In truth worshipping any of the gods is really worship of Bhagavan.
The aim of devotees is really to feel Bhagavan everywhere. All those who are fully absorbed in devotion to Bhagavad (God, Vishnu) are VaishhNava (devotees of Vishnu). Someone who night and day is stealing, deceitful and doing other bad behaviour etc yet thinking himself to be a devotee of VishhNu, cannot be a VaishNava. Shiva, Ganesha, Surya, Shakti (Durga, Lakshmi) etc are the limbs of Bhagavan. Any devotee of Shiva can say 'Our Shankar (Shiva) is really Bhagavan', any follower of Surya can say that 'Surya is really Bhagavan', then this is really like not knowing the whole shape of the elephant. Some blind men took hold of an elephant's trunk and said 'This elephant it is like a pestle'. Seizing the foot one said it was like a pillar. Taking the ear one said it was like a winnowing basket. The thing is really this that the blind men having seen the elephant got stirred up in dispute. He who knows the whole form of the elephant will never say that the elephant is similar to a winnowing basket or to a pestle. In the same way, he who has taken a good understanding of Bhagavan, he can never say that Shiva is the true form of Bhagavan or Ganesha is the true form of Bhagavan or that the four-armed form of VishhNu is really the form of Bhagavan. He who is familiar with the essence of Bhagavat (God) that all these several forms are really the separate parts or limbs of Paramatma (God). In truth worshipping any of the gods is really worship of Bhagavan. This is really the established truth of the shaastra. [Shri Shankaracharya UpadeshAmrita kaNa 68 of 108] Sermons of Guru Dev, Shankaracharya Swami Brahmananda Saraswati excerpts from 'Shri Shankaracharya UpadeshAmrita', the Hindi booklet edited by Rameshwar Tiwari translated into English by Premanand Paul Mason http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/upadesh.htm
