Brahmā’s Curse on Nārada

The Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, in its Brahma Khaṇḍa, tells of a śāpa (a curse) that Brahmā spoke on Nārada. Because of it, Nārada went through a set of births. He was born as Upabarhana among the Gandharvas, and later he was born as a human child of Kālavatī. When the term of the curse ended, Nārada was restored to his highest place and reached Goloka.

How the curse was made known

The Brahma Khaṇḍa makes this known step by step. First the death of Upabarhana is shown as a single event. Then the brāhmaṇa who is Vishṇu shows that Upabarhana is really Nārada born again. Last, the full working of the curse and its term are explained.

Brahmā’s command to marry

In Chapters 22 to 24 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa, Brahmā speaks of his sons and their qualities: Nārada, Marīci, Daksha, Kardama and others. Then he told Nārada to marry. Nārada refused. His argument was wide and deep:

  • Saṃsāra (worldly life) is duḥkha (suffering).
  • Women are of three kinds: sādhvī, bhogyā and kulaṭā. Even the best of them create bondage.
  • Women have eight times more kāma (desire) than men, four times more nishṭhura (hardness) and six times more krodha (anger).
  • The householder’s life, even for a vaishṇava, is a trap.

Brahmā wept at this refusal. Then he said to Nārada, “Go first to Śiva, receive the Kṛshṇa mantra from him, and then come back and marry Ratnamālā.” He asked Nārada to promise that he would first go to Bādarī and then return to marry.

The nature of the curse

In Chapter 14, Brahmā tells the gathered devas that the whole Upabarhana episode was the working out of a curse he had once spoken on Nārada. The text gives these points:

  • Nārada had one thousand divine years left under this curse while he lived as Upabarhana.
  • The curse made Nārada pass through births in lower realms before he was restored to his full divine place.
  • The death of Upabarhana in Brahmā’s assembly was part of the course of the curse that had been set.

The human birth, the last stage of the curse

In Chapter 20, the puṇya (merit) of Upabarhana was fully used up. The last stage of the curse then took place. Nārada’s ātmā (soul) was born in the human world as the son of Kālavatī, a śūdra woman, through a wonderful event involving Kaśyapa muni.

The human child grew up. He received the Kṛshṇa mantra from Sanatkumāra, a mantra of 22 aksharas (syllables):

Oṃ śrīṃ namaḥ bhagavate rāsamaṇḍaleśvarāya śrīkṛshṇāya svāhā

It means: Oṃ śrīṃ, I bow to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa, the master of the rāsa-maṇḍala, svāhā.

The child did tapas for one thousand divine years without food. He had a partial darśana (sight) of the child Kṛshṇa. A voice from the sky, the ākāśavāṇī, told him that the full darśana would come only when he had a divine body. The child then gave up his body while remembering Kṛshṇa (Kṛshṇa-smaraṇa) and reached Goloka. With this the term of the curse was complete, and Nārada was restored to his highest place.

As Upabarhana, Nārada had fifty wives, and he passed through grief, death and revival. These were the experiences of the stages of the curse before the last, austere human birth.

Sources

  • Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 14, 20 and 22–24