Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.40.8
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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śiva-rūpiṇam
—
in the form of Śiva
śiva + rūpin (having form). Even Śiva's mūrti is finally a manifestation of the one Bhagavān seen through the lens of tamas-mixed sattva. Jīva Gosvāmī (Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha) places Śiva as a śaktyāveśa-related expansion — Bhagavān-touched, not Bhagavān Himself.
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bahu-ācārya-vibhedena
—
by the divisions among many teachers
bahu (many) + ācārya (teachers) + vibheda (division). Polite naming of the splintered later traditions that drifted from Śiva's original Vaiṣṇava intent. Read with Padma Purāṇa's māyāvādam asac chāstram in mind.
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bhagavantam
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇa — full in six opulences (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47, cited by Jīva). The word itself names Bhagavān; even when worshipers misaddress Him through Śiva, He alone fits the definition.
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upāsate
—
they worship
From upa + √ās — to sit near. All such worship draws the worshiper near the Lord, however indirectly. The verse is generous, not dismissive.
The words tvām eva, “You also,” indicate that the path of worshiping Lord Śiva is indirect and therefore inferior. Akrūra himself is following the superior method by directly worshiping Kṛṣṇa, or Viṣṇu, with his prayers.
This verse describes the saivites. They also worship you , though in an inferior way, through different systems (saiva, pasupat) of different acaryas. Bhagavan sam upasate or bhagavantam upasate are two versions of the last phrase of the verse.
The word eva indicates inferior worship to the previous worship. Just as one may call the prince the king, so here Śiva is called Bhagavān. Another version has bhagavān samupāgataḥ.
The word eva indicates that Śiva is considered non-different from the Lord. Thus he is called the Lord (bhagavantam).
- Are you on a direct or indirect path right now, and have you been honest about which?
- Where do you mistake longer for safer?
A devoted servant of the king's most trusted minister is, through that minister, still in service of the king. Worshipers of Śiva who keep his actual teaching — Śiva's own devotion to Viṣṇu — flow upward through their lord toward the Lord whom their lord serves.
In SB 4.24, Śiva sings the Rudra-gītā to the Pracetās, declaring Vāsudeva to be the Supreme and himself to be His servant: ahaṁ ca yas tatra bhagavān asau. Śiva preaches Viṣṇu-bhakti as his own dharma.
Akrūra's verse 8 must be read with Śiva's own confession — those who 'follow the path described by him' are, if they follow truly, Vaiṣṇavas. The trouble begins only when bahu-ācārya-vibhedena (the many later teachers) bend Śiva's path away from his own Lord.
My note
Source: vedabase.io