॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Wednesday, 28 December 2022 VI.05 - Narada incurs Daksha's curse for putting his sons on the path of Bhakti instead of Tapas to produce children.
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We read here how all the sons of Daksha were
delivered from the clutches of Maya by following the advice of Sage Narada,
who was in turn cursed by Daksha for scuttling his plan to extend his male progeny.
Influenced by Maya of Lord Maha Vishnu, Prajapati Daksha begot ten thousand sons in the womb of his wife, Panchajani. These sons, who were all of the same character and mentality, were known as the Haryashvas. Ordered by their father to create more and more population, the Haryashvas went west to the place where the river Sindhu meets the Arabian Sea. In those days this was the site of a holy lake named Narayana-saras, where there were many saintly persons.
The Haryashvas began practising austerities, penances and meditation, which are the engagements of the highly exalted renounced order of life.
विनिर्धूतमलाशयाः धर्मे पारमहंस्ये च प्रोत्पन्नमतयोऽप्युत ...प्रजाविवृद्धये यत्तान् देवर्षिस्तान् ददर्श ह
T: Being purified of all shortcomings/sins, by dedicating themselves to the supreme level of austerities as practised by Paramahamsas, they engaged in Tapas, to acquire progeny as directed by their father. Just then, Sage Narada came there and met them.
When Sage Narada Muni saw these boys engaged in such commendable austerities simply for procreation, he thought it better to release them from this tendency. It is interesting that Narada told the boys something very enigmatic:
"There is a kingdom where only one man lives and where there is a hole from which, having entered, no one emerges. A woman there who is extremely unchaste adorns herself with various attractive dresses, and the man who lives there is her husband. In that kingdom, there is a river flowing in both directions, a wonderful home, made of twenty-five materials, a swan that vibrates various sounds, and an automatically revolving object made of sharp razors and thunderbolts. You have not seen all this..."
After Narada went away, the sons of Daksha meditated deeply and realised that the story is a paradigm for the soul controlled by the outgoing mind in the body with twenty-five aspects. They realised the futility of living in the body as its slave and merely carry out the play of Maya when there was every opportunity to secure liberation through single-minded Bhakti to the Lord. That is the path they now chose.
Thus, all the sons of Daksha became enlightened by taking to the path of Bhakti and left, never to return.
Prajapati Daksha, who was very sad at the loss of his sons, begot one thousand more sons in the womb of his wife, Panchajani, and ordered them to increase progeny.
These sons, who were named the Savalashvas, also engaged in worshipping Lord Vishnu to beget children, but Narada again came and convinced them to become mendicants and not beget children. They also realised the supreme path was not one of living in the world and extending progeny but of surrendering to Bhagavan. They said a prayer.
आरधयन्मन्गत्रमिममभ्यस्यन्त इडस्पतिम् ॐ नमो नारायणाय...
T: They thus worshipped with their mantra the Supreme recipient and Lord of all mantras - Om Namo Narayanaya...
Again Daksha lost his sons to the spiritual path and could not secure his desire for progeny.
Foiled twice in his attempts to increase population, Prajapati Daksha became extremely angry at Narada Muni and cursed him, saying that in the future he would not be able to stay anywhere. Since Sage Narada, being fully realised, was full of forbearance, he accepted Daksha’s curse.
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