The Story of Sage Narada and His Instructions to Vyasadeva

May 22, 2005

Hare Krishna. Pranam to all Vaishnavas ,

Sage Narada plays on his instrument and wander every where to glorify the transcendental activities of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Lord and to give relief to all miserable living entities of the universe.

Even after compiling the Vedas, Puranas and the epic Mahabharatham, Sage Vyasadeva was feeling restless . Sri Narada then advised him to compile Srimad Bhagavatham containing the transcendental activities of Sri Krishna, the Supreme God . Bhagavatham is the factual literary incarnation of Sri Krishna. So even the laymen can hear the narration of the activities of the Bhagavan. Thereby they are able to associate with Sri Krishna and thus gradually become purified . The expert devotees also can discover novel ways and means to convert the non-devotees in terms of particular time and circumstance

Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, is attractive not only in His personal features, but also in His transcendental activities. It is so because Sri Krishna is absolute by His name, fame, form, pastimes, entourage, paraphernalia, etc. The Bhagavan descends on this material world out of His causeless mercy and displays His various transcendental pastimes as a human being so that human beings attracted towards Him become able to go back to Krishna’s abode. Instead of wasting time , one can get spiritual success by turning his attention to the transcendental pastimes of Krishna. By hearing the narration of the pastimes of the Bhagavan, one contacts Him directly , and, by hearing about Him, from within, all accumulated sins of the mundane creature are cleared. Thus being cleared of all sins, the hearer gradually becomes liberated and becomes attracted to the features of Sri Krishna. Narada Muni has just explained this by his personal experience. The whole idea is that simply by hearing about Sri Krishna’s

pastimes, one can become one of His associates . Narada Muni has eternal life, unlimited knowledge and unfathomed bliss, and he can travel all over the material and spiritual worlds without restriction.

The story of Sage Narada and His instructions to Vyasadeva are described in Canto -1, Chapters 5 and 6 of Srimad Bhagavatham as follows:

Chapter Five

Narada’s Instructions on Srimad-Bhagavatam, for Vyasadeva

TEXT 1

Sage Suta said: Thus the sage amongst the gods (Narada), comfortably seated and apparently smiling, addressed the Sage amongst the brahmanas (Vedavyasa).

TEXT 2

Addressing Vyasadeva (the son of Parasara), Narada inquired : Are you satisfied by identifying with the body or the mind as objects of self-realization?

TEXT 3

Your inquiries were full and your studies were also well fulfilled, and there is no doubt that you have prepared a great and wonderful work, the Mahabharata, which is full of all kinds of Vedic sequences elaborately explained.

TEXT 4

You have fully delineated the subject of impersonal Brahman as well as the knowledge derived therefrom. Why should you be despondent in spite of all this, thinking that you are undone, my dear prabhu ?

TEXT 5

Sage Vyasadeva said: All you have said about me is perfectly correct. Despite all this, I am not pacified. I therefore question you about the root cause of my dissatisfaction, for you are a man of unlimited knowledge due to your being the offspring of one [brahma] who is self-born [without mundane father and mother].

TEXT 6

My lord! Everything that is mysterious is known to you because you worship the creator and destroyer of the material world and the maintainer of the spiritual world, the original Personality of Godhead, who is transcendental to the three modes of material nature.

TEXT 7

Like the sun, Your Goodness can travel everywhere in the three worlds, and like the air you can penetrate the internal region of everyone. As such, you are as good as the all-pervasive Supersoul. Please, therefore, find out the deficiency in me, despite my being absorbed in transcendence under disciplinary regulations and vows.

TEXT 8

Sri Narada said: You have not actually broadcast the sublime and spotless glories of the Personality of Godhead. That philosophy which does not satisfy the transcendental senses of the Lord is considered worthless.

TEXT 9

Although, great sage, you have very broadly described the four principles beginning with religious performances, you have not described the glories of the Supreme Personality, Vasudeva.

TEXT 10

Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows. Since the all-perfect persons are inhabitants of the transcendental abode, they do not derive any pleasure there.

TEXT 11

On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world’s misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.

TEXT 12

Knowledge of self-realization, even though free from all material affinity, does not look well if devoid of a conception of the Infallible [God]. What, then, is the use of fruitive activities, which are naturally painful from the very beginning and transient by nature, if they are not utilized for the devotional service of the Lord?

TEXT 13

O Vyasadeva, your vision is completely perfect. Your good fame is spotless. You are firm in vow and situated in truthfulness. And thus you can think of the pastimes of the Lord in trance for the liberation of the people in general from all material bondage.

TEXT 14

Whatever you desire to describe that is separate in vision from the Lord simply reacts, with different forms, names and results, to agitate the mind as the wind agitates a boat which has no resting place.

TEXT 15

The people in general are naturally inclined to enjoy, and you have encouraged them in that way in the name of religion. This is verily condemned and is quite unreasonable. Because they are guided under your instructions, they will accept such activities in the name of religion and will hardly care for prohibitions.

TEXT 16

The Supreme Lord is unlimited. Only a very expert personality, retired from the activities of material happiness, deserves to understand this knowledge of spiritual values. Therefore those who are not so well situated, due to material attachment, should be shown the ways of transcendental realization, by Your Goodness, through descriptions of the transcendental activities of the Supreme Lord.

TEXT 17

One who has forsaken his material occupations to engage in the devotional service of the Lord may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage, yet there is no danger of his being unsuccessful. On the other hand, a non-devotee, though fully engaged in occupational duties, does not gain anything.

TEXT 18

Persons who are actually intelligent and philosophically inclined should endeavor only for that purposeful end which is not obtainable even by wandering from the topmost planet [brahmaloka] down to the lowest planet [Patala]. As far as happiness derived from sense enjoyment is concerned, it can be obtained automatically in course of time, just as in course of time we obtain miseries even though we do not desire them.

TEXT 19

My dear Vyasa, even though a devotee of Lord Krishna sometimes falls down somehow or other, he certainly does not undergo material existence like others [fruitive workers, etc.] because a person who has once relished the taste of the lotus feet of the Lord can do nothing but remember that ecstasy again and again.

TEXT 20

The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead is Himself this cosmos, and still He is aloof from it. From Him only has this cosmic manifestation emanated, in Him it rests, and unto Him it enters after annihilation. Your good self knows all about this. I have given only a synopsis.

TEXT 21

Your Goodness has perfect vision. You yourself can know the Supersoul Personality of Godhead because you are present as the plenary portion of the Lord. Although you are birthless, you have appeared on this earth for the well-being of all people. Please, therefore, describe the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna more vividly.

TEXT 22

Learned circles have positively concluded that the infallible purpose of the advancement of knowledge, namely austerities, study of the Vedas, sacrifice, chanting of hymns and charity, culminates in the transcendental descriptions of the Lord, who is defined in choice poetry.

TEXT 23

O Muni, in the last millennium I was born as the son of a certain maidservant engaged in the service of brahmanas who were following the principles of Veda. When they were living together during the four months of the rainy season, I was engaged in their personal service.

TEXT 24

Although they were impartial by nature, those followers of the Vedanta blessed me with their causeless mercy. As far as I was concerned, I was self-controlled and had no attachment for sports, even though I was a boy. In addition, I was not naughty, and I did not speak more than required.

TEXT 25

Once only, by their permission, I took the remnants of their food, and by so doing all my sins were at once eradicated. Thus being engaged, I became purified in heart, and at that time the very nature of the transcendentalist became attractive to me.

TEXT 26

O Vyasadeva, in that association and by the mercy of those great Vedantists, I could hear them describe the attractive activities of Lord Krishna And thus listening attentively, my taste for hearing of the Personality of Godhead increased at every step.

TEXT 27

O great sage, as soon as I got a taste for the Personality of Godhead, my attention to hear of the Lord was unflinching. And as my taste developed, I could realize that it was only in my ignorance that I had accepted gross and subtle coverings, for both the Lord and I are transcendental.

TEXT 28

Thus during two seasons—the rainy season and autumn—I had the opportunity to hear these great-souled sages constantly chant the unadulterated glories of the Lord Hari. As the flow of my devotional service began, the coverings of the modes of passion and ignorance vanished.

TEXT 29

I was very much attached to those sages. I was gentle in behavior, and all my sins were eradicated in their service. In my heart I had strong faith in them. I had subjugated the senses, and I was strictly following them with body and mind.

TEXT 30

As they were leaving, those bhakti-vedantas, who are very kind to poor-hearted souls, instructed me in that most confidential subject which is instructed by the Personality of Godhead Himself.

TEXT 31

By that confidential knowledge, I could understand clearly the influence of the energy of Lord Sri Krishna, the creator, maintainer and annihilator of everything. By knowing that, one can return to Him and personally meet Him.

TEXT 32

O Brhahmana Vyasadeva, it is decided by the learned that the best remedial measure for removing all troubles and miseries is to dedicate one’s activities to the service of the Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead [sri Krishna].

TEXT 33

O good soul, does not a thing, applied therapeutically, cure a disease which was caused by that very same thing?

TEXT 34

Thus when all a man’s activities are dedicated to the service of the Lord, those very activities which caused his perpetual bondage become the destroyer of the tree of work.

TEXT 35

Whatever work is done here in this life for the satisfaction of the mission of the Lord is called bhakti-yoga, or transcendental loving service to the Lord, and what is called knowledge becomes a concomitant factor.

TEXT 36

While performing duties according to the order of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one constantly remembers Him, His names and His qualities.

TEXT 37

Let us all chant the glories of Vasudeva along with His plenary expansions Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Sankarsana.

TEXT 38

Thus he is the actual seer who worships, in the form of transcendental sound representation, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vishnu, who has no material form.

TEXT 39

O brahmana, thus by the Supreme Lord Krishna I was endowed first with the transcendental knowledge of the Lord as inculcated in the confidential parts of the Vedas, then with the spiritual opulences, and then with His intimate loving service.

TEXT 40

Please, therefore, describe the Almighty Lord’s activities which you have learned by your vast knowledge of the Vedas, for that will satisfy the hankerings of great learned men and at the same time mitigate the miseries of the masses of common people who are always suffering from material pangs. Indeed, there is no other way to get out of such miseries.

Chapter Six

Conversation Between Narada and Vyasadeva

TEXT 1

Sage Süta said: O brahmanas, thus hearing all about Sri Narada’s birth and activities, Vyasadeva (the son of Satyavati), inquired as follows.

TEXT 2

Sri Vyasadeva said: What did you [Narada] do after the departure of the great sages who had instructed you in scientific transcendental knowledge before the beginning of your present birth?

TEXT 3

O son of Brahma, how did you pass your life after initiation, and how did you attain this body, having quit your old one in due course?

TEXT 4

O great sage, time annihilates everything in due course, so how is it that this subject matter, which happened prior to this day of Brahma, is still fresh in your memory, undisturbed by time?

TEXT 5

Sri Narada said: The great sages, who had imparted scientific knowledge of transcendence to me, departed for other places, and I had to pass my life in this way.

TEXT 6

I was the only son of my mother, who was not only a simple woman but a maidservant as well. Since I was her only offspring, she had no other alternative for protection: she bound me with the tie of affection.

TEXT 7

She wanted to look after my maintenance properly, but because she was not independent, she was not able to do anything for me. The world is under the full control of the Supreme Lord; therefore everyone is like a wooden doll in the hands of a puppet master.

TEXT 8

When I was a mere child of five years, I lived in a brahmana Gurukulam (school). I was dependent on my mother’s affection and had no experience of different lands.

TEXT 9

Once upon a time, my poor mother, when going out one night to milk a cow, was bitten on the leg by a serpent, influenced by supreme time.

TEXT 10

I took this as the special mercy of the Lord, who always desires benediction for His devotees, and so thinking, I started for the north.

TEXT 11

After my departure, I passed through many flourishing metropolises, towns, villages, animal farms, mines, agricultural lands, valleys, flower gardens, nursery gardens and natural forests.

TEXT 12

I passed through hills and mountains full of reservoirs of various minerals like gold, silver and copper, and through tracts of land with reservoirs of water filled with beautiful lotus flowers, fit for the denizens of heaven, decorated with bewildered bees and singing birds.

TEXT 13

I then passed alone through many forests of rushes, bamboo, reeds, sharp grass, weeds and caves, which were very difficult to go through alone. I visited deep, dark and dangerously fearful forests, which were the play yards of snakes, owls and jackals.

TEXT 14

Thus traveling, I felt tired, both bodily and mentally, and I was both thirsty and hungry. So I took a bath in a river lake and also drank water. By contacting water, I got relief from my exhaustion.

TEXT 15

After that, under the shadow of a banyan tree in an uninhabited forest I began to meditate upon the Supersoul situated within, using my intelligence, as I had learned from liberated souls.

TEXT 16

As soon as I began to meditate upon the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead with my mind transformed in transcendental love, tears rolled down my eyes, and without delay the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna appeared on the lotus of my heart.

TEXT 17

O Vyasadeva, at that time, being exceedingly overpowered by feelings of happiness, every part of my body became separately enlivened. Being absorbed in an ocean of ecstasy, I could not see both myself and the Lord.

TEXT 18

The transcendental form of the Lord, as it is, satisfies the mind’s desire and at once erases all mental incongruities. Upon losing that form, I suddenly got up, being perturbed, as is usual when one loses that which is desirable.

TEXT 19

I desired to see again that transcendental form of the Lord, but despite my attempts to concentrate upon the heart with eagerness to view the form again, I could not see Him any more, and thus dissatisfied, I was very much aggrieved.

TEXT 20

Seeing my attempts in that lonely place, the Personality of Godhead, who is transcendental to all mundane description, spoke to me with gravity and pleasing words, just to mitigate my grief.

TEXT 21

O Narada [the Lord spoke], I regret that during this lifetime you will not be able to see Me anymore. Those who are incomplete in service and who are not completely free from all material taints can hardly see Me.

TEXT 22

O virtuous one, you have only once seen My person, and this is just to increase your desire for Me, because the more you hanker for Me, the more you will be freed from all material desires.

TEXT 23

By service of the Absolute Truth, even for a few days, a devotee attains firm and fixed intelligence in Me. Consequently he goes on to become My associate in the transcendental world after giving up the

TEXT 24

Intelligence engaged in My devotion cannot be thwarted at any time. Even at the time of creation, as well as at the time of annihilation, your remembrance will continue by My mercy.

TEXT 25

Then that supreme authority, personified by sound and unseen by eyes, but most wonderful, stopped speaking. Feeling a sense of gratitude, I offered my obeisances unto Him, bowing my head.

TEXT 26

Thus I began chanting the holy name and fame of the Lord by repeated recitation, ignoring all the formalities of the material world. Such chanting and remembering of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord are benedictory. So doing, I traveled all over the earth, fully satisfied, humble and unenvious.

TEXT 27

And so, O Brahmana Vyasadeva, in due course of time I, who was fully absorbed in thinking of Krishna and who therefore had no attachments, being completely freed from all material taints, met with death, as lightning and illumination occur simultaneously.

TEXT 28

Having been awarded a transcendental body befitting an associate of the Personality of Godhead, I quit the body made of five material elements, and thus all acquired fruitive results of work [karma] stopped.

TEXT 29

At the end of the millennium, when the Personality of Godhead Lord Narayana lay down within the water of devastation, Brahma began to enter into Him along with all creative elements, and I also entered through His breathing.

TEXT 30

After 4,300,000,000 solar years, when Brahma awoke to create again by the will of the Lord, all the Risis like Marici, Angira, Atri and so on were created from the transcendental body of the Lord, and I also appeared along with them.

TEXT 31

Since then, by the grace of the almighty Vishnu, I travel everywhere without restriction both in the transcendental world and in the three divisions of the material world. This is because I am fixed in unbroken devotional service of the Lord.

TEXT 32

And thus I travel, constantly singing the transcendental message of the glories of the Lord, vibrating this instrument called a veena, which is charged with transcendental sound and which was given to me by Lord Krishna.

TEXT 33

The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna, whose glories and activities are pleasing to hear, at once appears on the seat of my heart, as if called for,as soon as I begin to chant His holy activities.

TEXT 34

It is personally experienced by me that those who are always full of cares and anxieties due to desiring contact of the senses with their objects can cross the ocean of nescience on a most suitable boat—the constant chanting of the transcendental activities of the Personality of Godhead.

TEXT 35

It is true that by practicing restraint of the senses by the yoga system one can get relief from the disturbances of desire and lust, but this is not sufficient to give satisfaction to the soul, for this [satisfaction] is derived from devotional service to the Personality of Godhead.

TEXT 36

O Vyasadeva, you are freed from all sins.Thus I have explained my birth and activities for self-realization, as you asked. All this will be conducive for your personal satisfaction also.

TEXT 37

Sage Suta said: Thus addressing Vyasadeva, Sri Narada Muni took leave of him, and vibrating on his veena instrument, he left to wander at his free will.

TEXT 38

All glory and success to Sri Narada Muni because he glorifies the activities of the Personality of Godhead, and so doing he himself takes pleasure and also enlivens all the distressed souls of the universe.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA !!!

SriKrishnaDasa Rajeev

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