Srimad Bhagavatham

Narada wanted to observe the Lord because a seeker of the truth will always want to see as to how the non-dual reality of Lord is acting through the various bodies of the world. Thus one day Narada reached Dwaraka. After reaching Dwaraka, the devarshi (sanyaasi and a deva) entered into one of the palace occupied by Krishna’s wives (one wife’s palace). Narada saw the beautiful scene of Krishna being served by his wife and many other daasis – Krishna was lying in his cot.

When Krishna saw Narada, immediately he jumped out of his bed and bowed the head in reverence (prostration) which had the crown. The Lord then seated Narada in his own bed. The Lord washed Narada’s feet and that sprinkled the teertha jala on his head. Narada was then worshipped as mentioned in the scriptures by the Lord.

Explanation

Generally we find name, fame, money etc. getting into the heads of people. Many a person who started off as a below average person (for eg: farmer) gets some fame and thereby forgets as to who he was earlier. This fame results in a high Ego sense – this in turn results in greed, pride etc.

The same applies for people who learn the scriptures. Knowledge is something which can easily go into the head of people. After learning a few scriptures, a seeker might get deluded into thinking that “I know a lot” thereby losing all the humility, devotion and surrender towards Ishwara who abides in the heart of all beings. We can find such people not mingling a lot with people and if they do have to mingle, they choose their own circle (people with equivalent knowledge). They will not even look at the face of poor people.

As of today this attitude isn’t just limited to people but has been extended to temples, organizations etc. where also the distinction on the basis of name, fame and money are there. A true seeker will never get the sense of Ego as he always remembers that the entire world filled with duality is just an illusion of names and forms in the non-dual reality of Lord. If everything is the Lord then how can there be any distinction whatsoever?

Thus a true seeker or true knower of the Lord will never have any sense of Ego. Such a person will respect the various rules or norms set in the scriptures (not because he is bound by them but because he is a role model for other people to follow). We find the Lord here showing true knowledge by his humility.

There is an age old subhaashitham that says that one who has vidya (knowledge) will have vinayam (humility). The Lord also speaks about a brahmana (in the 5th chapter of Gita) as endowed with knowledge and humility (vidya vinaya sampanne brahmane). We all have a lot to learn from the humility displayed by really learned people who are not at all egoistic but attribute all of the knowledge to the ultimate reality of Lord. Moreover unlike egoistic people, these Mahatmas are ever approachable and irrespective of whether stupid or intelligent questions are put to them, they willingly answer it with all earnestness and passion.

We find the Lord who is one of the perfect role model figures in the scriptures demonstrating extreme humility by showing his respect to Narada even when he was being taken care of by his wife and other daasis.

It is important to remember the true values of spirituality while living in the world. The true values of spirituality are love, vision of oneness and trying to remember the ultimate reality of Lord as pervading the entire world. These values will help a seeker progress quickly in the spiritual path towards the goal of eternal bliss (wherein one doesn’t face sorrow, even the least).

Let us all try to imbibe the true value of spirituality in seeing everyone and everything as the ultimate reality of Lord so that we can get rid of sorrow once and for all thereby ever rejoice in bliss.

After enquiring welfare, Krishna asked with humility as to what he could do for Narada.

Narada replied:

O Lord! All these activities of yours aren’t strange at all. You love everyone. You even give immortality to bad person which demonstrates your love for such people. In order to preserve and protect this world, you yourself decide and take various avataras (descents). The ultimate goal is to give moksha to the entire world – moksha which is completely cessation of sorrow.

Explanation

Here we find Narada saying that the actions of the Lord are not strange as the Lord loves everyone. Loving everyone is only possible if everything is seen as oneself – as long as a person sees duality, there will be likes and dislikes (thereby love for everyone cannot ensue). The Lord is an embodiment of love and knowledge – the Lord always is immersed in knowledge that this entire world is in essence the Lord alone (the differences are with respect to names and forms of those objects). Names and forms don’t create a new entity but they just make it appear as if there is a new entity – only fools and ignorant people will get deluded into thinking that names and forms are real. Wise people will know and keep in mind always that duality as names & forms are just illusions – in essence everything is Ishwara alone.

When a person sees Ishwara everywhere, such a person loves everything. When a person loves everything, then only sweet and good actions are possible from such a person. It is this goodness and sweetness that we see in the Lord’s actions towards Narada.

Here there can be an objection that if the Lord loves everyone then why did he kill bad people like Kamsa and others? This is answered by Narada beautifully that it is love for even bad people that makes the Lord kill them. In fact Lord is killing them from their bad qualities and thereby immortalizing them.

Kamsa was one of the two door-keepers of Vaikunta (resting place of Vishnu) – their names were Jaya and Vijaya. Once when the four sanaka sages arrived to visit Vishnu, these door-keepers who were instructed by Vishnu not to let anyone in stopped the sages. The sages got angry and cursed that Jaya and Vijaya will have to be born as humans. But immediately Vishnu came out and upon accepting the apology of Jaya-Vijaya, the sages gave two options to them – the first was that they will have to take many births as good people on Earth and the second was that they will have to take three births as bad people (people going against Ishwara). Jaya and Vijaya happily accepted the second one.

We can see in Kamsa’s life itself as to how strong the devotion is towards Ishwara – such kind of devotion wherein the devotee is devoted through the emotion of anger is called vidvesha bhakthi (devotion through anger or hatred). It is this bhakthi that made these asuras always think about Ishwara and Ishwara happily got rid of their sorrows.

Ishwara is therefore impartial and loves everyone. The ultimate goal of life which is also the goal of Ishwara is to eradicate sorrow completely (eradication of sorrow shouldn’t be mistaken as eradication of poverty, terrorism among other things – sorrow is due to lack of knowledge that this entire world is just a long drama – in this drama one person might kill millions and millions might die out of poverty). This also doesn’t mean that we can ignore poverty and terrorism – we have to play our role to eradicate all of these. But eradication of poverty and terrorism will not remove sorrow completely – it will only lead us to some other problem. Few years back, problem was in the form of AIDS – then it shifted to terrorism – later it became natural calamities like Tsunami, Hurricanes (Katrina, Ike etc.) – now it is in the form of economic crisis (global economy going down day by day). All these problems will remain – we cannot remove any of these as all of these are not real (that which doesn’t really exist cannot be removed). What we can do is get rid of sorrow by always remembering that the entire world is filled in and out by Ishwara. Complete cessation of sorrow is moksha in the form of eternal bliss that we have and are seeking each and every minute of our lives – it is possible only through constant contemplation of the ultimate reality of Lord as pervading the illusion of names and forms in the world.

We will continue with the story in the next day as to what Narada asks of the Lord.

Let us try to have vision of oneness wherein we see everything as the non-dual reality of Lord so that we are able to fulfill our lives by complete cessation of sorrow and rejoicing in bliss.