Vaishnavas say that Narayana alone should be worshipped and Shaivas say that Shiva alone should be worshipped. What is correct?

[Question by Dr. Sheshadri Thiruvenkadam (Balaji).] If this means that God alone should be worshipped and that one should not concentrate on the world, it is the correct opinion of the original founder of any religion. But unfortunately, this statement is twisted by the followers to mean that you should not worship any form of God belonging to another religion. The original statement recommends you to hate the world so that your devotion to Narayana or Shiva is a single concentration or Eka Bhakti (Refer to Jesus in Bible, who says that you should hate the worldly bonds). Unable to do this, people twisted this statement to hate Shiva or Narayana, which is convenient. Hatred is an inherent quality of the soul, but hatred towards the worldly bonds is impossible. Now, the misinterpretation satisfies the souls to implement the inherent quality conveniently diverted to another item like Narayana or Shiva. The energetic form of the upper world like Narayana or Shiva is made a scapegoat for their hatred because there is no worldly item, which can be hated by all forever. If you cannot break the walls of the rooms in your house to make it a big hall, how can you break the walls between houses to make it into the biggest hall? If you cannot achieve unity in diversity in the sub-religions of Hinduism, how can you achieve Universal Spirituality in this world and establish world peace?

Narayana and Shiva are energetic forms of God in the upper worlds, meant for the departed souls, who also exist in energetic bodies. God in human form is relevant for the souls existing in material bodies on this earth. God enters the common medium of the souls for their convenience. Hanuman and the Gopikas worshipped their contemporary human forms of God (Rama and Krishna respectively). Are you wiser than Hanuman and the Gopikas to worship irrelevant energetic forms of God? You cannot deny this fact of history from the scriptures and you cannot show a single instance where they left Rama and Krishna and worshipped Narayana. In fact, the Veda says that Shiva and Narayana are the same one God (Shivashcha Narayanah.., Ekohavai Narayanah…, Eko Rudronadvitiyaya… Veda). Infact, Narayana means the source of spiritual knowledge and Shiva means sacred. The contemporary Human Incarnation (Sadguru) is the source of spiritual knowledge and hence, is Narayana (Naara= knowledge; Ayana= source). A Sadguru is associated with the three qualities (good Sattvam, bad Rajas and Tamas). But still He is beyond all these three qualities and is sacred and hence, He is called as Shiva.