Text 18] Chanting the Song Sung by Lord Siva 1043
his pastime in the form of Sankaracarya, he preached the Vaigsnava
philosophy: bhaja govindam bhaja govindam bhaja govindam miidha-mate.
He stressed worshiping Lord Krsna or Govinda three times in this verse and
especially warned his followers that they could not possibly achieve
deliverance or mukti simply by word jugglery and grammatical puzzles. If
one is actually serious to attain mukti, he must worship Lord Krsna. That
is Sripada Sarikaracarya’s last instruction.

Herein it is mentioned that Lord Siva is always accompanied by his
material energy (saktyd ghoraya). Material energy—Goddess Durga or God-
dess Kali—is always under his control. Goddess Kali and Durga serve
him by killing all the asuras or demons. Sometimes KAli becomes so in-
furiated that she indiscriminately kills all kinds of asuras. There is a popu-
lar picture of Goddess Kali in which she wears a garland composed of the
heads of the asuras and holds in her left hand a captured head and in her
right hand a great khadga, or chopper, for killing asuras. Great wars are
symbolic representations of Kali’s devastation of the asuras and are
actually conducted by the Goddess Kali.

srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka
chayeva yasya bhuvanani bibharti durga (Bs. 5.44)
Asuras, however, try to pacify the Goddess Kali or Durga by worshiping
her in material opulence, but when the asuras become too intolerable,
Goddess Kali does not discriminate in killing them wholesale. Asuras do
not know the secret of the energy of Lord Siva, and they prefer to worship
Goddess Kali or Durga or Lord Siva for material benefit. Due to their
demonic character, they are reluctant to surrender to Lord Krsna, as
indicated by Bhagavad-gita:
na mam duskrtino miidhah
prapadyante naradhamah
mayaydpahrta-jiiana
dsuram bhavam asritah (Bg. 7.15)

Lord Siva’s duty is very dangerous because he has to employ the energy
of Goddess Kali (or Durga). In another popular picture the Goddess Kali
is sometimes seen standing on the prostrate body of Lord Siva, which indi-
cates that sometimes Lord Siva has to fall down flat in order to stop God-
dess Kali from killing the asuras. Since Lord Siva controls the great mate-
rial energy (Goddess Durga), worshipers of Lord Siva attain very opu-
lent positions within this material world. Under Lord Siva’s direction, a
