Shloka 22
सृष्टिवर्णनम्
Cosmogony and the Roles of the Trimūrti
पूज्यांस्तैरयजन्देवानित्येवमनुशुश्रुम । मुखाद्देवानजनयत्पितॄंश्चैवाथ वक्षसः । प्रजनाच्च मनुष्यान्वै जघनान्निर्ममेऽसुरान्
pūjyāṃstairayajandevānityevamanuśuśruma | mukhāddevānajanayatpitṝṃścaivātha vakṣasaḥ | prajanācca manuṣyānvai jaghanānnirmame'surān
Thus have we heard: they worshipped the Devas, deeming them worthy of reverence. From his mouth he brought forth the Devas; from his chest he produced the Pitṛs, the ancestral fathers; from his generative power he fashioned human beings; and from his loins he created the Asuras.
Suta Goswami (narrating to the sages at Naimisharanya, as typical of the Shiva Purana frame)
Tattva Level: pasha
Shiva Form: Tatpuruṣa
Type: stotra
Offering: naivedya
Cosmic Event: Varṇa/gaṇa-like differentiation of beings in early creation; mapping of cosmic functions to bodily loci
FAQs
The verse maps cosmic diversity into ordered origins, implying that different classes of beings arise from distinct functions within manifestation; in Shaiva Siddhanta, such hierarchy ultimately points beyond limited creators to Pati (Shiva) as the supreme source who grants right knowledge and liberation.
It shows that Devas may be worshipped as “pūjya” within the manifested order, yet Shaiva teaching places such worship within a higher trajectory—leading the devotee toward Saguna Shiva (Linga worship) as the most efficacious support for grace, purification, and ascent to the supreme.
The takeaway is to align worship with the highest refuge: perform Shiva-puja (Linga worship) with mantra-japa—especially the Panchakshara “Om Namaḥ Śivāya”—as the purifying discipline that transcends merely worldly aims associated with lower orders of beings.