Shloka 39
अनरण्यसुता–पिप्पलादचरितम् / The Episode of Anaraṇya’s Daughter and Sage Pippalāda
त्वञ्च नष्टो भवसि चेत्सृष्टिनाशो भवेत्तदा । इति कर्तव्यतामूढा वृथापि च वदाम्यहम्
tvañca naṣṭo bhavasi cetsṛṣṭināśo bhavettadā | iti kartavyatāmūḍhā vṛthāpi ca vadāmyaham
If you were to be destroyed, then the dissolution of the created order would occur. Deluded by the thought of “what must be done,” I speak—even if it is in vain.
Pārvatī
Tattva Level: pati
Shiva Form: Mahādeva
Shakti Form: Pārvatī
Role: teaching
Cosmic Event: Conditional pralaya logic: if the Lord were ‘lost’, creation collapses (a rhetorical impossibility highlighting īśvara’s nityatva).
FAQs
The verse highlights the cosmic centrality of the Divine (addressed as ‘you’): the speaker fears that the loss of that divine support would imply the collapse of the manifest world-order. From a Śaiva Siddhānta lens, it points to Pati (the Lord) as the indispensable ground by which the universe is sustained.
It supports Saguna devotion by portraying the Lord as the living center of preservation and dissolution. Linga-worship ritualizes this insight: the Linga stands as the stable sign (liṅga) of the Lord’s ever-present sovereignty even as creation undergoes change.
A practical takeaway is steady remembrance (smaraṇa) of Shiva as the support of all—japa of the Pañcākṣarī “Om Namaḥ Śivāya,” accompanied by calm contemplation that the Lord remains constant while worldly conditions arise and subside.