Nārada
There are several men named N€rada which appear at different times in Hindu literature, the first of whom is identified as a Rishi and author of ¬g Vedas 8.13, 9.104, and 9.105; the second of whom appears in the Ch€ndogya Upaniad (7.2) as a knower of the Vedas but not of the Self and who is instructed in the latter by Sanatkum€ra; the third of whom is identified in the Mah€bh€rata and ViŠu Pur€Ša as a Devai, often associated with the Rishi Parvata, and who is supposed to be a messenger between gods and men; the fourth of whom is referred to as a logician or dialectician and appears in the epic poem Mah€bh€rata where he is taught devotional religion by ®r… Krishna (he is mentioned in the Bhagavad- G…t€ and appears also in the Anug…t€ as a teacher); the fifth of whom is said in Manu’s Dharma Sastra (1.35) as well as the Matsya Pur€Šas to be a son of Brahm€ and is listed among the 10 Praj€patis; the sixth of whom is the legendary teacher of V€lm…ki, reputed author of the epic poem R€m€yaŠa and whom it is said N€rada converted from an ignorant highway robber into a literate devotee of R€ma; and the seventh of whom is the author of the Bhakti S™tra. There were also several other authors named N€rada and in the Bh€gavata Pur€Ša it is the name of a mountain as well (as is Parvata). There is even a minor Upaniad named N€rada. So it is a rather common name.
In two extended discussions of N€rada in The Secret Doctrine, Helena P. Blavatsky says, “What Narada really is, cannot be explained in print; nor would the modern generations of the profane gather much from the information” (SD II:48), but hints that the N€rada which appears as son of Brahm€ is “the Deva-Rishi of Occultism par excellence” (SD II:83), is, in fact, “a true M€nasaputra” and “the mysterious guiding intelligent power, which gives the impulse to, and regulates the impetus of cycles, Kalpas and universal events” (SD II:48). In exoteric works, she points out, he is given some rather uncomplimentary names, such as “Strife-maker,” “Monkey-faced,” or “spy” because he refuses Brahm€’s order to procreate. For this, he loses his divine status and is born as a man (SD II:82). But he is also “the great teacher of astronomy” and “is credited with having calculated and recorded all the astronomical and cosmic cycles to come” (SD II:49). She further says that “the Occultist who does not ponder, analyse, and study Narada from his seven esoteric facets, will never be able to fathom certain anthropological, chronological, and even Cosmic Mysteries” (SD II:83). She also suggests that he is a kind of prototype of Satan, since he is, in her words, “The first ‘Adversary’ in individual human form that one meets with in old Pur€nic literature” but is, in fact, “the anthropomorphised Demiurge, the Creator of Heaven and Earth . . . ” (SD I:413). Clearly she must be referring to the fifth person listed above, but it is possible that some of the first five are actually the same mythological figure since, HPB says, he “is found reborn in every cycle (or race)” (SD II:323) because he was “cursed by Brahm€ to incessant peripateticism on Earth, i.e., to be constantly reborn” (SD II:585).
The N€rada who appears in the Mah€bh€rata (the third listed above) travels to the land of ®vetadvipa (i.e., “White Island”) where the inhabitants are all monotheists (ek€ntins). It is there that ®r… Krishna instructs him in the Bh€gavata or devotional theistic religion. But the Ch€ndogya Upaniad also mentions a N€rada who is a monotheist, so the source of the two stories may be the same. In the Mah€bh€rata N€rada is credited with inventing the v…Ša (a stringed instrument) so he is now considered a sort of patron of music and is called in poetry a Gandharva or even a Gandharva-r€ja (i.e., celestial musician-king). The Gandharvas are a class of devas associated in Hindu mythology with a wide variety of things, among which are the Vedic soma, gambling, astrology, and music.
It is said in the Pañcar€tra literature that N€rada — probably referring to the teacher of V€lm…ki — was taught directly by ViŠu. Of the N€rada who is the author of the Bhakti S™tra, little is known except that he was the teacher of Nimb€rka, after whom a school of devotional philosophy is named and who probably lived during the last quarter of the 14th and/or first part of the 15th centuries. His teacher is said to have been someone named Kum€ra. The work commends the path of devotion (bhakti) as the most appropriate means of self-realization. A rather loose translation of it was published in 1975 by I. K. TAIMNI who also did translations of a number of other Sanskrit works, including Patañjali’s Yoga S™tras.
© Copyright by the Theosophical Publishing House, Manila
