Srimadbhaagavatam - Sri Vyaasa and Sri Naarada maharshi

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Hari Om
Om NamO Bhagavate Vaasudevaaya


Sage Vyaasa was a Trikaalagna, an avataar of Naaraayana. Once when he
was sitting in meditation at Badrikaashrama, Himalayas, he could
visualise the great epochal change that was to come in the near future.
Because of this change he could see people becoming more worldly and
forgetting all their spiritual practises. He could foresee them losing
faith in the varnaashrama divisions, not performing the set duties, and
even if some people had faith in the varnaas and desired to perform the
karmaas enjoined in the scriptures, they would not have the necessary
physical prowess . He pondered deeply over this and wondered what could
be done to help humanity from degradation. Vyaasa thought of making the
study of scriptures easy for them by dividing the huge volume of Veda
into four sub divisions called Rigveda, Yajurveda, Saamaveda and
Atharvaveda and taught them to his students Paila muni – Rigveda,
Vyshampaayana – Yajurveda, Jaimini – Saama veda, and Sumantu – Atharva
veda. He composed Mahabharata epic and the Puraanas which could be read
by all those who did not have the eligibility to study vedas and taught
them to a Suta called Romaharshana. All the students became proficient
in their respective divisions and they further taught them to their
students, thus continuing the Guru-Shishya Parampara. Thus Vyasa
completed all these herculean tasks single handedly for the welfare of
the humanity.

Inspite of all these he still felt a sort of restlessness in his mind as
if his mission of life was still incomplete. As he was pondering what
further he could do to serve humanity, the great sage Naarada appeared
in front of him and asked him what was the reason for his sorrow. Vyasa
reflecting that he may receive some comfort from the great sage pours
out his discontentment before him and asks for a solution. Narada tells
him that all his works till now were purely an intellectual endeavour
and that he had not experienced what his intellect had described in
them. All his efforts could not absolve him from experiencing the pairs
of opposites like joy and sorrow, success and failure, praise and abuse.
Narada tells Vyasa to sing the praise of the Lord and describe His
divine life sportings which on hearing would instill great love for Him
in the hearts of the listeners and liberate them from the bondage of
this samsaara.

Narada tells Vyasa his own life story of his previous birth. Narada in
that birth was the son of a daasi (maid) who was doing all odd jobs for
a rich man’s family. Once during Chaaturmaas, many sages come and camp
there. Along with his mother little boy Narada was also rendering all
possible services to the holy men and he used to listen to their satsang
everyday. Slowly there arose devotion to the Lord in the heart of Narada
and he soon developed Vairaagya (dispassion) towards the worldly things.
When the holy men left the place after the completion of Chaturmaas they
gave Narada a mantropadesha and asked him to worship the lord devotedly,
at the same time taking good care of his mother. Narada serves his
mother well and also engages himself in meditation. One day the mother
dies of a snake bite and Narada after performing the last rites, leaves
the town and takes up sanyaas.  Once when he was meditating sitting
under a tree, he gets a flash darshan of Lord Narayana which soon
disappears. Narada inspite of repeated spiritual practises is unable to
have Lord’s darshan again and becomes dejected. Then he hears a voice
from the space telling him that his sadhana is still not ripe and he can
have Lord’s darshan again only in his next birth. The Lord had appeared
before him for a brief while only to reinforce his faith and devotion
towards Him. Thus Narada continues his austerities with added vigour and
very soon the earth experiences a big Pralaya and the whole creation
gets submerged. In the next cycle of srushti, because of the constant
rememberance of Lord’s name, Narada is born as Brahma’s maanasa putra,
is preasented a veena ( a musical instrument ) by Lord Narayana himself
asking Narada to continue to sing Lord’s praise in all the three worlds
and instill Bhakthi in the hearts of all .  Narada once again asks
Vyaasa to sing Lord’s glories and takes leave of him.

After Narada’s departure, sage Vyasa goes to the bank of river
Saraswathi, sits there for meditation and realises how devotion to Lord
Krishna expels ignorance from the hearts of people and allows for the
dawn of knowledge there. With this Truth in his heart sage Vyasa
composes the great divine book Srimad Bhagavatam for the good of
mankind. He teaches some of the shlokas to few of his students and asks
them to travel far and wide singing the shlokas. Vyasas intention was to
attract the attention of his jnaani son Shuka through the beauty of the
shlokas and then teach the complete Bhagavatam to his son. As the
students wander far and wide, in one of the forests sage Shuka happens
to listen to the shlokas , gets attracted by the devotion filled in them
and asks them to sing some more shlokas. They inturn take Shuka to Vyasa
muni to listen to all the 18000 shlokas. Vyasa gladly teaches his son
the whole of Bhagavatam and experiences the blessed feeling of his
life’s mission completed.

Hari Om
Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaaya

Regards,
Latha Vidyaranya

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