Nārada and Sundarī

Yudhishṭhira asked Bhagavān Kṛshṇa what Vishṇu-māyā is. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa answered by telling what Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa himself taught Nārada, not in words but through direct experience. Māyā is the power that enchants all the worlds.

The question and the promise

Nārada Muni once went to Śvetadvīpa to see Śrīman Nārāyaṇa. He found Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in a calm and gracious mood, and he made a bold request: “Mahānubhāva! I have heard of Vishṇu-māyā. I do not know what it is, in what form it exists, or where it stays. Please remove my ignorance and show me that māyā.”

Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa smiled gently and said, “What will you do with it, Nārada? Ask for something else.” But Nārada asked again and again with great earnestness. At last Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa agreed: “Come, then. I will show you my māyā.” He took Nārada by the hand and left Śvetadvīpa.

Nārāyaṇa’s disguise

On the way Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa changed himself into an old brāhmaṇa. He wore the sacred thread, carried a mṛgacarma (deer-skin), a kamaṇḍalu (water-pot) and kuśa grass, and recited the Veda. He took the name Yajñaśarmā. The two came to Jambudvīpa and stopped at the city of Vidiśā on the bank of the river Vetravatī.

There a rich Vaiśya named Sīrabharda welcomed the two brāhmaṇas with great kindness. He was a devotee of Kṛshṇa, rich in cattle and grain, and he often arranged vrata events. He washed their feet, seated them with honour and gave them the best food. Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa ate as a guest. Then, at the right moment, he began the next stage of the teaching of māyā.

Nārada becomes Sundarī

Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa sent Nārada to a sacred lake nearby and told him to bathe. The moment Nārada stepped into the water, he came out as a very beautiful young woman. She was bewildered and had no memory of having been Nārada. She wandered along the road.

A king of that region, named Tāladhvaja, saw her and fell in love. After the proper formalities he made her his queen. She was given the name Sundarī.

Sundarī settled fully into the life of a queen. She gave birth to sons and daughters. The years passed. Her children grew up and married, and grandchildren were born. She became wholly wrapped up in family, kingdom and belonging. This was the world of māyā.

The great flood

Then disaster came. A great flood swallowed the kingdom. One after another Sundarī saw her husband, her sons, her daughters and her grandchildren die. The faces she loved most in the world were swept away. She was left standing on a mound of earth in the ruined land, quite alone and in deep grief.

At that moment the old brāhmaṇa Yajñaśarmā appeared beside her. She did not know him. In her grief she cried out: “Who am I? How did I come to be in this place? Who were all these people? What happened?”

The old brāhmaṇa smiled and said, “Daughter, do you know me?”

In that instant all the māyā melted away. Sundarī’s form fell off. Nārada stood there again in his own form, just as he had been, and he was completely bewildered. Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, who had been the old brāhmaṇa all along, took his shining divine form again and stood before the shaken Nārada.

The teaching

Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa spoke to Nārada with kind authority: “Now you have seen my māyā. This whole world, with husband, wife, children, kingdom, grief and joy, is exactly like this. No one has a real bond with anyone else. The one who lives in the body is different from the body, from the world and from all relationships. The Paramātman alone is real. What you lived through as Sundarī is no different in kind from what every jīva (living being) lives through in every birth. All of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) is this māyā.”

Nārada was deeply shaken and humbled. The teaching of Vishṇu-māyā had now become knowledge he had lived, and not only an idea.

Śrī Kṛshṇa told Yudhishṭhira that this is how the māyā of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa works. It is not a doctrine. It is a living power that can turn even a devarshi (a ṛshi among the devas) into a householder who does not know himself. The only way past it is vijñāna, wisdom that discerns, together with unshaken devotion to Nārāyaṇa.

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, chapter 3