1068
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 4, Ch. 24]
TRANSLATION
My Lord, as the supreme directing Deity known as Aniruddha, You are the master of the senses and the mind. I therefore offer my obeisances unto You again and again. You are known as Ananta as well as Sankarṣaṇa because of Your ability to destroy the whole creation by the blazing fire from Your mouth.
PURPORT
Hṛṣīkeśendriyātmane.  The mind is the director of the senses, and Lord Aniruddha is the director of the mind. In order to execute devotional service, one has to fix his mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa; therefore Lord Śiva prays to the controller of the mind, Lord Aniruddha, to be pleased and to help him engage his mind on the lotus feet of the Lord. It is stated in  Bhagavad-gītā :  man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām namaskuru  (Bg. 9.34). The mind has to be engaged in meditation on the lotus feet of the Lord in order to execute devotional service. It is also stated in  Bhagavad-gītā :
sarvasya cāham hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanam ca vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham
“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the  Vedas  am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of  Vedānta , and I am the knower of the  Vedas .” (Bg. 15.15)
Thus if Lord Aniruddha is pleased, He can help the mind engage in the service of the Lord. It is also indicated in this verse that Lord Aniruddha is the sun-god by virtue of His expansions. Since the predominating deity of the sun is an expansion of Lord Aniruddha, Lord Śiva also prays to the sun-god in this verse.
Lord Kṛṣṇa, by His quadruple expansion (Vāsudeva, Sankarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha), is the Lord of psychic action—namely, thinking, feeling, willing and acting. Lord Śiva prays to Lord Aniruddha as the sun-god who is the controlling deity of the external material elements which constitute the construction of the material body. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura, the word  paramahamṣa  is also another name for the sun-god. The sun-god is addressed herein as  nibhṛtātmane , which indicates that he always maintains the various planets by manipulating the rainfall. The sun-god evaporates water from the seas and oceans and then forms the water into clouds and distributes it over land. When there is sufficient rainfall, grains are produced, and these grains maintain living