शिरसा त्वाभियाचेऽहं कुरुष्व करुणां मयि।
बान्धवेषु च सर्वेषु भूतेष्विव महेश्वरः॥
śirasā tvābhiyāce ’haṁ kuruṣva karuṇāṁ mayi
bāndhaveṣu ca sarveṣu bhūteṣv iva maheśvaraḥ
śirasā = bow My head; tvā = You; abhiyāce = and beg; aham = I; kuruṣva karuṇām = please be merciful; mayi = to Me; bāndhaveṣu = and Our relatives; ca = and; sarveṣu = upon all; bhūteṣu = creatures; iva = just as; mahā-īśvaraḥ = the great Lord Viṣṇu is merciful.
I bow My head down and beg You. Please be merciful to Me and Our relatives just as the great Lord Viṣṇu is merciful upon all creatures.
1 This verse and argument also appears in Śrī Rādhā Dāmodara’s Vedānta-syamantaka, Chapter 2.
2 See note to Rāmāyaṇa 1.75.1 for a discussion concerning this on the basis of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Laghu Bhāgavatāmṛta.
3 Even according to Ādi Śaṅkara’s commentaries on the ten Upaniṣads, Vedānta-sūtra and Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Nārāyaṇa is superior to all other deities including Brahmā, Śiva and his sons, Pārvatī and other Śaktis.
Maheśvaraḥ refers to Lord Viṣṇu for He has been identified thus:
yad vedādau svaraḥ prokto vedānte ca pratiṣṭhitaḥ
tasya prakṛti-līnasya tasya yaḥ paraḥ sa maheśvaraḥ
“He is Maheśvara who transcends the syllable Om which is uttered at the beginning of the Vedas, which is well established in the Upaniṣads and which is dissolved in Prakṛti [during meditation].” (Mahā-nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad 12.17)
This verse occurs in the Mahā-nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad after a description of the process of meditating on the Supreme Lord as the ether in the heart. The object of such meditation is Puruṣottama or the Supreme Person [Nārāyaṇa] who is devoid of sins and so on, as understood from a parallel passage in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad.
This feature of being devoid of sins does not exist in Rudra as stated by himself: anapahata-pāpmāham asmi (Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 6.1.3.9).1
It is well known from the Śrutis and Smṛtis that it is Puruṣottama who possesses unbounded compassion and affection [for the conditioned souls] as indicated in the Śruti and Smṛti 2. And He is the one referred to here as maheśvaraḥ.
NOTE. Even though Lord Śiva is commonly called Maheśvara, maheśvaraḥ here refers to Lord Nārāyaṇa.
The above reference to Rudra refers to jīvas empowered by the original Lord Śiva to act in his name.2 The original Lord Śiva’s relationship with Lord Viṣṇu is clear from the following famous statement in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (12.13.16):
nimna-gānāṁ yathā gaṅgā devānām acyuto yathā
vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ purāṇānām idam tathā
“Just as the Gaṅgā is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Śambhu the greatest of Vaiṣṇavas, so Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the greatest of all Purāṇas.”3