Text 22] Kapila’s Instructions on Devotional Service 1197
yac-chauca-nihsrta-sarit-pravarodakena
tirthena miirdhny adhikrtena sivah sivo *bhit
dhyatur manah-samala-saila-nisrsta-vajram
dhyayec ciram bhagavatas caranaravindam

yat—the Lord’s lotus feet; Sawca—washing; nihsrta—gone forth; sarit-
pravara—of the Ganges; udakena—by the water; tirthena—holy; mirdhni—
onhis head; adhikrtena—borne; sivah— Lord Siva; sivah— auspicious; abhiit—
became; dhyatuh—of the meditator; manah—in the mind; samala-saila—the
mountain of sin; nisrsta—hurled ; vajram—thunderbolt; dhyayet—one should
meditate; ciram—for a long time; bhagavatah—of the Lord; carana-
aravindam—on the lotus feet.

TRANSLATION

The blessed Lord Siva becomes all the more blessed by bearing on his
head the holy waters of the Ganges, which has its source in the water that
washed the Lord’s lotus feet. The Lord’s feet act like thunderbolts hurled
to shatter the mountain of sin stored in the mind of the meditating
devotee. One should therefore meditate on the lotus feet of the Lord for
a long time.

PURPORT

In this verse the position of Lord Siva is specifically mentioned. The
impersonalist suggests that the Absolute Truth has no form and that one
can therefore equally imagine the form of Visnu or Lord Siva or the goddess
Durga or their son Ganesga. But actually the Supreme Personality of
Godhead is the supreme master of everyone. In the Caitanya-caritamsta it
is said: ekale isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya: the Supreme Lord is Krsna, and
everyone else, including Lord Siva and Lord Brahma—not to mention
other demigods—is a servant of Krsna. The same principle is described
here. Lord Siva is important because he is holding on his head the holy
Ganges water which has its origin in the footwash of Lord Visnu. In the
Hari-bhakti-vilasa by Sanatana Gosvami it is said that anyone who puts the
Supreme Lord and the demigods, including Lord Siva and Lord Brahma,
on the same level, at once becomes a pdsandi, or atheist. We should never
consider that the Supreme Lord Visnu and the demigods are on an equal
footing.

Another significant point of this verse is that the mind of the con-
ditioned soul, on account of its association with the material energy from
time immemorial, contains heaps of dirt in the form of desires to lord it
