Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Verses Spoken by Nārada Muni - Canto 05 and Canto 06

This article presents a thematic survey of the prayers offered to Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, the allegorical instructions given to the sons of Dakṣa, and the philosophical deliverance of King Citraketu and his dead son spoken by Nārada Muni in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 05 and Canto 06. It organizes the quotes found in the Vaniquotes category Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Verses Spoken by Nārada Muni.

Nārada Muni acts as the great spiritual instigator of the Bhāgavatam. His profound instructions, whether guiding Vyāsadeva to write the epic, counseling a grieving king, or questioning the creator of the universe, uniformly point to the singular goal of human life: pure devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Nārada Muni is the 4th top speaker of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with 834 verses at Vanisource. He does not speak in the 3rd, 9th, and 12th cantos. He speaks in the 1st (83 verses), 2nd (8 verses), 4th (259 verses), 5th (5 verses), 6th (17 verses), 7th (384 verses), 8th (1 verse), 10th (51 verses), and 11th canto (26 verses).

Prayers to Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi

In the Fifth Canto, Nārada Muni is described offering his respectful obeisances and profound prayers to the Supreme Lord in His incarnation as Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi.

The Perfection of Detachment

Nārada Muni praises the Lord as the master of all mystics and emphasizes that the ultimate goal of all yoga is detached surrender at His lotus feet.

"Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Nara-Nārāyaṇa, the best of all saintly persons, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the most self-controlled and self-realized, He is free from false prestige, and He is the asset of persons who have no material possessions. He is the spiritual master of all paramahaṁsas, who are the most exalted human beings, and He is the master of the self-realized. Let me offer my repeated obeisances at His lotus feet."
"Nārada, the most powerful saintly sage, also worships Nara-Nārāyaṇa by chanting the following mantra: The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the master of the creation, maintenance and annihilation of this visible cosmic manifestation, yet He is completely free from false prestige. Although to the foolish He appears to have accepted a material body like us, He is unaffected by bodily tribulations like hunger, thirst and fatigue. Although He is the witness who sees everything, His senses are unpolluted by the objects He sees. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that unattached, pure witness of the world, the Supreme Soul, the Personality of Godhead."
"O my Lord, master of all mystic yoga, this is the explanation of the yogic process spoken of by Lord Brahmā (Hiraṇyagarbha), who is self-realized. At the time of death, all yogīs give up the material body with full detachment simply by placing their minds at Your lotus feet. That is the perfection of yoga."

The Power of Bhakti-yoga

Nārada Muni requests the Lord's mercy to overcome the deep-rooted bodily concept of life, asserting that scriptural study is useless without detachment.

"Materialists are generally very attached to their present bodily comforts and to the bodily comforts they expect in the future. Therefore they are always absorbed in thoughts of their wives, children and wealth and are afraid of giving up their bodies, which are full of stool and urine. If a person engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however, is also afraid of giving up his body, what is the use of his having labored to study the śāstras? It was simply a waste of time."
"Therefore, O Lord, O Transcendence, kindly help us by giving us the power to execute bhakti-yoga so that we can control our restless minds and fix them upon You. We are all infected by Your illusory energy; therefore we are very attached to the body, which is full of stool and urine, and to anything related with the body. Except for devotional service, there is no way to give up this attachment. Therefore kindly bestow upon us this benediction."

Instructing the Sons of Dakṣa

In the Sixth Canto, Nārada Muni intercepts the thousands of sons begotten by Dakṣa who were ordered to populate the universe, convincing them instead to pursue liberation.

The Allegory for the Haryaśvas

Nārada Muni presents a highly cryptic cosmic allegory to the Haryaśvas, challenging them to understand the true nature of the material world before trying to populate it.

"The great sage Nārada said: My dear Haryaśvas, you have not seen the extremities of the earth. There is a kingdom where only one man lives and where there is a hole from which, having entered, no one emerges. A woman there who is extremely unchaste adorns herself with various attractive dresses, and the man who lives there is her husband. In that kingdom, there is a river flowing in both directions, a wonderful home made of twenty-five materials, a swan that vibrates various sounds, and an automatically revolving object made of sharp razors and thunderbolts. You have not seen all this, and therefore you are inexperienced boys without advanced knowledge. How, then, will you create progeny?"
"Alas, your father is omniscient, but you do not know his actual order. Without knowing the actual purpose of your father, how will you create progeny?"

Guiding the Savalāśvas

After the Haryaśvas renounce the world, Dakṣa begets another group of sons, the Savalāśvas, but Nārada Muni successfully instructs them to follow the exact same path.

"O sons of Dakṣa, please hear my words of instruction attentively. You are all very affectionate to your elder brothers, the Haryaśvas. Therefore you should follow their path."
"A brother aware of the principles of religion follows in the footsteps of his elder brothers. Because of being highly elevated, such a pious brother gets the opportunity to associate and enjoy with demigods like the Maruts, who are all affectionate to their brothers."

Consoling King Citraketu

Following the tragic poisoning of King Citraketu's infant son, Nārada Muni arrives alongside Aṅgirā Ṛṣi to cut the King's attachment with heavy philosophical truth.

The Temporary Nature of Relationships

Nārada Muni explains the fleeting and illusory nature of familial bonds, comparing them to the random shifting of sand on a beach.

"O King, what relationship does the dead body for which you lament have with you, and what relationship do you have with him? You may say that you are now related as father and son, but do you think this relationship existed before? Does it truly exist now? Will it continue in the future?"
"O King, as small particles of sand sometimes come together and are sometimes separated due to the force of the waves, the living entities who have accepted material bodies sometimes come together and are sometimes separated by the force of time."
"When seeds are sown in the ground, they sometimes grow into plants and sometimes do not. Sometimes the ground is not fertile, and the sowing of seeds is unproductive. Similarly, sometimes a prospective father, being impelled by the potency of the Supreme Lord, can beget a child, but sometimes conception does not take place. Therefore one should not lament over the artificial relationship of parenthood, which is ultimately controlled by the Supreme Lord."

The Supreme Controller

Nārada Muni clarifies that everyone within the cosmos is in a temporary situation orchestrated solely by the Supreme Lord's illusory energy.

"O King, both you and we—your advisers, wives and ministers—as well as everything moving and not moving throughout the entire cosmos at this time, are in a temporary situation. Before our birth this situation did not exist, and after our death it will exist no longer. Therefore our situation now is temporary, although it is not false."
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master and proprietor of everything, is certainly not interested in the temporary cosmic manifestation. Nonetheless, just as a boy at the beach creates something in which he is not interested, the Lord, keeping everything under His control, causes creation, maintenance and annihilation. He creates by engaging a father to beget a son, He maintains by engaging a government or king to see to the public's welfare, and He annihilates through agents for killing, such as snakes. The agents for creation, maintenance and annihilation have no independent potency, but because of the spell of the illusory energy, one thinks himself the creator, maintainer and annihilator."

The Ultimate Deliverance

To permanently cure the King's grief, Nārada Muni provides spiritual initiation and then performs a miraculous feat to prove the soul's independence from the body.

The Illusion of the Body and the Mantra

Nārada Muni explains the mechanics of physical birth and imparts a powerful mantra for the King to achieve direct realization of the Lord.

"As from one seed another seed is generated, O King, so from one body (the body of the father), through another body (the body of the mother), a third body is generated (the body of a son). As the elements of the material body are eternal, the living entity who appears through these material elements is also eternal."
"Divisions of generalization and specification, such as nationality and individuality, are the imaginations of persons who are not advanced in knowledge."
"The great sage Nārada continued: My dear King, attentively receive from me a mantra, which is most auspicious. After accepting it from me, in seven nights you will be able to see the Lord face to face."
"My dear King, in former days Lord Śiva and other demigods took shelter of the lotus feet of Saṅkarṣaṇa. Thus they immediately got free from the illusion of duality and achieved unequaled and unsurpassed glories in spiritual life. You will very soon attain that very same position."

Summoning the Dead Son

Nārada Muni commands the soul of the dead infant to reenter its body and speak to the grieving parents, thereby destroying their illusion entirely.

"Śrī Nārada Muni said: O living entity, all good fortune unto you. Just see your father and mother. All your friends and relatives are overwhelmed with grief because of your passing away."
"Because you died untimely, the balance of your lifetime still remains. Therefore you may reenter your body and enjoy the remainder of your life, surrounded by your friends and relatives. Accept the royal throne and all the opulences given by your father."

Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani

This article is a thematic compilation of the teachings presented in the Vaniquotes category Bhagavatam Verses Spoken by Narada Muni. We invite you to visit the link to read the complete collection of verses presented in alphabetical order.