Can Lord Shiva also grant liberation?
It's not a correct explanation Thank you where mukti pradata vishnu eva na samshaya so that mukti pradata is Vishnu there is no doubt about it and that certainly this is quoted quite frequently that Vishnu alone can give liberation this is the position that Prabhupada usually took but if you look at the Goswamis the Goswamis describe that those who are purely devoted to Shiva they can be liberated with Shiva that means Shiva also has multiple manifestations there is Rudra who exists in this world and the Sadashiva who exists at the interface of the material and spiritual world the Goswami elaborates on this in his Brahma Samhita commentary he states that actually those who are very purely devoted to Shiva they can go to the abode of Sadashiva which is the eternal abode and there with Shiva they will eternally glorify Vishnu so that means Shiva can become to some extent eternal spiritual master so that in what cases it will happen that is something which we cannot get into because he doesn't elaborate over that much the point is that it is not so much Shiva himself giving liberation see the Devatas basically they perform two different roles one is the material administrative role and the second is the spiritual educative role so usually most people approach them for the material administrative purpose only that means ok you are in this position you are this power please give me this this this but in some situations the Devatas also talk about the spiritual educative thing for example when we have the Sudarshan Chakra chasing Durvasa Muni at that time the Devatas say I cannot help you you have to go to somewhere ultimately they all guide him to Vishnu so on some occasions the Devatas also they point people to Vishnu you see a lot Shiva is also actually pleased when Mohini Murthy bewilders him and he glorifies Vishnu after that so usually speaking most people they don't approve the Devatas for that purpose we have an example Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrita of Saraswati Devi saying to Teju Kashmiri that my ultimate blessing was not to make you a champion scholar my ultimate blessing was to make you a devotee of to introduce you to my lord and to make him devoted to my lord and there is also a story of Chandidas, Chandidas is a great Vaishnav poet and he said in Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrita that even he would even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would hear his compositions his devotional compositions he would be very pleased to hear those compositions I used to always wonder he is a Vaishnav poet why is his name Chandidas so actually the story is that earlier he was a great worshipper of Chandi and his brother was a Vaishnava and he was quite wealthy he had a big beautiful garden and he would have many many flowers and those flowers he would offer to Chandi so one day his brother asked him can I take this one flower for offering to my Shaligram now all my flowers are meant only for the goddess so his brother did not insist but he was sad and the next morning when he woke up and he was just coming back from bathing he looked at the flowers very beautiful and in his mind he thought it would be so nice if I would offer it to Vishnu and in his mind he did Manas Puja he offered it to Vishnu and then Chandidas took that same flower and he offered it to Chandi and as he was chanting the Chandi suddenly Chandi appeared to him he said I am pleased with you what do you want so he said he was very delighted when he asked I have been offering the same prayers for so long how is it that today you have become pleased he said today you have given me the Mahaprasad of my lord he said what do you mean and she told him how this flower had been offered in the mind to Vishnu he said does that mean that Vishnu is your lord Vishnu is greater than you he said yes of course Vishnu is the lord of my lord my lord is Shiva and your lord is Vishnu so at that time he said then why did you ever tell this to me he said you never asked this to me you are only asking for give me this give me that you never asked me for this today because you offered me this Mahaprasad of my lord I am very pleased with you so from that point onwards he started taking her as his guru she directed him to Vishnu that's why his name remains in his ass but he was a Vaishnava so he was from his birth initially he was a worshipper of Chandi but considering Chandi as his spiritual guide he became a Vaishnava so this is of course not exactly a story of somebody becoming liberated because of the worshipping of a devta but the point is that the devtas also have this spiritual educative role but most of the times they don't function in that role they function in material administrative role primarily so with respect to Shiva because he also has the eternal manifestation in Sadashiva so there is the possibility that those who worship him purely they can go to his eternal abode and there with him they eternally become devoted to Vishnu Krishna okay.