Narada Muni - A sage who was mischievous yet wise

An actor essaying the role of Narada Muni in &TV's 'Santoshi Maa'. Image for representation purpose only.

Mumbai: ‘Narayana Narayana’! You might have often heard of these chants a number of times that are attributed to Maharshi Narada. The great sage, who is believed to be the son of Lord Brahma and Goddess Saraswati, is a revered devotee of Lord Vishnu. Our epics and sacred texts have referred to him as someone who is wise, virtuous yet mischievous.

He is often accused of provoking fights between the gods / the devas /the asuras by instigating them. He would often end up triggering major misunderstandings and causing chaos between two significant forces. But does he really indulge in war or hate mongering? The answer is big NO.

Narada, who is celebrated as a highly learned sage, always believed in doing good. His approach has always been different but has always reaped fruits.

Hailed as a great traveller and story-teller, Narada’s knowledge knew no bounds. He could travel to all the three worlds seamlessly and effortlessly and was never disliked by anyone.

Narada has been instrumental in restoring peace between the three divine female powers – Durga, Saraswati and Lakshmi.

Here’s explaining his role in making peace between the feminine forces. Once there was an argument between the three powers – Durga (Power), Saraswati (Knowledge/Skill) and Lakshmi (Wealth) over their supremacy over the other. Foreseeing a major fight, Narada purposely instigated each of them by gossiping about the other two in their absence. In a bid to prove their superiority, each of them decided to create a miracle.

Saraswati gave voice and knowledge to a dumb person; Durga gave power to coward man and Lakshmi gave wealth to a female beggar and turned her into a queen. What followed next was unbelievable yet inevitable – The coward man who had become an army head had tried to dethrone the Queen who had wanted to punish the dumb person (now a singer and a scholar) for not heaping praises on her. Thus all the three misused their powers and exhibited ego.

The three divine powers realised that it was Narada’s way of reminding them that all were equals and that each of them had a distinct role to play. Ego is always destructive and in order to attain peace, one has to work collectively with the other.