Shiva Purana — Rudra Samhita, Shloka 36
भक्तिभेदाः—ज्ञानप्रधानभक्तेः प्रशंसा
Grades of Devotees and the Praise of Knowledge-Centered Devotion
महिमा शांकरोनंतो दुर्विज्ञेयो मनीषिभिः । भक्तज्ञातश्च सद्भक्त्या तत्प्रसादाद्विना श्रमम्
mahimā śāṃkaronaṃto durvijñeyo manīṣibhiḥ | bhaktajñātaśca sadbhaktyā tatprasādādvinā śramam
ရှင်ကရ (Śaṅkara) ၏ မဟာဂုဏ်တော်သည် အနန္တဖြစ်၍ ပညာရှိတို့အတွက်တောင် နားလည်ရန် ခက်ခဲ၏။ သို့သော် စစ်မှန်သော ဘက္တိဖြင့် သဒ္ဓါရှိသော ဘက္တားတို့သည် သိမြင်နိုင်ကြပြီး၊ အရှင်၏ ကရုဏာတော်ကြောင့် ပင်ပန်းအားထုတ်စရာမလိုဘဲ လွယ်ကူစွာ ရရှိသိမြင်ကြ၏။
Suta Goswami (narrating to the sages at Naimiṣāraṇya)
Tattva Level: pati
Shiva Form: Sadāśiva
Significance: Establishes the Siddhāntic principle that Śiva is ultimately known not by mere intellectual effort but by bhakti ripened into grace (anugraha), which is the inner ‘tīrtha’ accessible everywhere.
Type: stotra
FAQs
It teaches that Śiva’s nature and greatness are limitless and not fully grasped by intellect alone; realization arises through sadbhakti, and is completed by Śiva’s prasāda (grace), aligning with Shaiva emphasis on grace as the decisive factor for liberation.
The verse supports Saguna worship as a practical doorway: through loving devotion to Śiva in accessible forms—such as the Liṅga—one receives His grace, by which the infinite (beyond concepts) becomes personally known.
Cultivate sadbhakti through daily Śiva-pūjā and japa of the Pañcākṣarī mantra ("Om Namaḥ Śivāya"), offering water/bilva to the Liṅga with humility, focusing on surrender so that realization comes by prasāda rather than mere effort.