Are you Vaishnav, Shaiv or Shakt?

People say that Lord Shiva is a Vaishnavite because he is the supreme Vaishnavite. You don't accept it? It's then your fault. Similarly, people will say that Lord Vishnu is a Shaivite because he is the supreme Shaivite. If you don't accept it, then it's your problem. You are a fanatic. Accept both of them as devotees of each other or accept yourself as biased fanatic. Harihar form is the combined form of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. If both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu don't differentiate among themselves and pray to each other then who are we or any sect to create differences between them? A bigoted Virashaivite entertains hatred towards Lord Vishnu. A bigoted Vira Vaishnavite entertains hatred towards Lord Shiva.

None of the above, as in order to attain the sacred titles of a Vaishnav, Shaiva or Shakta one needs to be initiated under a guru and take proper deeksha. Talking about which God I worship, I really love to sing glories of both Lord Bhavani Shankar And Maa Adiparashakti (Maa Lakshmi/Radha/Rukmini/Sita, Maa Parvati, Maa Saraswati are all the same Adishakti). I believe both of the above forms are the supreme realities themselves ! But I do have a particularly different liking for someone very dear and cute, (not that Lord Shiva/Maa Adishakti are not dear and cute, they are for sure but I feel a slightly different connection with the forthcoming being) and that person is. I don't belong to any sect.

Actually I love Gauri-Shankar and Laxmi-Narayan equally and both pairs are my parents. I cant choose any one of them. That is why my Aradhya deva is Harihar and My Aradhya devi is ShriShakti. I love Siya-Ram, Radhe Krishn. As I love Laxmi Narayan but still I cant choose any one of them.

We are sanātana first and both are our supreme gods. Sects come next. Lord Shiva is the greatest Vaishnavite and lord Vishnu the greatest Shaivite. Both are supreme gods. Because he's a Vaishnava. Simple as that. The great sage Maitreya continued: Out of his causeless mercy, the exalted personality Lord ?iva, a great devotee of Lord Nārāya?a, continued to speak to the King’s sons, who were standing with folded hands. Srimad Bhagvatam Canto 4 Chapter-24 Text 32

Prabhu Shri Ram himself established Rameshwar and used to pray to Mahadev whole heartedly. Even Shri Krishna himself calls Mahadev as Bhagwan and prayed to him.

Yes, the auspicious Mahadeva is a Vaishnava. From Vishnu comes Prajapati, from Prajapati comes Rudra, then Prajapati splits himself into Brahma (masculine) and Brahmi (feminine) and their union creates all beings. To summarize, all beings in the universe are Vaishnavas starting from the Grandsire Lord Brahma himself. Please remember: All that is created is Narayana, all that is uncreated is Narayana, all that is animate is Narayana, all that is inanimate is Narayana, all that is manifest is Narayana, all that is unmanifest is Narayana.

I see that references are supporting the fact that Vishnu is meditated upon by Shiva. What else you want to know? Vaishnavanam yathu shambhu. Amongst the vaishnavas Lord Shiva is the best. I have traveled length and breadth of this country and have met many devotees and visited many temples - both of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. I am Vaishnava myself but I don’t mind visiting the temple of Lord Shiva. In my experience, I have seen that majorly devotees of Shiva, disrespect Vishnu.

After Muslim rulers, it is the Shaivites kings who have destroyed the temples of Lord Vishnu especially in South India. This is nothing but as the result of frustration because they cannot establish the supremacy of Lord Shiva over Vishnu at all. And in this thread also below a Shaivite makes a statement that Vaishnavas are not aware of Shiva Purana. As though Vaishnavas don’t study Puranas or Vedas.

This has been a standard practice of Shaivites to malign. In fact some Shiva devotees don’t even look at Vishnu temples or even if they visit, they don’t pay respects or join their hands in front of Vishnu. But in case of Vaishnavas, they don’t mind visiting the temple of Lord Shiva and paying respects to Him and pray to Him. Shiva is neither a Vaishnava, nor he has any link with it. Bhakti cult envisages the deity ( whatever it may be to be Supreme.. Else such a devotion cannot be obtained, so whatever the deity.. It ought to be considered as the one.

There is no basis of sattwick purana or tamasic purana.. And all are the handiwork of the priest class or pontiffs ruling the bailiwick of the dualist perception whereby one has to be confirmed Supreme to fortify their faith. Shankaracharya outright rejected the Vaishnava agamas. ( He partially rejected the Shaiva Agamas too, but not to the scale of the Vaishnavas ‘ called Pancharatra). In fact, even Vaishnava texts have said some alarming statements, like in Mahabharata.

The fact is very simple, the truth need not be emphasized. It is already evident. That’s all. Vedas say Krishnas-tu-bhagavan-svayam. Straight forward, now you may give hundreds of commentaries and bhashyas on this principle. But the statement remains the same. Krishna is the Supreme Lord. That’s all. The Shaiva Puranas nonetheless, are Yoga based, and the content is structured as per revelations of the sacred disclosure in the path of Absolute Truth. Still in Shaivaism Puranas don't form a very pertinent reference owing to the dualistic compositions which Shaivas very often reject.

From time immemorial, it is Lord Shiva who has assisted Lord Vishnu in His lilas. Like when Lord Rama incarnated, Lord Shiva incarnated as Hanuman. When Krishna incarnated, Lord Shiva incarnated as Nandishwara Parvata, etc. Vedas deem Lord Shiva as the guna-avatara of Lord Vishnu. Sada Shiva is actually from Vaikuntha. The abode of Kailasha is the first stop to Vaikuntha-loka.

If you see, every major Vaishnava dham has the temple of Lord Shiva on the outskirts or nearby. Like Dwarka has Somnath, Vrindavana has Gopishwara Mahadev, Badri has Kedarnath, Puri has Lingaraj… This is because Lord Shiva protects the dham of the Supreme Lord Vishnu. And just because He assists Lord Vishnu in His pastimes, doesn’t mean that Vaishnavas condemn Lord Shiva and consider Him inferior. No, they respect Lord Shiva with all reverence and also worship.

Vaishnavas say that Lord Shiva is a Vaishnava in order to fit Shiva in their monotheistic interpretation of Hindu scripture. They can not say Shiva is the same as Vishnu since they believe that Shiva and Vishnu are two separate persons. They can not say Shiva is different from Vishnu and is also God since then they will have to be polytheist. They can not throw out Lord Shiva since Hindu scripture is emphatic that Lord Shiva is Brahman. These difficulties pretty much force Vaishnavas to declare Lord Shiva as a great devotee of Vishnu.

Lord Shiva is the only Supreme personality, considered the most perfect and biggest Vaishnav, the devotee of Lord Vishnu. Even, Lord Brahma ji number in series comes 2nd after Lord Shiva in Vaishnavities. Why Lord Shiva is one of the biggest Vaishnav as per Hindu Literature? Because, it is Lord Shiva who is considered the destroyer of the Universe, but he never did in the past also. On contrary, he preferred meditation and Tap for the welfare of all embodiment of Universe.

That is why, he is commonly named as Lord Shiva- means Kalyankari. He always sits in meditation to his Prabhu Sri Ram. He likes Lord Sri Ram most. Out of all incarnations of Lord Supreme Being, he likes Lord Sri Ram form most by heart. He is present all around where Lord Vishnu statue is stalled. You can see Lord Shiva lingam at Ayodhya, Mathura, Vrindavan, Chitrakut, Jankisthan. Everywhere, Lord Shiva is worshiped wherever, Lord Vishnu (Lord Ram or Lord Krishna) statue is stalled.

Lord shiva is the only Supreme being knows the perfect TATVA of Supreme Personality Bhagwaan. Even, Lord Brahma who is the creator of Universe, comes in second position. Intentionally, no one even Gods and Rishi Munis do not know perfectly Lord Supreme Being, but Lord Shiva was blessed by the bhakti of Bhagwaan. (You can check Ramayan also) Bhagwaan Shiva, Bhagwaan Brahama ji, Veda in forms and Sankadik Muni came to Ayodhya for watching Raj Tilak of Supreme Being Lord Sri Ram and after performing Raj Tilak of Bhagwaan, all went to their Dham, But Lord Shiva did not go, instead he was in standing position before Lord Ram. Bhagwaan Sri Ram stood and went near Lord Shiva and caught his hands with affections. Lord Shiva asked for Lord Sri Ram Anpayani Bhakti and Bhagwaan said that it is already with you.

He has taken whole Sri Ram Katha in his mind and then he attributed it to his wife Mata Parvati and Bhardawaj Muni later. That is why, Sri Ram Charitra Manas is Ram katha explained by Lord Shiva himself to Mata Parvati at Amarnath cave. He has appeared before Goswami Tulsi Das and ordered him to write Ramayan about 400 years back. Devotee of Lord Shiva do not know the nature of him, otherwise, they do not accept Bhang or other Dhatura. Lord Shiva is the main Katha Vachak also of Sri Ram Katha. So, he is considered as most perfect and biggest Vaishnav. Lord Shiva is also most dear to lord Sri Ram. Lord Sri Ram and Sri Krishna both had worshiped Lord Shiva in his incarnation /’Jai Sri Ram.

Conflicts would have started as soon as humans developed egotism. Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Sakthism, all were born out of man’s ego-clash. No one called Sivan, Vishnu or Shakthi ever clashed with each other. These clashes happened in the Sanskrit puranas and, therefore, they can never be solved, unless, we, the Hindus, in India and elsewhere, decide to put a stop to these unnecessary sectarian clashes. The Conflicts between Shaivaites and Vaishnavaites arose of their ignorance and their decline in interest in understanding their own Gods Shiva and Vishnu completely.

Let us now go by the Ithihasas. In the Mahabharath we had Bhishma reciting the Vishnu sahasranama in the battlefield to Yudhistira and Sri Krishna himself and Sri Krishna in turn recited the Shiva sahasranama. Now Veda Vyasa himself has given equal importance to both Shiva and Vishnu.Now I take Vyasa words to be higher and equate both. In Ramayana Rama an incarnation of Mahavishnu had worshipped Lord Shiva and glorified him. Shiva had said "Srirama rama ramethi rame raame manorame sahasranaama tathwalyam rama nama varanane" and glorified Rama nama. Bhargava Rama an incarnation of Mahavishnu worshipped Lord Shiva and obtained the divine axe "parashu".

Thirumangai Azhwar and Gnanasambandar have had a debate on the supremacy of saivism and vaishnavism.Yet they didn't do the bashing stuff rather had high esteem for each other.The work of Swami Desika(Sarva Tantra Swatantra), Yaadavaabhyudaya was commented by Sri Appayya Dikshitar who was a Siva advaitin.Such was the respect they had for each other. Swami Desika and Swami Vidhyaranya were the best friends and had love,affection and yet had done justice to their individual sampradayas. Sri Vadiraja tirtha who was a dvaitin(Madhva sampradaya) has done the pradhishta of Manjunatha swami in the Dharmasthala Temple and yet he never moved away from his tradition.

Adi shankara Bhagavath pada has written Achyutashtakam, Pandurangashtakam, Ranganathashtakam to glorify Mahavishnu and also Sivanandalahari to glorify Maheswara and Soundarya Lahari to glorify Shakthi Devi.. Sri Rudram of Krishna Yajur veda and Sri Purusha Suktham of Rig veda both honor Shiva and Vishnu respectively. I believe that Sri Ramanuja never propogated any hatred for any one. Shivasya Hridayam Vishnu; Vishnusya Hridayam Shiva. Shiva Vishnu roopaya Vishnu roopaya Shivaye..This is my humble opinion.Now You have an actor to come on Silver screen and show the differences between two sects of people. Now I agree this occured. We don't have someone to say that we are the same believing in different ways of life.If we are devoid of Ego and Ignorance we will never have such sectarian conflicts. Om Namah Shivay, Om Namo Vishnu