देवेषु विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

Source: GA

Śrīkaṇṭharudra is the Rudra in Rudraloka at top of the Brahmāṇḍa & descends to Kailāśa to bless us. He is the Rudra you see in Purāṇa stories & is distinct from Paramaśiva, who operates through Śrīkaṇṭharudra in this world for the sake of bonded souls like us.

Those who have read my tweets regarding the distinction between Paramaśiva & Śrīkaṇṭha will know that I always attribute the literal acts to Śrīkaṇṭha & never Paramaśiva. This is not spelt out as a principle in Siddhānta texts but I had surmised from my reading of the same. I was pleasantly surprised to come across some Ślokas in the Śivapurāṇa which corroborate the same idea. Best part is that I wasn’t remotely looking for such verses. The Ślokas are given in the next tweet.

sarvaṃ śivo ’nugṛhṇāti
na nigṛhṇāti kiṃcana |
nigṛhṇatāṃ tu ye doṣāś
śive teṣāmasaṃbhavāt || 22 ||

ye punar nigrahāḥ kecid
brahmādiṣu nidarśitāḥ |
te ‘pi lokahitāyaiva
kṛtāḥ śrīkaṇṭhamūrtinā || 23 ||

brahmāṇḍasyādhipatyaṃ hi
śrīkaṇṭhasya na saṃśayaḥ |
śrīkaṇṭhākhyāṃ śivo mūrtiṃ
krīḍatīm adhitiṣṭhati || 24 ||

I’m still very surprised that my particular formulation of the relationship between Paramaśiva and Śrīkaṇṭha (where former acts through latter) was already given in the Śivapurāṇa. It’s a good proof of how well you are able to derive simple conclusions from “first principles”. At the same time, it shows how Śāstra is a great medium through which Bhagavān manifests His presence.

MT comments

One could say there is a strand of this permeating a lot of shaiva thought probably ultimately rooted in the atimArga. The archaic skandapurANa also presents the view that shiva does not directly act only via agents. The shakti-para streams of the bhairava-srotas/kaula present shiva as the substratum from which the universe arises by the waves of shakti-s – like in the vIrUpAkSha-pa~nchAshika. Also saundaryalahari verse jagat sUte dhAtA… (shakti-para perspective though).