Can there be pure devotion to Lord Shiva?
There is a whole movement of bhakti for lord shiva where also there is the aspiration to be servant of servant and even there is aspiration for being pure servants of lord shiva so how do we understand it? see there are firstly when we say that say the worshippers of Brahma are in passion or the worshippers of Shiva are in ignorance or those who are ignorant worship Shiva we have to understand that any kind of taxonomy taxonomy is a system of classification it is never watertight it is not that never watertight it is not that you know anybody who is not a worshipper of Shiva anybody who is not in tamoguna cannot worship lord shiva thing is that broadly the lord shiva is his appearance his activities they are described in such a way or he acts in such a way that he attracts even people in tamoguna but that does not mean that every single of his worshipper has to be in tamoguna sometimes some people may themselves from their previous lives may have an overall sattvic orientation and if they are born in a family which is Shiva worshipper or they are born in a place where there is a lot of Shiva worship then they may start Shiva worship so individually there may be people in sattva guna also who may be worshipping lord shiva but that may be from various other factors by which they can be worshipped so it is not that firstly that all worshippers of Shiva have to be in tamoguna only they can be in various modes but that is the broad category of whom will be attracted to the worship of lord shiva certainly as far as the aspiration for pure devotion is concerned to Shiva there is a huge Shaiva movement and they say there are Alwars they are called as Nayanwars so they are they are also great Shiva saints Shaivite saints and they have some many compositions and it is a very beautiful poetry to go in between lord Shiva so at one level we understand that this is also a part of the Vedic program in the sense that the devatas are also represented to the supreme lord and they are empowered by the supreme lord to become to be worshipable beings the that's what Krishna says that tasa tasya achalam shraddham tam eva viddham yaham so it is I who give them the faith to either it is I who give them the conviction by which they can become fixed in their devotion in 7.21 says whatever they want to worship whichever form they want to worship I make their faith strong so actually Prabhupada completely adds a full sentence in that translation he says I am the super soul present in everyone's heart now there is no mention of super soul in that verse at all Prabhupada is saying I am the super soul present in the heart I give them conviction I make their faith strong so that they can worship themselves so the Vedic program is that when now this verse Madhvacharya explains that actually how Krishna does that that if somebody wants to worship a particular devata he arranges for them to get attracted to that sangha and that shastra which will glorify that devata and that's how their shraddha will become strong so for those who want to worship Lord Shiva there is that kind of sangha of Shaivites there is that kind of shastra like Shaivite Shiva Purana and other Puranas and by which they will also become attracted and they will become convinced in that so this is also a part of the Vedic program for elevation and as they become devoted to Lord Shiva it is possible that they will become attracted to him and Lord Shiva also has the potency to purify now he may not have the potency to completely purify of all desires in the sense of ultimately finding liberation but still by worshiping him also people can become purified and they may also what to speak of Lord Shiva sometimes even in this world there are people who sometimes love selflessly isn't it most often the love is selfish but it's not that in principle selfless love is not possible at all you sometimes say a mother may be ready to sacrifice her life for a child or one people are ready to sacrifice their love for the nation we may say it's extended selfishness but at one level it does appears selfless ready to give up their things so the point is that everything attractive manifests the spark of Krishna's splendor but sometimes some spark can manifest such attractive splendor that that people may just get captivated by that there was a famous American patriot he said the only regret in my life is that I have only one life to serve America see that was the extent to which we will say America is just one country but somehow sometimes Krishna can attract it is a spark of Krishna's manifestation that is manifesting an attractive way for that person to become so totally devoted so if even if for such largely material manifestations people can become so attracted then what to speak of those who are actually connected with Krishna those who are servants of Krishna people can become attracted to them so that intense selfless devotion or pure devotion or the aspiration for humility and service attitude that can manifest even towards some devtas it's not impossible Prabhupada has asked this question in South India judge in Chennai I said Prabhupada said that normally when one goes to a bar it is for drinking but sometimes when they go to a bar even to rescue somebody who is drunk over there but that is exceptional so he says normally people who worship Lord Shiva they are intoxicated by material desires but sometimes it's possible that some people may worship without the intoxication they may be pure and they may be worshipping very pure and sometimes by their association others may also become pure to some extent so we can't reduce anything in the material world to only a particular category that category is a broad defining is a broad defining characteristic but it is not an absolute limiting characteristic so in some cases it is possible that some people may aspire for pure devotion to Krishna so this is two ways it is a part of the Vedic system one way it is a part of the Vedic system because the devtas are empowered to receive worship from Krishna Krishna himself arranges and secondly Krishna manifests to so many manifestations he can attract people so much so why can't we attract through the devtas also? does that answer your question?