My question is, why is lord shiva called Vishwanath? I am little confuse, since Krishna is Jagannath. and both the names are synonyms to each other.
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My question is, why is lord shiva called Vishwanath? I am little confuse, since Krishna is Jagannath. and both the names are synonyms to each other.
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Hare Krsna
Why is lord shiva called Vishwanath ?
Vishwa referes to this material world. The material world consists of three modes of material nature and the material elements like earth, water, fire, air etc. The three modes of material nature is under the lordship of Mayadevi or Parvati devi. The elements of the material nature are under the lordship of Lord Shambhu or Lord Shiva. So the functioning of the material world is effectiveley under the lordship of the Shiva and Parvati. This as per the shloka in Brahma Samhita
śaktimān puruṣaḥ so 'yaṁ
liṅga-rūpī maheśvaraḥ
tasminn āvirabhūl liṅge
mahā-viṣṇur jagat-patiḥ
The person embodying the material causal principle, viz., the great lord of this mundane world [Maheśvara] Śambhu, in the form of the male generating organ, is joined to his female consort the limited energy [Māyā] as the efficient causal principle. The Lord of the world Mahā-Viṣṇu is manifest in him by His subjective portion in the form of His glance. (Brahma Samhita 5.10)
All the living beings within the material world are under the custody of the Lord Shiva and Parvati. Lord Shiva is the father of all embodied living entities and mother Parvati is the mother of all embodied living entities. So effectively any living entity who has a material body is under the custody of Lord Shiva and Parvati.
If the materila world is considered as a prison, then Lord Shiva is the Jailer and mother parvati is the one who makes enforces rules of the prison.
But Lord Shiva and mother Parvati are only the secondary lords of the material world. There is a primary lord who is situated outside of the material world in the form of Purusha avatara - Lord Sri Mahavishnu who is the primary Lord of all the living entities. Even when all the material world is destroyed, the jivatma in an inactive state directly goes under the custody of Sri Mahavishnu.
So to summarise the material world is guarded by Lord Shiva and hence Lord Shiva is valled Vishwanatha.
Hare Krsna
Well, you forget Devi, who is Visvesvari, Jagaddhatri etc. So is it some sort of political struggle for supremacy or what? No. All these personalities are engaged in lilas (which is confusing for some) but they are actually in agreement. I have alreay quoted this pertinent sloka:
ziva-kAJcI, viSNu-kAJcI gelA nityAnanda
dekhi' hAse dui gaNe mahA-mahA-dvandva
"The Lord visited Ziva-kAJcI and the nearby ViSNu-kAJcI. Being the original Supreme Person, ZrI MUla-saGkarSaNa ViSNu, ZrI NityAnanda was amused at the fanatical conflict that existed between the followers of Lord Ziva and Lord ViSNu." (Caitanya Bhagavata 1.9.118)
GauDIya BhASya (BSST): The second line of this verse refers to the ViSNu-kAJcI residents, who are VaiSNavas, and the Ziva-kAJcI residents, who are devotees of Ziva, the devotee of SaGkarSaNa. Due to their poor fund of knowledge, these two groups always debate over the positions of Lord ViSNu and Lord Ziva. In other words, after observing their fierce animosity towards each other, ZrI NityAnanda Prabhu, who is nondifferent from MUla-SaGkarSaNa ViSNu, began to laugh.
Hari Hari
ys J.