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Krṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
followers of Rāmānujācārya and the followers of Śaṅkarācārya hold occasional meetings for understanding the Vedic conclusion. Generally, the followers of Rāmānujācārya come out victorious in such meetings. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja wanted to clarify the situation by asking this question of Śukadeva Gosvāmī. That Lord Śiva lives as a poor man although his devotees appear to be very opulent, whereas Lord Krṣṇa or Lord Viṣṇu is always opulent, and yet His devotees appear to be poverty-stricken, is a situation which appears contradictory and puzzling to a discriminating person.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī began to reply to King Parīkṣit's inquiry about the apparent contradictions regarding the worship of Lord Śiva and that of Lord Viṣṇu. Lord Śiva is the master of the material energy. The material energy is represented by goddess Durgā, and Lord Śiva happens to be her husband. Since goddess Durgā is completely under the subjugation of Lord Śiva, it is to be understood that Lord Śiva is the master of this material energy. The material energy is manifested in three qualities, namely goodness, passion and ignorance, and therefore Lord Śiva is the master of these three qualities. Although he is in association with these qualities for the benefit of the conditioned soul, Lord Śiva is the director and is not affected. Although the conditioned soul is affected by the three qualities, Lord Śiva, because he is the master of these qualities, is not affected by them.
From the statements of Śukadeva Gosvāmī we can understand that the effects of worshiping different demigods are not, as some less intelligent persons suppose, the same as the effects of worshiping Lord Viṣṇu. He clearly states that by worshiping Lord Śiva one achieves one reward, whereas by worshiping Lord Viṣṇu one achieves a different reward. This is also confirmed in the  Bhagavad-gītā : those who worship the different demigods achieve the desired results which the respective demigods can reward. Similarly, those who worship the material energy receive the suitable reward for such activities, and those who worship the  pitās  receive similar results. But those who are engaged in devotional service or worship of the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu or Krṣṇa, go to the Vaikuṇṭha planets or Krṣṇaloka. One cannot approach the transcendental region or  paravyoma , the spiritual sky, by worshiping Lord Śiva or Brahmā or any other demigod.
Since this material world is a product of the three qualities of material nature, all varieties of manifestations come from those three qualities. With the aid of materialistic science, modern civilization has created many machines and comforts of life, and yet they are only varieties of the interactions of the three material qualities. Although the devotees of Lord