Vishnu and Shiva

[M. S. Ravisankar]

On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 18:46:23 +0000, kalyan chakravarthy
<kalyan_kc at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>Tentative answer2.(not my own)- Narayana is a proper noun, while siva,
>rudra, shambhu etc. are common nouns. So the words siva etc. could be used
>for narayana also.

The term nArAyaNa is also generic like shiva and can be interpreted that
way. The term narAyaNa has few meanings*, one of which is "one who is the
refuge/resting place of jiva-s" This name is often explained as naraH
ayanaM yasya saH nArayaNaH and/or narANAm ayaNam. Hence, it could be
applied to shiva, shakti or even Christ. As you would do for words shiva,
sthaaNu, etc.

It should be kept in mind that veda-s (often) when they praise a devata,
make that devataa supreme and all others derived from it. For instance,
consider the mantra "aapo vaa idam sarvam ..."

IMHO, people often interpret and understand things based on their biases.

Ravi

See

* http://www.acharya.org/vyakyanam/mumukshuppadi/mmp095.html
  http://www.srivaishnavan.com/ans_secrets.html