Upabarhaṇa
Upabarhaṇa was a king of the gandharvas. The Purāṇas teach that he was an earlier birth of the divine ṛshi Nārada. His life is the central account of the Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa. The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa also gives Nārada’s own account of this birth, under the name Upabharhaṇa.
Earlier life: the gandharva king
Chapter 12 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa tells how Upabarhaṇa began. A king of the gandharvas did hard tapas (austerity) at Pushkara for one hundred divine years. Bhagavān Śiva was pleased, appeared before him and offered a vara (a boon). The gandharva king asked for two things: Hari-bhakti (devotion to Bhagavān Vishṇu) and a Vaishṇava son. Bhagavān Śiva gave both. By these varas the king was born as Upabarhaṇa. The ṛshi Vasishṭha gave him this name.
Life as Upabarhaṇa
Upabarhaṇa lived for three lakh (300,000) divine years. He kept fifty gandharva wives, who surrounded him in constant pleasure and devotion. His wife Mālavatī, the eldest daughter of Citraratha, king of the gandharvas, was his most devoted wife.
Death in Brahmasabhā
Chapter 13 tells how Upabarhaṇa died. He went into Brahmasabhā, the divine assembly of Brahmā, and was insulted there. He could not bear the insult to his dignity. He chose to leave his body through yoga (yoga-tyāga), a controlled and willing withdrawal of his prāṇas (life breaths) from the body. He died there in Brahmasabhā.
The grief of Mālavatī
When Mālavatī heard of his death, she ran to Brahmasabhā and wept in deep grief. Her lament was so strong that she threatened to give a śāpa (a curse) to all the devas who had allowed or caused this. Then she fainted. The devas could not face her anger. They fled to Kshīrasāgara, the ocean of milk, to ask Bhagavān Vishṇu for help.
Upabarhaṇa is Nārada
In Chapter 14, Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared before Mālavatī in the form of a brāhmaṇa boy. He began a talk on karma-phala (the fruit of action). Brahmā, Bhagavān Śiva and all the devas had gathered at this assembly. Brahmā then told the truth: Upabarhaṇa was Nārada, born under Brahmā’s śāpa. Upabarhaṇa still had 1,000 divine years left before the full term of the śāpa would end. This news changed Mālavatī’s grief and the mood of the whole gathering.
The revival
The text then gives long teachings on Āyurveda (Chapters 15–16), on Kāla and Mṛtyu (Chapters 15–16) and the Mahāpurusha stotra (Chapters 17–18). After these, the devas together revived Upabarhaṇa’s body.
- Brahmā sprinkled water from his kamaṇḍalu (water pot).
- Bhagavān Śiva gave jñāna (knowledge).
- Dharma gave dharma-jñāna (knowledge of dharma).
- The brāhmaṇa, who was Bhagavān Vishṇu, gave the prāṇas.
- Bhagavān Sūrya gave sight.
- Devī Sarasvatī gave speech.
- Devī Lakshmī gave kānti (radiance).
Mālavatī’s recitation of the Mahāpurusha stotra completed the revival.
Final birth and liberation
In Chapter 20, when Upabarhaṇa’s remaining puṇya (merit) was fully spent, Brahmā’s śāpa made him leave the gandharva world. He was born again in the human world through a wonderful event connected with Kaśyapa muni and Kālavatī, a śūdra woman. In this life he grew up and received the Kṛshṇa mantra from Sanatkumāra. He did tapas for 1,000 divine years and had darśana (sight) of the child Kṛshṇa. He gave up his body while remembering Bhagavān Kṛshṇa (Kṛshṇa-smaraṇa) and reached Goloka. This completed the whole cycle, from Nārada’s gandharva birth, through Upabarhaṇa, back to Nārada’s divine state.
The Bhāgavata account: Nārada’s own words
In the Seventh Skandha of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 15, Nārada Maharshi himself tells Yudhishṭhira about his earlier birth as a gandharva named Upabharhaṇa. He speaks of it as part of his teaching on right conduct (sadācāra). Upabharhaṇa is a variant spelling of Upabarhaṇa.
His nature. He was the first among the gandharvas. He had beauty (rūpa), a delicate form (saukumārya), sweet speech (madhura-bhāshaṇa) and a fragrant presence. He was very dear to women. At all times he was far too attached to the pleasures of the senses (bhogāsakti) and full of pride (garva).
The occasion of the śāpa. The Prajāpatis once invited the gaṇas (hosts) of gandharvas and apsarases to come and sing the gāthās (accounts) of Śrī Hari at a satra-yāga (long sacrifice) of the devas. When Upabharhaṇa heard of this, he went there. But he came singing vilāsa-gītāni (worldly, love songs) with women around him. He showed no respect for the manners a sacred rite requires in the presence of the pūjā of Śrī Hari.
The śāpa of the Prajāpatis. The Prajāpatis saw this disrespect (avaheḷana) and in anger laid a śāpa on him: “You who have done this wrong, lose all your wealth at once and become a śūdra.”
The result. He was at once born as the son of a dāsī (a woman servant).
Redemption. Even in that humble birth, he served the brahmavettās (knowers of Brahman), the mahātmas and sādhus. By the power of that sevā (service), in his next birth he was born as the son of Brahmā himself, as Nārada.
Nārada gives this account to show that sevā of mahātmas can lift a being from the lowest birth to the highest in a single birth. It also shows the other side of the lesson: the pride and indulgence of the senses that caused his fall in the gandharva birth.
Sources
- Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 12–20
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Seventh Skandha, Chapter 15