudev is also a son of Lord Siva, did you know about this? There is Buroraj Siva in Jamalpur, and our Gurudev is his son. Gurudev's mother did not have any sons, so she went to Jamalpur and prayed to Lord Siva, "Prabhu, I have no children, please, send me a son. If you send me a son, I will give him to you." After that, she had a son—this was our Gurudev. After Gurudev appeared, there were many ghosts and other disturbances in the house, so his parents put some cow dung kajal (black dot) on his forehead so that no evil could approach the child. One day, Gurudev's father (his name was Nitaipad) went to Jamalpur. When he paid his obeisance there, he suddenly head some divya-vani (divine sound): Sivju Maharaj said to him, "Hey, you had told me that you will give your son to me! The child may be staying with you, but his is my son, why have you put cow dung on his forehead? Wipe the cow dung and put some chandan (sandalwood) instead!" Then, Nitaipad returned home, told his mother what Dharmaraj (Buroraj Sivji Maharaj) had said to him, and they put sandalwood on Gurudev's forehead instead of cow dung.

One time, the Lord decided to test Sivji Maharaj. Sivji Maharaj prayed to Krishna, "Prabhu, please show me Your pastimes!" Then, all of a sudden Krishna took the form of a lady (Mohini) and taking a ball in His hands, He walked playing ping-pong in front of Lord Siva. Seeing Mohini, Sivji Maharaj became enchanted and ran behind her. Seeing him, everyone was surprised, "What is this? Why is this sadhu is running behind a lady?! Has he gone mad?" Parvati also was there, she said, "O Prabhu, where are you going? I am your wife!" What wife? He forgot everything and could not hear anything. In the end, he caught Mohini and wanted to embrace Her, but as soon as he embraced Her, She again became Krishna and their bodies became one: one part is Hari, and the other part is Hara. The place where this happened received the name "Harihara Ksetra"—if you go to Nabadwip, you can see this place there.

Sivji Maharaj is also a great devotee (param-bhakta). If you go to Vrindavan, you can see there Rasesvar Mahadev, Chaklesvar Mahadev, Bhutesvar Mahadev, Gopesvar Mahadev, and others. One time, Raseswar Mahadev came to Gokula to take darshan of Krishna, but seeing him Mother Yasoda said, "No, no. If my Gopal sees you, He will become scared! You have such long hair and big beard, and on your neck you are wearing a snake! What is this? I will not show you Gopal!" So, Raseswar Mahadev left to his abode without seeing the Lord. He sat there meditating, "When will I get the darshan of the Lord?" In the meantime, Lord Krishna began to cry (because His devotee has left without seeing Him, His devotee got so much trouble)... Krishna cried so much and said to His mother, "I will stop crying only if you bring Mahadev here!"

So, Siva is a servant of the Lord, he is His particular expansion, they are neither one nor different from each other. Remember this.

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