1060
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 4, Ch. 24]
atha —therefore;  bhāgavatāḥ —devotees;  yūyam —all of you;  priyāḥ —very dear to me;  stha —you are;  bhagavān —the Supreme Personality of Godhead;  yathā —as;  na —neither;  mat —than me;  bhāgavatānām —of the devotees;  ca —also;  preyān —very dear;  anyaḥ —others;  asti —there is;  karhicit —at any time.
TRANSLATION
You are all devotees of the Lord, and as such I appreciate that you are as respectable as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. I know in this way that the devotees also respect me and that I am dear to them. Thus no one can be as dear to the devotees as I am.
PURPORT
It is said ( vaiṣṇavānām yathā śambhuḥ ) that Lord Śiva is the best of all devotees; therefore all devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa are also devotees of Lord Śiva. In Vṛndāvana there is Lord Śiva's temple called Gopīśvara. The  gopīs  used to worship not only Lord Śiva but Kātyāyanī or Durgā as well, but their aim was to attain the favor of Lord Kṛṣṇa. A devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa does not disrespect Lord Śiva but worships Lord Śiva as the most exalted devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Consequently whenever a devotee worships Lord Śiva, he prays to him to achieve the favor of Kṛṣṇa, and he does not request material profit. In  Bhagavad-gītā  it is said that generally people worship demigods for some material profit.  Kāmais tais tair hṛtajñānāḥ  (Bg. 7.20). Driven by material lust, they worship demigods, but a devotee never does so, for he is never driven by material lust. That is the difference between a devotee's respect for Lord Śiva and an  asura 's respect for him. The  asura  worships Lord Śiva, takes some benediction from him, misuses the benediction and ultimately is killed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who awards him liberation.
Because Lord Śiva is a great devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he loves all the devotees of the Supreme Lord. Lord Śiva told the Pracetās that because they were devotees of the Lord, he loved them very much. Lord Śiva was not only kind and merciful to the Pracetās; anyone who is a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very dear to Lord Śiva. Not only are the devotees dear to Lord Śiva, but he respects them as much as he respects the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Similarly, devotees of the Supreme Lord also worship Lord Śiva as the most dear devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. They do not worship him as a separate Personality of Godhead. It is stated in the list of  nāma-aparādhas  that it is an offense to think that the chanting of the name of Hari and the chanting of Hara or Śiva are the same. The devotees must always know that Lord Viṣṇu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that Lord Śiva is His devotee.