Who is supreme, Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu ?

Two major sects in Hinduism are Vaishnavism and Shaivism. Scholars and devotees from both these sects have contributed in development of Sanatan dharma, and have been living in peace and harmony every since the beginning of time.

But unfortunately nowadays few of the narrow minded followers from both these sects waste their precious time in such pointless debates.

 

Now i’ll try to put my perspective on this with the hope of ending  this fruitless discussion once and for all.

First of all before anything, we need to understand that Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are not some superheroes from your favourite cinematic universe, they are god, and there is no competition for power among gods, hence such discussions are not only useless but also adharmic.

Now coming to the main topic, “who is supreme between Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu?”.  I’ll explain two such incidents from the History which might help us understanding the topic better.

1.      When Prajapati Daksh was performing yagna, he invited all the devas and rishis, he also invited Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma, but since he was a shiv drohi, he didn’t invite devi Sati and Lord Shiva, but devi Sati still went to the yagna, But seeing that her father didn’t invite her consort Lord Shiva, she was deeply hurt and killed herself by jumping in the yagna fire, this made Lord Shiva angry, and he took Veerbhadra avatar to kill Daksha, seeing Veerbhadra approaching towards him, Prajapati trembled in fear and started praying to Lord Vishnu to protect him. And here is what Lord Vishnu said,

“ I’ll never give protection to a shiv drohi”. The one who is against Lord Shiva, never gets the love and affection of Lord Vishnu, Lord Rama once said “Shiv se droh tanik jo raakhe, woh mam krapa payush na chaakhe”.

 

           

                                            

2.      This second incident is from Ramayan, in the Ramayan when Lord Rama is about to kill demon Ravana, Ravana being the great devotee of Lord Shiva, prayed to him for protection, Lord Shiva upon hearing Ravanas prayer refused to give him any kind of help, when Ravana asked him for the reason of his refusal.  Lord Shiva said “Lord Rama who is Lord Vishnu himself has decided to end Ravanas life, hence nobody (even Lord Shiva himself) cannot give him protection”. His Devine Grace Srila Prabhupada puts it like this “raakhe Krishna maare ke, maare Krishna raakhe ke” meaning : if Krishna (Vishnu) wants to protect someone , nobody can kill him, and if Krishna wants to kill someone, nobody can protect him. 

                                                                                    

Both the stories might seem contradicting , but the simple conclusion is, Lord Shiva is the first Vaishnavite and Lord Vishnu is the first Shaivite.