Brahmā Teaches Nārada

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells how its own teaching came down from Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa to Brahmā, from Brahmā to Nārada, and from Nārada to Vyāsa. This is the line of teachers (guru-paramparā) of the Bhāgavata. It is told in the second skanda, Chapter 9.

Nārada’s service to Brahmā

Among the many sons of Brahmā, Nārada had a special place. He was Brahmā’s most loved and most obedient child. Nārada was already a great ṛshi in his own right. Even so, he came to Brahmā with three qualities that make a person fit to receive the highest knowledge: saccīlam (pure character), vinayam (humility) and indriya-nigraha (control of the senses). He served his father with steady devotion. He did it from real love, not from duty alone.

Brahmā saw his son’s maturity and sincere wish to learn. Nārada asked to understand the māyā of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. Māyā is the power by which the One appears as many, and by which living beings (jīvas) stay bound. Brahmā saw that this is the first and basic question, and he was pleased.

The giving of the Bhāgavata

Brahmā himself had first received the essential teaching of the Bhāgavata from Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in Vaikuṇṭha, and then he had finished the work of creation. Now he gave this teaching to Nārada in the form of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, with its ten marks (daśa lakshaṇāni):

  1. Sarga (first creation)
  2. Visarga (second creation)
  3. Sthāna (keeping the world in being)
  4. Poshaṇa (grace to devotees)
  5. Ūtayaḥ (the cycles of karma and the impressions it leaves, vāsanā)
  6. Manvantara (the great cycles of time)
  7. Īśānukathā (accounts of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa and his devotees)
  8. Nirodha (the dissolving of the world)
  9. Mukti (liberation)
  10. Āśraya (the supreme Parabrahman, the support of all)

Brahmā told Nārada that the first nine marks are the frame. The tenth, āśraya, is the aim to which all the others lead. To study the Bhāgavata in the right spirit is itself the way to know the āśraya.

Nārada teaches Vyāsa

Nārada carried the wisdom of the Bhāgavata from Brahmā as a living knowing, not only as a text learned by heart. In time he came to the āśrama of Veda Vyāsa on the bank of the river Sarasvatī. Vyāsa was in meditation on the Parabrahman. Nārada appeared and gave him the Bhāgavata there.

Vyāsa already had his vast body of scriptural work. With this teaching added, he was able to compose the Bhāgavata in its written form of eighteen thousand verses.

Sūta tells the assembly at Naimiśāraṇya: “Let the wise person who wants to understand this Bhāgavata know that its source is Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa himself. It came down by this exact line: Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, Brahmā, Nārada, Vyāsa. This is the paramparā of the most sacred of all the Purāṇas.”

The unbroken line

The Bhāgavata names the line from its first teacher to the world:

  • Brahmā received the teaching from Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in the first kalpa (the first age of creation).
  • Nārada received it from Brahmā.
  • Vyāsa received it from Nārada.
  • Śuka received it from Vyāsa.
  • Parīkshit received it from Śuka.
  • The world received it from the great seven-day recitation to Parīkshit.

Nārada had already come to Vyāsa in the first skanda and urged him to compose the Bhāgavata. He was able to see what was missing in Vyāsa’s work because he himself had received the Bhāgavata from Brahmā and knew what a text about Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa should hold.

Even Brahmā, the first creator and father of the universe, did not claim to have made the Bhāgavata. He received it from Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. Every listener who hears the Bhāgavata with bhakti (loving devotion) enters this living line.

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 2nd Skanda, Chapter 9