NARADA MUNI

Aum Namo Narayanaya!

NARADA MUNI

Narada is the famous son of Brahma who chants the name of Lord Vishnu

– “Narayana- Narayana”, with every breath. This year 2026 his Jayanti is

celebrated on 2 nd  May. His birthday is celebrated as ‘Patrakar Diwas’, as he

is considered to be the first journalist of the world. He has many devotees

in the world of communications; they revere him as their Guru.

He had the boon to travel to any of the three worlds, defying time and

space, at his own will.

He is a most complex and interesting character who is found in all

the yugas and in all the Puranas and Itihasas. He had a very complex

personality, difficult to understand. Outwardly he comes across as a happy

and playful character, but in reality, he was a very wise and

composed yogi. A legendary figure, this sage was an institution in himself! 

He had actually been assigned the task of executing many miracles on

behalf of Lord Vishnu. He was the master of the 64 Vidyas and had

mastery over the Vedas and is supposed to be the one who instigated the

Ramayana and Bhagavad Purana. In fact, he was a mobile encyclopaedia.

He is known as the Messenger of the Gods. He was the first “patrakar,

reporter and public relations, management expert. His visits, though

seemingly random always had a purpose; he entered each scene, as if by

chance, stringing his lute and chanting the name of the Lord Narayana!

Although famous for appearing at the right moment at the right place, he

was equally famous for never keeping a secret. His habit of gossiping was

the root of many controversies and duels. But everything he did had a

divine purpose which was to bring about the greatness of his Master.

It is interesting to know his precedents.

In a much earlier life, as detailed in the Brahmavaivarta Purana, he was a

Gandharva (celestial singer) named Upabarhana.

 With his beautiful face, attractive body, decorated with flower garlands and

sandalwood, his appearance was very pleasing to the women of the city.

Thus, Upabarhana was enmeshed in lusty desires. Once, there was

a sankirtana festival to glorify the holy names of the Supreme Lord, and the

Gandharvas were invited to take part. Upabarhana joined the festival,

surrounded by women, and began singing sexually oriented songs,

glorifying the demigods. The gods in charge of the affairs of the universe

cursed him for his behavior, saying "Because you have committed an

offense, you will be born as a sudra, as the son of a maidservant and

be denuded of all your beauty."

According to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata Purana, Narada Muni was then born

as the son of a humble maidservant, living in a hermitage where many

sages used to come during the chaturmasya period to stay there and give

discourses to the ordinary people. The boy used to listen avidly to the

discourses and also clean the place after the sages had eaten. He gained

spiritual enlightenment by eating the remnants of their food (prasada) and

hearing their talks. The exact location of his dwelling is said to be a place

called Tholing, near present day Chamoli at a height of 12,200 feet. After

the rains the wandering sages moved on. He was most anxious to

accompany them but could not do so since his mother needed him. One

day she died of snake bite. He took her death as a sign of divine grace,

enabling him to leave behind all material bonds and seek the "Supreme

Absolute Truth". While meditating in the forest, he had a thrilling vision of

the Lord which delighted him so much that he begged the Lord to give it to

him again. He was told that he would never have that vision again in this

life but that he would be given another life of immortality and the ability to

sing the glories of the Lord all the time. This narrative highlights his

transformation from a state of lust and pride as a Gandharva to one of

absolute devotion and renunciation.

There are many incidents in his life which high point the effect he had on

the creation of some of our Puranas and Itihasas.

He is credited as being the one who was responsible for the sage Valmiki

to write the Ramayana.

Valmiki had once been a wretched dacoit and hunter called Ratnakar.

Once it happened that he came across Narada in the forest. It was his

nature to pounce on anyone who dared to go into that forest and rob them

and kill them if necessary. He dropped right in front of Narada and

threatened to kill him if he didn’t give over all his possessions. He was

surprised to see that the sage gave him a smile instead of the usual fearful

look which he used to get. So he asked him, “Aren’t you frightened of me?”

Narada said, “Why should I be afraid of you? What can you do to me?”

Ratnakar said, “I can kill you.”

Narada laughed and said, “You can only kill my body, you cannot kill me!”

Ratnakar was a bit puzzled. He was used to facing only two types of

animals in his life. One type would show fear and flee and the other type

would try to fight. But for the first time he saw something other than fear

and anger in this animal’s eyes. For the first time he saw love. He had

never seen it before – not even in his wife’s eyes.

Then Narada asked him, “Don’t you know that you are committing a lot of

sins by killing and robbing people? You’ll have to pay a price for all this.”

Ratnakar said he was doing it for the sake of his wife and children.

Narada asked him if they would be willing to share part of his karma and

accept the punishment. Ratnakar was sure they would. So Narada asked

him to go home and ask them if they would share a part of his

sinful karmas as they shared his spoils. He promised to stay there till he

returned.

Ratnakar rushed home and asked his wife and children and got the same

reply. She said it was the duty of a husband to look after his wife and the

children said it was the duty of a father to look after his children and

certainly they could not be expected to be punished for his sins!

Ratnakar was shocked and ran back to Narada and begged him to help

him. Narada told him to sit down and meditate on the mantra that he was

going to give him. He gave him the mantra - “Rama” but the poor untutored

hunter could not repeat it. So he told him to repeat the word “mara” which

means “tree” in Sanskrit. This he was able to do since he was always

cutting down trees. He sat down under a tree and started repeating the

word, “mara! mara”, which when repeated fast turns to “Rama! Rama!” Due

to his past samskaras he fell into a deep state of meditation from which he

didn’t wake up till many years later when Narada came back and found him

covered with an anthill. He broke open the anthill and released him and

said, “Awake Oh! Valmiki” The word for anthill in Sanskrit is “valmikam”.

Valmiki said he had no interest in going back to a life which was so

distasteful to him and would prefer to go back to his samadhi state. Narada

told him that there was an important task he had to undertake and that was

to write the story of a man who was a perfect human being.

Valmiki asked him about such a man and Narada gave him the name of

Rama which was the mantra he had been repeating all along.

Narada said, “You have to go and make an ashram near the Ganga. Very

soon you will find that a pregnant woman will come there threatening to

take her own life. You have to stop her and give her shelter in your ashram.

She is carrying the heir to the kingdom of the Ikshvakus. You will be given

divine insight to see the whole life of Rama and will thus be able to compile

a poem which will be the first poem in the world and will bring succour to

millions of people.

Valmiki reluctantly agreed and did as directed. This is how the Ramayana

was written by him.

However, there is another interesting story connecting Narada with the

Ramayana.

The Panchatantra story says that there was a very beautiful princess called

Srimati whose swayamvara (marriage by choice) was attended by all gods

and sages. The sages Narada and Parvata also attended the ceremony

along with all the gods. Both of the them had tried to look like Vishnu

himself. It is said that Vishnu created an illusion by which Narada had a

monkey’s face so she went and placed the wedding garland round Vishnu’s

neck. Totally humiliated Narada is said to have cursed Vishnu that he

would take a human form and suffer separation from his beloved wife and

depend on monkeys to fulfil the divine plan in his incarnation as Rama.

This story doesn’t ring true since we know Narada to be a true devotee of

Vishnu but Indian folklore weaves so many stories about so many things

that make for interesting reading. But it just shows what a great part

Narada played in the Ramayana.

He also had a great part in the making of the Bhagavad Purana. Once it is

said that he found the sage Vyasa – the writer of the Mahabharata and the

eighteen puranas to be in a despondent mood. When asked for the reason

Vyasa admitted that though he had written such a vast amount of literature,

yet he had not found mental peace.

Narada laughed and said, “O Sage! This is because you still have not

written about the greatness of the purnavatara – Sri Krishna. Only if you

write about him will you get peace of mind.

 Vyasa realised the truth of what the sage had said and started writing the

Srimad Bhagavad Purana in which the exploits of Lord Krishna were

described in detail in the 10 th  skanda. It was only after that, that he found

peace of mind.

Another interesting story found in the Bhagavad Purana is the one in which

he gave a mantra to the boy Dhruva. The very first of the royal dynasties

mentioned in the Purana is the dynasty of Swayambhuva Manu, the first

human being, son of Brahma. His son was the king called Uttanapada, who

had two wives, Suneeti and Suruchi. Suneeti means one who follows the

laws of good conduct and Suruchi is one who follows the dictates of the

lower mind. Suneeti was the elder wife and Dhruva was her son. Suruchi’s

son was called Uttaman. The king was totally infatuated by his younger

queen and quite disregarded Suneeti and her son. Once it is said the

Dhruva who was only a child of 5 once entered the royal assembly hall and

saw Uttama seated on his father’s lap. Dhruva also had a wish to sit on his

father’s lap and he went and clambered up. Immediately Suruchi threw him

down and told him that only her son had a right to sit on the king’s lap. The

child was terribly upset when he heard this and ran sobbing to his mother.

She comforted him and told him that only by worshipping the Lord would he

be able to assuage his grief.

Immediately the child marched outside and started to walk towards the

forest in order to do tapas. It was at this time that Narada decided to take a

hand. He stood before him on the path and asked him where he was going.

When Dhruva told him that he was going to the forest to do tapas to God,

Narada told him that he was too small for such a task and advised him to

return home and accept what fate had ordained for him. The child was

adamant and refused to be deterred from his resolution. Then Narada

initiated him into the famous “ashtakshari” (8-digital) mantra of Lord

Narayana – “Aum Namo Naraayanaaya”, which he himself used.

Dhruva went to the forest and did intense tapas, standing on one foot and

fasting without food and water for days until he became almost a skeleton.

At last Lord Narayana appeared before him in all his glory. The child

opened his eyes and was mesmerised by the vision in front of him. He

wanted to extol Him but was unable to do so. So the Lord touched his

cheek with his conch and a flood of words poured from his lips – a paean of

praise for the Lord. He was blessed with all worldly happiness and a place

in the heavens as well.

When the child returned he found that his father had regretted his hasty act

and was on his way to look for him. It is said that he became the king and

ruled for many years. When the time came for him to leave this world, he

was transported in a divine chariot and became the pole star which is

known as “Dhruva”.

Thus you will find that in every story that Narada appears to do some

mischief, it was only to create a situation that brought out the greatness of

his master –Narayana.

Thus he flits from loka to loka, eon after eon, striding over time and space,

strumming his lute and singing the greatness of his Lord – Narayana!

Narayana!

Aum Naradaya vidmahe,

Veena hastaya /dheemahi,

Tanno Narada Prachotayat