ananta brahmÄṇá¸e rudra — sadÄÅ›ivera amÅ›a
guṇÄvatÄra teá¹…ho, sarva-deva-avataá¹sa

 ananta - unlimited; brahmÄṇá¸e - in the universes; rudra - Lord Åšiva; sadÄÅ›ivera amÅ›a - part and parcel of SadÄÅ›iva; guṇa-avatÄra - an incarnation of a quality; teá¹…ho - he also; sarva-deva-avataá¹sa - the ornament of all the demigods.


Text

Rudra, who is an expansion of SadÄÅ›iva and who appears in unlimited universes, is also a guṇÄvatÄra [qualitative incarnation] and is the ornament of all the demigods in the endless universes.

Purport

There are eleven expansions of Rudra, or Lord Åšiva. They are as follows: AjaikapÄt, Ahibradhna, VirÅ«pÄká¹£a, Raivata, Hara, BahurÅ«pa, DevaÅ›reṣṭha Tryambaka, SÄvitra, Jayanta, PinÄki and AparÄjita. Besides these expansions there are eight forms of Rudra called earth, water, fire, air, sky, the sun, the moon and soma-yÄjÄ«. Generally all these Rudras have five faces, three eyes and ten arms. Sometimes it is found that Rudra is compared to BrahmÄ and considered a living entity. But when Rudra is explained to be a partial expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is compared to Åšeá¹£a. Lord Åšiva is therefore simultaneously an expansion of Lord Viṣṇu and, in his capacity for annihilating the creation, one of the living entities. As an expansion of Lord Viṣṇu he is called Hara, and he is transcendental to the material qualities, but when he is in touch with tamo-guṇa he appears contaminated by the material modes of nature. This is explained in ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam and the Brahma-saá¹hitÄ. In ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam, Tenth Canto, it is stated that Lord Rudra is always associated with the material nature when she is in the neutral, unmanifested stage, but when the modes of material nature are agitated he associates with material nature from a distance. In the Brahma-saá¹hitÄ the relationship between Viṣṇu and Lord Åšiva is compared to that between milk and yogurt. Milk is converted into yogurt by certain additives, but although milk and yogurt have the same ingredients, they have different functions. Similarly, Lord Åšiva is an expansion of Lord Viṣṇu, yet because of his taking part in the annihilation of the cosmic manifestation, he is considered to be changed, like milk converted into yogurt. In the PurÄṇas it is found that Åšiva appears sometimes from the heads of BrahmÄ and sometimes from the head of Viṣṇu. The annihilator, Rudra, is born from Saá¹…kará¹£aṇa and the ultimate fire to burn the whole creation. In the VÄyu PurÄṇa there is a description of SadÄÅ›iva in one of the Vaikuṇṭha planets. That SadÄÅ›iva is a direct expansion of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s form for pastimes. It is said that SadÄÅ›iva (Lord Åšambhu) is an expansion from the SadÄÅ›iva in the Vaikuṇṭha planets (Lord Viṣṇu) and that his consort, MahÄmÄyÄ, is an expansion of RamÄ-devÄ«, or Laká¹£mÄ«. MahÄmÄyÄ is the origin or birthplace of material nature.