Entering the Universe Through Brahma's Breath #
Narada tells Vyasadeva that after his single death as the maidservant's son, his devotion carried him somewhere unusual. At the end of that millennium, when Lord Narayana lay down in the water of universal devastation, Brahma began to merge into the Lord along with every element of creation. Narada merged along with him, entering, in his own words, through the Lord's breathing. For 4,300,000,000 solar years he remained in that dissolved state. When Brahma awoke to create the universe again, the Lord's transcendental body generated the great rishis, among them Marichi, Angira, and Atri. Narada appeared among them as one more of Brahma's mind-born sons.
This is why Vyasadeva, throughout their conversation, addresses him simply as "son of Brahma." It is also why Lord Brahma is remembered in this tradition as both Narada's father and his first instructing authority in the present creation. Even so, as Narada's own account makes clear, the devotion he carried into that birth had already been earned across an entire previous age, in the life described here.
A Devotee Given Permission to Travel Anywhere #
Narada's position is genuinely unusual, even among liberated souls, because of what he says happened next. From that point on, by the grace of Lord Vishnu, he has travelled without restriction through both the material universe and the spiritual sky, unbound by the three modes of nature that limit every other embodied being. Srila Prabhupada's purport describes the scale of what that actually means. Vedic cosmology divides the material spheres into three regions: the topmost planetary systems, the middle systems, and the lower ones. Beyond even the topmost of these, above Brahmaloka itself, lies the covering of the universe, and beyond that again an unlimited spiritual sky filled with self-illuminated Vaikuntha planets. An ordinary rishi, however advanced, cannot cross from the material universe into that spiritual sky. Narada can, and does, freely, exactly as he tells Vyasadeva himself: "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" (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.6.31). That is why Prabhupada calls him, in effect, a liberated being free to roam anywhere at all. His purport to this same verse cites the Narasimha Purana's statement that sages like Marichi are authorities within fruitive ritual, and sages like Sanaka and Sanatana within philosophical speculation, but that Narada alone is the prime authority for bhakti, devotional service itself. Every serious devotee in the material world follows, directly or indirectly, in the line his own Narada-bhakti-sutra lays down.
The Vina Named for Its Giver #
Narada's other constant companion is his vina, and Srimad-Bhagavatam is specific about where it came from: he says the instrument was given to him by Lord Krishna himself. Srila Prabhupada's purport cites the Linga Purana and Srila Jiva Gosvami on this point: because the vina came directly from Krishna, it belongs to the same transcendental category as Krishna and Narada both. This means the sound it produces is never ordinary material vibration. Every step Narada takes, he plays it, and every note carries the same glorification of the Lord that fills his conversation. Traditional Vaishnava art depicts him constantly this way: walking, vina slung over one shoulder, chanting as he goes.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself, as recorded in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, names Narada among a short list of shaktyavesha-avataras, souls specially empowered by the Lord with a particular opulence. He explains to Sanatana Gosvami that the Lord invested the specific power of devotional service in Narada, exactly as He invested the power to create in Brahma, and the power to support every planet in Ananta Shesha. Vaishnava teachers say this same empowerment let a boy who once served sages for four rainy months become the guru of some of the greatest devotees in Vedic history. That story is the subject of the pages that follow.
