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A cave in the Himalaya, very holy, with the Ganga flowing close by it. There Narada’s mind, pure by nature, settled into samadhi, and Indra, seeing the sage’s state, grew afraid for his city and sent Kama. What Kama does there fails, and the sage lets him go without a word of anger. The trouble of this episode begins after that, in the mind of the one who won. He had beaten Kama, and he began to think so.
Shiva is telling this to Parvati. At the end of the last episode she asked him for what reason Brahman took a human body. He opens his answer by saying that the cause of a descent cannot be stated as just this. Then he gives causes, one birth at a time, each in one kalpa, an age of the world. The Lord’s two doorkeepers, cursed by a brahmin into the bodies of asuras, a curse that held for three births. The asura Jalandhara, whose wife’s chastity kept him from dying until the Lord broke her vow by a trick. (She cursed the Lord when she learned it, and he accepted the curse.) And a curse of Narada’s. The third astonishes Parvati, since Narada is Vishnu’s devotee and wise. The story of Narada, from the cave to a city of a hundred yojanas raised on his road, is Shiva’s answer to her.
Who is around Narada
The main figures in this episode
- Shiva and Parvati who talk on Kailasa of the causes of the descent. Parvati is astonished that a curse of Narada’s was one of them. She calls delusion in a wise devotee a great wonder, and asks why he gave the curse. Shiva fights Jalandhara in the second story and cannot kill him. In the third he begs the sage never to tell Vishnu what happened with Kama.
- Vishnu who takes a body for the devotees’ good, accepts the curse of the asura king’s wife. He hears Narada’s story at the ocean of milk and sees the sprout of pride in the sage’s heart. He sets his maya to work for his servant’s good.
- Narada the sage who sings the Lord’s virtues. His samadhi in the cave, his victory over Kama, the pride that follows it, and a princess whose beauty makes him forget dispassion take up most of the episode.
- Indra and Kama Indra fears for his city and sends Kama. Kama makes spring in the hermitage with Rambha and the other women of the gods. He fails, seizes the sage’s feet in fear, and reports it all in Indra’s assembly.
- Shilanidhi and Vishvamohini the king and the princess of the city Vishnu’s maya built on the road. The king shows Narada his daughter and asks for her merits and faults. The princess, who is that maya herself, is holding a svayamvara to which countless kings have come.
How much of the cause can be told
“Hear, Parvati,” Shiva begins. “The Vedas and the shastras have sung the Lord’s handsome deeds, many and pure. The cause for which the Lord descends cannot be said to be just this.” Then his own view, and what he will do with it. “Rama is beyond the reach of intellect, mind, and speech. That is our view. Hear it, clever one. Even so, as the saints, the sages, the Vedas, and the Puranas say something, guessing by their own wit. So I tell you the cause, Parvati, as it comes to my understanding.”
Then the cause, as a when and a then. “Whenever dharma declines and the base, proud asuras multiply, and do wrongs past describing, and brahmins, cows, gods, and the earth suffer. Then the Lord takes bodies of many kinds and takes away the pain of the good.” The doha gives what the bodies do. “He kills the asuras, establishes the gods, keeps the bounds of his own Vedas, and spreads pure fame through the world. This is the cause of Rama’s birth.” The next line picks up the last of the four. “Singing that fame, devotees cross the ocean of being. The Lord takes a body for the devotees’ good. The causes of Rama’s birth are many, each more wondrous than the last. One or two births I will tell at length. Listen carefully, Parvati.”
Jaya and Vijaya, and a curse that ran three births
“The Lord’s two beloved doorkeepers, Jaya and Vijaya: everyone knows them.” “By a brahmin’s curse the two brothers got the dark bodies of asuras, Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha, known through the world, who stripped the king of the gods of his pride.” The brahmin has no name in the verse. The commentary’s bracket gives the Sanaka sages. What happened at the cursing is not told. “Victorious in battle, warriors of renown. Taking the body of a boar, the Lord struck one of them down. Becoming Narahari, the man-lion, he then killed the other, and spread the fair fame of the devotee Prahlada.”
The doha carries the two forward. “Those same two went and became night-walkers, great heroes, strong: Kumbhakarna and Ravana, mighty warriors, conquerors of the gods, whom the world knows.” The next line says why there was a second birth. “Killed by the Lord, they were not freed: the brahmin’s word held for three births. Once, for their good, the Lord, who loves his devotees, took a body.” For their good: the verse says it of the two it has just called conquerors of the gods. “There Kashyapa and Aditi were the father and the mother, famous as Dasharatha and Kausalya. In one kalpa the descent came about this way, and he did pure deeds in the world.” The verse says one kalpa again of each cause that follows.
Jalandhara, and a curse accepted
“In one kalpa, seeing the gods in grief, all of them beaten in battle by Jalandhara, Shiva fought a boundless battle with him. And the mighty danava, struck, would not die. The asura king’s wife was a woman of perfect chastity. By her power Shiva, the destroyer of Tripura, could not defeat him.” She has no name in the verse, and the next line turns on her chastity. “By a trick the Lord broke her vow and did the gods’ work. When she learned the secret, she cursed him in anger.” The doha’s own word is trick, and the words of the curse are not given.
“The Lord, a treasury of sport, accepted her curse. There Jalandhara became Ravana, whom Rama killed in battle and gave the highest state.” “This was the cause of one birth, for which Rama took a human body.” Then the verse turns to the sage who listens. “Hear, sage: the story of each descent of the Lord the poets have told in many ways.” The listener is Bharadvaja, whom the sortha names a few lines on. The commentary’s bracket names him here.
How the wise Narada came to be deluded
“Once Narada gave a curse. For that, in one kalpa, there was a descent.” Parvati was astonished to hear it, and the commentary’s bracket gives her the next words. “Narada is Vishnu’s devotee, and wise. For what cause did the sage give a curse? What offense had Vishnu done him? Tell me this story, Shiva. Delusion in the sage’s mind is a great wonder.”
Shiva laughed and said: “No one is wise, and no one a fool. As Rama makes a person at a moment, so that person becomes in that moment.” The answer comes before the story, and the story shows it.
The sortha then steps out of Shiva’s telling. “I tell the story of Rama’s virtues. Bharadvaja, hear with respect.” The commentary gives the line to Yajnavalkya. Bharadvaja’s name is the verse’s. The second line carries the poet’s name, and the commentary makes him its speaker. “Worship Rama, who breaks the round of birth,” Tulsi says, “giving up pride and conceit.” Pride and conceit: the sortha names the pair before the story does, and Vishnu will name the same pair again, among the things that remembering Narada erases.
A mountain cave, and Indra’s fear
“In the Himalaya there was a cave, very holy, and near it the handsome Ganga flowed. Narada saw the hermitage, holy and handsome, and his mind was greatly taken. As he looked at the mountain, the river, and the forest, each in its part, love for Vishnu’s feet rose in him. As he remembered the Lord, the course of a curse was checked, and his mind, pure by nature, settled into samadhi.” The verse says a curse and no more. The commentary says whose: Daksha’s, which kept the sage from staying in one place, and remembering the Lord stopped it.
“Seeing the sage’s state, Indra was afraid. He called Kama, honored him, and said: ‘Go with your helpers, for my sake.’ Kama, whose banner is a fish, went, glad at heart.” The fear in Indra’s mind was this: the divine sage wants to live in my city. The sage’s mind was on Vishnu’s feet, and Indra read it as a want of his city. “Those in the world who are lustful and greedy fear everyone, like a crooked crow.” Then the doha’s picture. “As a foolish dog, seeing the lord of beasts, runs off with a dry bone, the dullard thinking the lion might snatch it from him, so Indra felt no shame.”
The whole of spring, and a samadhi that did not move
“When Kama came to that hermitage, he made spring there by his maya. Trees of many kinds flowered in many colors, cuckoos called, and bees hummed. A handsome breeze of three kinds blew, the kind that feeds the fire of desire.” The commentary names the three: cool, gentle, and fragrant. “Rambha and the other young women of the gods, every one of them skilled in Kama’s arts, sang in waves of many tanas. They played games of many kinds with a ball in their hands. Seeing his helpers, Kama was glad, and he laid snares of many kinds besides.”
“None of Kama’s arts touched the sage. The sinner Kama grew afraid for himself.” The commentary reads the fear as fear of his own destruction. “Can anyone press on the bounds of one whose great guardian is Vishnu?” The guardian is named in the line after Kama fails, and before any pride is. “With his helpers, greatly afraid, owning defeat in his mind, Kama went and seized the sage’s feet, speaking the most piteous words.”
“No anger at all arose in Narada’s mind. With kind words he set Kama at rest. Bowing his head at the sage’s feet and getting leave, Kama went with his helpers.” “In Indra’s assembly he told the sage’s good nature and his own doing, all of it. All who heard were astonished. They praised the sage and bowed their heads to the Lord.” “Then Narada went to Shiva, and in his mind was the conceit that he had beaten Kama.” The verse names the conceit in the line that sends him to Shiva.
Shiva’s lesson, which Narada hears and does not take
“He told Kama’s doings to Shiva. And Shiva, knowing him very dear, taught him: ‘Again and again I beg you, sage: as you have told me this story, never tell it so to Vishnu. Even if the matter comes up, hide it then.’” The doha gives the lesson its fate. “Shiva gave the lesson for his good. Narada did not like it.” Then the verse turns to Bharadvaja. “Bharadvaja, hear the sport: the Lord’s will is strong. What Rama wants done, that happens. There is no one who can do otherwise.” Before the story began, Shiva had told Parvati that a person is as Rama makes him. Here the verse says that what Rama wants, happens.
“Shiva’s words did not please the sage’s mind, and he went off to Brahma’s world.” Of Brahma’s world nothing more is said. “Once, a fine vina in his hand, singing the Lord’s virtues, skilled in song. The lord of sages went to the ocean of milk, where Vishnu, Lakshmi’s home, the crown of the Vedas, lives.” “Vishnu rose and met him gladly, and sat on the seat with the rishi. Vishnu said, smiling: ‘Sage, after many days you have shown mercy.’”
“Narada told all of Kama’s doings, though Shiva had forbidden him beforehand.” The verse adds its own sentence on it. “Rama’s maya is very fierce. Who, born into the world, is not deluded by it?”
Soft words, and the sprout of the tree of pride
“With a dry face the Lord spoke soft words. ‘By remembering you, delusion, lust, conceit, and pride are erased.’” The dry face comes before the soft words in the verse’s order. The commentary reads it as erased in others, and adds in a bracket: so what is there to say of you. “Hear, sage: delusion comes to the mind of one whose heart holds no knowledge and no dispassion. You, devoted to the vow of brahmacharya, firm of wit: can Kama give you pain?”
“Narada said, with pride: ‘Lord, all of it is your grace.’” The words give the credit away, and the verse says in what spirit they were said. “The Lord looked in his mind, considering, and saw that the sprout of a great tree of pride had come up in his heart.” What he resolved, he resolved in his mind. “I will tear it up at once. Our vow is the good of our servants. I will surely find that device by which the sage’s good and my own sport both come about.” The verse says good of both: Shiva’s lesson was given for his good, and Vishnu’s vow is the good of his servants.
“Then Narada bowed his head at the Lord’s feet and went, and the pride in his heart grew greater. Then Vishnu set his own maya to work. Hear her hard doing.” The bow and the growing pride share one line. Kama had come with his own maya and failed. Now Vishnu’s own maya goes out, the same word, for the sage’s good.
A city of a hundred yojanas, and a princess
“She built on the road a city a hundred yojanas wide, its works of many kinds finer than Vishnu’s own city. Beautiful men and women lived in it, as if many Kamas and Ratis had taken bodies. In that city lived King Shilanidhi, with countless horses, elephants, and companies of troops. His wealth and pleasure were like a hundred Indras’, and he was the home of beauty, splendor, strength, and policy. Vishvamohini was his daughter, at whose beauty Lakshmi would be bewitched.” “She was the Lord’s maya herself, the mine of every virtue. Who could describe her beauty? The princess was holding a svayamvara, and countless kings had come.” In a svayamvara the bride chooses her own husband.
“The sage, fond of sport, went into the city and asked the citizens about everything. Having heard it all, he came to the king’s house, and the king worshiped him and gave him a seat.” “The king brought the princess and showed her to Narada. ‘Master, considering in your heart, tell all her merits and faults.’”
“Seeing her beauty, the sage forgot dispassion, and for a long while he went on gazing. Seeing her marks, he was lost. There was joy in his heart, and he did not speak the marks openly.” What he read in them the commentary gives as said in his mind: whoever weds her becomes immortal, and no one defeats him on the field of battle. All that moves and all that stands still will serve the one whom Shilanidhi’s daughter weds. “He considered all the marks and kept them in his heart, and to the king he said a few things of his own making. Telling the king that the daughter’s marks were good, Narada left, with worry in his mind.”
“Let me go and, having thought it over, make the effort by which the princess weds me. Japa and tapas can do nothing at this time. Creator, how am I to get the girl?” The doha gives what he needs. “At this moment I need great beauty, a large and splendid form, seeing which the princess will be charmed, and will then give the victory garland.” The garland is still a wish.
A father has asked Narada for a daughter’s merits and faults before in this kand. Himavan, in Parvati’s story, asked him to tell his daughter’s faults and merits, considering in his heart. Narada told him her virtues, then two or four faults, and the line in her hand. Shilanidhi asks in nearly the same words, and this time the sage keeps the marks in his heart and makes up what he says. Both times he calls the daughter well-marked.
Pride that rises on a real victory
The victory was real. None of Kama’s arts touched the sage. When Kama seized his feet there was no anger in him at all. Kama himself told Indra’s assembly of the sage’s good nature. The pride came after the victory, in the line that sends him to Shiva. Shiva’s lesson was given for his good and did not please him. Vishnu’s soft words were spoken with a dry face, and what he saw in the sage’s heart he saw in his own mind. In his resolve, that the good of his servants is his vow, the sage is spoken of in the third person.
Shiva’s answer to his wife came before any of this. She had called delusion in a wise devotee a great wonder, and he laughed. No one is wise and no one a fool. As Rama makes a person at a moment, so that person becomes in that moment. Then he showed her the moment. The sage who forgot dispassion before a princess is the one whose mind, pure by nature, had settled into samadhi in a cave by the Ganga. Between the two stands the sprout of a tree.
The episode ends on a want. Narada has kept a girl’s marks in his heart and told her father a few things of his own making. He is working out how to be the one she chooses, since japa and tapas will not serve now. The curse that Shiva named before the story began, the one Parvati asked about, has not been given yet. What the sage asks for, and what comes of it, is the next episode.
The same story, elsewhere: the Shiva Purana: Narada’s Pride.
Source: the Gita Press edition of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, Balkand, doha 121 to 131, read with Hanuman Prasad Poddar’s Hindi commentary.