Lord Brahma is the father and guru of Narada Muni

Expressions researched:
"Lord Brahma is the guru of Narada Muni" |"son Narada" |"the father of Narada Muni" |"to his dear disciple Narada" |"sons of Brahma" |"son of Brahma" |"son of Lord Brahma"

SB Canto 1

Therefore, according to authorized opinion, the birth of Nārada as the son of Brahmā is also a transcendental pastime. His appearance and disappearance are practically on the same level as that of the Lord.

SB 1.6.29, Translation and Purport: At the end of the millennium, when the Personality of Godhead Lord Nārāyaṇa lay down within the water of devastation, Brahmā began to enter into Him along with all creative elements, and I also entered through His breathing. Nārada is known as the son of Brahmā, as Lord Kṛṣṇa is known as the son of Vasudeva. The Personality of Godhead and His liberated devotees like Nārada appear in the material world by the same process. As it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, the birth and activities of the Lord are all transcendental. Therefore, according to authorized opinion, the birth of Nārada as the son of Brahmā is also a transcendental pastime. His appearance and disappearance are practically on the same level as that of the Lord. The Lord and His devotees are therefore simultaneously one and different as spiritual entities. They belong to the same category of transcendence.

SB Canto 2

Devarṣi Nārada inherited from his father Brahmā devotional service, whereas Dakṣa inherited from his father fruitive work, and Sanaka, Sanātana, etc., inherited from their father information about jñāna-kāṇḍa, or transcendental knowledge. But out of them all, Nārada is described here as the most beloved son of Brahmā because of good behavior, obedience, meekness and readiness to render service unto the father.

SB 2.9.42, Translation and Purport: Nārada very much pleased his father and desired to know all about the energies of Viṣṇu, the master of all energies, for Nārada was the greatest of all sages and greatest of all devotees, O King.

Lord Brahmā, being the creator of all living beings in the universe, is originally the father of several well-known sons, like Dakṣa, the catuḥ-sanas, and Nārada. In three departments of human knowledge disseminated by the Vedas, namely fruitive work (karma-kāṇḍa), transcendental knowledge (jñāna-kāṇḍa), and devotional service (upāsanā-kāṇḍa), Devarṣi Nārada inherited from his father Brahmā devotional service, whereas Dakṣa inherited from his father fruitive work, and Sanaka, Sanātana, etc., inherited from their father information about jñāna-kāṇḍa, or transcendental knowledge. But out of them all, Nārada is described here as the most beloved son of Brahmā because of good behavior, obedience, meekness and readiness to render service unto the father. And Nārada is famous as the greatest of all sages because of his being the greatest of all devotees. Nārada is the spiritual master of many famous devotees of the Lord. He is the spiritual master of Prahlāda, Dhruva and Vyāsa, down to the forest animal hunter Kirāta. His only business is to turn everyone to the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Therefore all these features of Nārada make him the dearmost son of his father, and all this is due to Nārada's being a first-class devotee of the Lord. The devotees are always anxious to know more and more about the Supreme Lord, the master of all energies. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.9):

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā

bodhayantaḥ parasparam

kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ

tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

The Supreme Lord is unlimited, and His energies are also unlimited. No one can know them completely. Brahmājī, being the greatest living entity within this universe and being directly instructed by the Lord, must know more than anyone within this universe, although such knowledge may not be complete. Thus it is the duty of everyone to ask about the unlimited Lord from the spiritual master in the disciplic succession of Brahmā, which descends from Nārada to Vyāsa, from Vyāsa to Śukadeva and so on.

Brahmājī, as a disciple of the Supreme Lord, received the real knowledge and imparted it to his dear disciple Nārada, and similarly Nārada, as spiritual master, handed over this knowledge to Vyāsa and so on.

SB 2.9.43, Translation and Purport: The great sage Nārada also inquired in detail from his father, Brahmā, the great-grandfather of all the universe, after seeing him well satisfied.

The process of understanding spiritual or transcendental knowledge from the realized person is not exactly like asking an ordinary question from the schoolmaster. The schoolmasters in the modern days are paid agents for giving some information, but the spiritual master is not a paid agent. Nor can he impart instruction without being authorized. In the Bhagavad-gītā (4.34), the process of understanding transcendental knowledge is directed as follows:

tad viddhi praṇipātena

paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ

jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

Arjuna was advised to receive transcendental knowledge from the realized person by surrender, questions and service. Receiving transcendental knowledge is not like exchanging dollars; such knowledge has to be received by service to the spiritual master. As Brahmājī received the knowledge directly from the Lord by satisfying Him fully, similarly one has to receive the transcendental knowledge from the spiritual master by satisfying him. The spiritual master's satisfaction is the means of assimilating transcendental knowledge. One cannot understand transcendental knowledge simply by becoming a grammarian. The Vedas declare (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.23):

yasya deve parā bhaktir

yathā deve tathā gurau

tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ

prakāśante mahātmanaḥ

[ŚU 6.23]

"Only unto one who has unflinching devotion to the Lord and to the spiritual master does transcendental knowledge become automatically revealed." Such relationship between the disciple and the spiritual master is eternal. One who is now the disciple is the next spiritual master. And one cannot be a bona fide and authorized spiritual master unless one has been strictly obedient to his spiritual master. Brahmājī, as a disciple of the Supreme Lord, received the real knowledge and imparted it to his dear disciple Nārada, and similarly Nārada, as spiritual master, handed over this knowledge to Vyāsa and so on. Therefore the so-called formal spiritual master and disciple are not facsimiles of Brahmā and Nārada or Nārada and Vyāsa. The relationship between Brahmā and Nārada is reality, while the so-called formality is the relation between the cheater and cheated. It is clearly mentioned herewith that Nārada is not only well behaved, meek and obedient, but also self-controlled. One who is not self-controlled, specifically in sex life, can become neither a disciple nor a spiritual master. One must have disciplinary training in controlling speaking, anger, the tongue, the mind, the belly and the genitals. One who has controlled the particular senses mentioned above is called a gosvāmī. Without becoming a gosvāmī one can become neither a disciple nor a spiritual master. The so-called spiritual master without sense control is certainly the cheater, and the disciple of such a so-called spiritual master is the cheated.

One should not think of Brahmājī as a dead great-grandfather, as we have experience on this planet. He is the oldest great-grandfather, and he is still living, and Nārada is also living. The age of the inhabitants of the Brahmaloka planet is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. The inhabitants of this small planet earth can hardly calculate even the duration of one day of Brahmā.

Thereupon the supplementary Vedic literature, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which was described by the Personality of Godhead and which contains ten characteristics, was told with satisfaction by the father [Brahmā] to his son Nārada.

SB 2.9.44, Translation and Purport: Thereupon the supplementary Vedic literature, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which was described by the Personality of Godhead and which contains ten characteristics, was told with satisfaction by the father [Brahmā] to his son Nārada. Although the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was spoken in four verses, it had ten characteristics, which will be explained in the next chapter. In the four verses it is first said that the Lord existed before the creation, and thus the beginning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam includes the Vedānta aphorism janmādy asya [SB 1.1.1]. Janmādy asya is the beginning, yet the four verses in which it is said that the Lord is the root of everything that be, beginning from the creation up to the supreme abode of the Lord, naturally explain the ten characteristics. One should not misunderstand by wrong interpretations that the Lord spoke only four verses and that therefore all the rest of the 17,994 verses are useless. The ten characteristics, as will be explained in the next chapter, require so many verses just to explain them properly. Brahmājī had also advised Nārada previously that he should expand the idea he had heard from Brahmājī. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu instructed this to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in a nutshell, but the disciple Rūpa Gosvāmī expanded this very elaborately, and the same subject was further expanded by Jīva Gosvāmī and even further by Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. We are just trying to follow in the footsteps of all these authorities. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not like ordinary fiction or mundane literature. It is unlimited in strength, and however one may expand it according to one's own ability, Bhāgavatam still cannot be finished by such expansion. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, being the sound representation of the Lord, is simultaneously explained in four verses and in four billion verses all the same, inasmuch as the Lord is smaller than the atom and bigger than the unlimited sky. Such is the potency of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

SB 2.9.41, Translation: Nārada, the most dear of the inheritor sons of Brahmā, always ready to serve his father, strictly follows the instructions of his father by his mannerly behavior, meekness and sense control.

SB Canto 4

This narration has dealt with the descendants of Lord Brahmā from Manu's daughter Prasūti. prasūti's daughter was Dākṣāyaṇī, or Satī, in relation to whom the story of the Dakṣa yajña was narrated. Maitreya is now explaining about the progeny of the sons of Brahmā. Out of the many sons of Brahmā, the brahmacārī sons headed by Sanaka and Nārada did not marry at all, and therefore there is no question of narrating the history of their descendants.

SB 4.8.1, Translation and Purport: The great sage Maitreya said: The four great Kumāra sages headed by Sanaka, as well as Nārada, Ṛbhu, Haṁsa, Aruṇi and Yati, all sons of Brahmā, did not live at home, but became ūrdhva-retā, or naiṣṭhika-brahmacārīs, unadulterated celibates.

The system of brahmacarya has been current since the birth of Brahmā. A section of the population, especially male, did not marry at all. Instead of allowing their semen to be driven downwards, they used to lift the semen up to the brain. They are called ūrdhva-retasaḥ, those who lift up. Semen is so important that if, by the yogic process, one can lift the semen up to the brain, he can perform wonderful work—one's memory is enabled to act very swiftly, and the duration of life is increased. Yogīs can thus perform all kinds of austerity with steadiness and be elevated to the highest perfectional stage, even to the spiritual world. Vivid examples of brahmacārīs who accepted this principle of life are the four sages Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanat-kumāra, as well as Nārada and others.

Another significant phrase here is naite gṛhān hy āvasan, "they did not live at home." Gṛha means "home" as well as "wife." In fact, "home" means wife; "home" does not mean a room or a house. One who lives with a wife lives at home, otherwise a sannyāsī or brahmacāri, even though he may live in a room or in a house, does not live at home. That they did not live at home means that they did not accept a wife, and so there was no question of their discharging semen. Semen is meant to be discharged when one has a home, a wife and the intention to beget children, otherwise there is no injunction for discharging semen. These principles were followed from the beginning of creation, and such brahmacārīs never created progeny. This narration has dealt with the descendants of Lord Brahmā from Manu's daughter Prasūti. prasūti's daughter was Dākṣāyaṇī, or Satī, in relation to whom the story of the Dakṣa yajña was narrated. Maitreya is now explaining about the progeny of the sons of Brahmā. Out of the many sons of Brahmā, the brahmacārī sons headed by Sanaka and Nārada did not marry at all, and therefore there is no question of narrating the history of their descendants.

My dear King Vidura, Śrī Nārada Muni, the son of Lord Brahmā, thus described all these relationships with the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the Pracetās. Afterward, he returned to Brahmaloka.

SB 4.31.23, Translation and Purport: The great sage Maitreya continued: My dear King Vidura, Śrī Nārada Muni, the son of Lord Brahmā, thus described all these relationships with the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the Pracetās. Afterward, he returned to Brahmaloka. One has to hear about the Supreme Personality of Godhead from a pure devotee. The Pracetās got this opportunity from the great sage Nārada, who told them of the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His devotees.

SB Canto 5

Therefore as soon as Nārada Muni saw the swan, he could understand that his father, Lord Brahmā, who is also known as Hiraṇyagarbha, was arriving.

SB 5.1.9, Translation and Purport: Lord Brahmā, the father of Nārada Muni, is the supreme person within this universe. As soon as Nārada saw the great swan, he could understand that Lord Brahmā had arrived. Therefore he immediately stood up, along with Svāyambhuva Manu and his son Priyavrata, whom Nārada was instructing. Then they folded their hands and began to worship Lord Brahmā with great respect. As stated in the previous verse, Lord Brahmā was accompanied by other demigods, but his specific carrier was the great swan. Therefore as soon as Nārada Muni saw the swan, he could understand that his father, Lord Brahmā, who is also known as Hiraṇyagarbha, was arriving. Thus he immediately stood up with Svāyambhuva Manu and his son Priyavrata to receive Lord Brahmā and offer him respect.

Of the twelve great authorities in devotional service, four—Lord Brahmā himself, his son Nārada, Svāyambhuva Manu and Lord Śiva—were present before Priyavrata.

SB 5.1.11, Translation and Purport: Lord Brahmā, the supreme person within this universe, said: My dear Priyavrata, kindly hear attentively what I shall say to you. Do not be jealous of the Supreme Lord, who is beyond our experimental measurements. All of us, including Lord Śiva, your father and the great sage Mahārṣi Nārada, must carry out the order of the Supreme. We cannot deviate from His order. Of the twelve great authorities in devotional service, four—Lord Brahmā himself, his son Nārada, Svāyambhuva Manu and Lord Śiva—were present before Priyavrata. They were accompanied by many other authoritative sages.

SB 5.25.8, Translation: Nārada Muni, the son of Lord Brahmā, always glorifies Anantadeva in his father's assembly. There he sings blissful verses of his own composition, accompanied by his stringed instrument [or a celestial singer] known as Tumburu.

SB Canto 6

Lord Brahmā is the guru of Nārada Muni, who is the guru of Vyāsadeva, and Vyāsadeva is the guru of Madhvācārya. Thus the Gauḍīya-Mādhva-sampradāya is in the disciplic succession from Nārada Muni.

SB 6.5.22, Purport: Lord Brahmā is the guru of Nārada Muni, who is the guru of Vyāsadeva, and Vyāsadeva is the guru of Madhvācārya. Thus the Gauḍīya-Mādhva-sampradāya is in the disciplic succession from Nārada Muni. The members of this disciplic succession—in other words, the members of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement—should follow in the footsteps of Nārada Muni by chanting the transcendental vibration Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. They should go everywhere to deliver the fallen souls by vibrating the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and the instructions of Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. That will please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can spiritually advance if one actually follows the instructions of Nārada Muni. If one pleases Nārada Muni, then the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hṛṣīkeśa, is also pleased (yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **). The immediate spiritual master is the representative of Nārada Muni; there is no difference between the instructions of Nārada Muni and those of the present spiritual master. Both Nārada Muni and the present spiritual master speak the same teachings of Kṛṣṇa, who says in Bhagavad-gītā (18.65-66):

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto

mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru

mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te

pratijāne priyo 'si me

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

"Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend. Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear."

SB 6.15.17, Translation: Aṅgirā said: My dear King, when you desired to have a son, I approached you. Indeed, I am the same Aṅgirā Ṛṣi who gave you this son. As for this ṛṣi, he is the great sage Nārada, the direct son of Lord Brahmā

SB 6.16.16, Translation: The King bathed in the water of the Yamunā, and according to prescribed duties, he offered oblations of water to the forefathers and demigods. Very gravely controlling his senses and mind, he then offered his respects and obeisances to the sons of Lord Brahmā [Aṅgirā and Nārada].

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Manu is the name of the son of Brahmā, Vaivasvata Manu. Just like Nārada is one of the sons. So there are so many sons.

Lecture on BG 2.26 -- Los Angeles, December 6, 1968: Yes. So from Angles, they have become English. Similarly, Manu. Manu is the name of the son of Brahmā, Vaivasvata Manu. Just like Nārada is one of the sons. So there are so many sons. Brahmā was the original living being. So he created so many sons, and they created so many sons. In this way the population of the whole universe has increased. So Manu is one of the sons. There are fourteen Manus in one day of Brahmā. These things I have discussed many times.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Nārada Muni is one of the sons of Brahma, so he's present since the time of creation. And many great sages and saintly devotees are all devotees of Nārada Muni.

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Devotee: Nārada Muni delivered the chanting, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, to the Earth?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: Was it here before he came? And what..., how long ago did he come?

Prabhupāda: That you cannot calculate. Nārada Muni is one of the sons of Brahma, so he's present since the time of creation. And many great sages and saintly devotees are all devotees of Nārada Muni. Prahlāda Maharaja is disciple of Nārada Muni, Dhruva Maharaja is the disciple of Nārada Muni, Vyāsadeva is disciple of Nārada Muni, Vālmīki is disciple of Nārada Muni. So Nārada Muni was very expert in getting disciples. He had so many disciples. Unlimited.

1973 Correspondence

Narada appeared as the son of Brahma and therefore he had to accept Lord Brahma as his spiritual master.

Letter to Caturbhuja -- Los Angeles 9 May, 1973: Your next question: "The Bhagavad-gita says that Lord Brahma is a conditioned soul. Then how was it possible for him to impart the Vedas to a non-conditioned soul—Narada Muni?" So, Lord Brahma is a conditioned soul means that due to his desire to become the creator of the material manifestation he had to take birth within the material world. But although he was conditioned by such desire, still he is a great devotee of Lord Krsna. He has written Brahma-samhita which is pure Vaisnava literature describing the Supreme Personality of godhead. Lord Brahma was the first created being within the universe and the first spiritual master, as he received knowledge from within his heart from Lord Krsna. Narada appeared as the son of Brahma and therefore he had to accept Lord Brahma as his spiritual master.