Fiendish Narada, a Guru Ideal
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Fiendish Narada
Introduction
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| Narada deceived and inflicted sufferings on many innocent ones. |
To remain on the safe side, watch out, stand tall, and do not succumb to tricks. It should be good to know that the best tricks are those you are hardly ever made aware of, and that clever haters make you love them.
As for gurus, they may or may not be true gurus. Some think that four out of five are fakes. That outlook is not part of the Indian heritage which suggests nine out of ten. Also, they may or may not be fair, may or may not work for your good. Parts of the Indian heritage holds that gurus may deceive and work havoc in cold blood, also due to partiality. That outlook goes against idealised concepts current among naive ones today. Interestingly, many initiated by gurus may be in danger of losing integrity, self-respect and get battered without sensing it at first.
Below we will go into a rather long story from a Unesco work, the Siva Purana in English translation [Si]. The story is about a guru prototype called Narada. He is much revered among erring devotionalists. But a story from an ancient culture throws a wildly different light on him. Here is the story in retelling - for the original is too long:
- Where they hail Narada, stay away.
A Story of Plots
In the old Sanskrit work Siva Purana there is a tale that is highlighted below: An Indian guru prototype was established for leading astray women and men and getting rid of those straight, fair guys behind a grin of fervour and rigmarole."Always look at the bright side of death." - Monty Python.
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| Ruthless Narada harmed innocent persons of old and brought on their ruin. |
God did so. The nicely decorated cities were even joined together. There were many castles and pretty horses, elephants and playgrounds, and finally halls for kingly studies. Heroic non-Indians lived there together, people who had bull-like shoulders and broad chests. Some were of warlike temperament, others were calm. They were very well protected. A long time went by, and the inhabitants lived happily, ruling over the good kingdom they had got control over. But then main Hindu gods started to envy the happy inhabitants of the three cities. They visited the Creator-God Brahma in sheer distress and sought a cunning way to kill the happy ones. He laughed and said:
"Do not be afraid. Shiva (or manhood) will kill them. Polite folks have flourished due to my favour. They do not deserve to be wiped out at my hands." (p 802-9)
At this the Hindu gods crawled to Shiva and tried to endear themselves.
"Hail, destroyer of mankind, you who can be reached through good conduct and who are the paramount liberation from our good conduct too, eventually (p 810-13)
Shiva objected to the slandering Hindu gods when they proposed a plan to kill the inhabitants of the three cities. He did it in this way:
"A meritorious guy is the presiding ruler of the three cities now. He who quite often does meritorious deeds should not be killed by any sensible persons. How can I knowingly commit malicious deeds to my friends? There is a great sin attending on even casual malicious actions. There is no expiation for ungrateful ones. Those buddies of mine should not be slain by me as long as their goings are straight and fair enough. (Make an end to that first. Then the rest is easy.)" (p 815-6)
The Indian gods became miserable and dejected once again. They crawled on to god Vishnu, who saw through their minds and said,
"Listen to what I have to say. I, who once laid down the rules of great kingly conduct, have to admit: The virtuous guys cannot be destroyed by our magic now. What I must do is to thwart their uprightness; and then I can kill them by devious magic. Next I shall destroy the three cities." (p 816-9)
Now he sent the other gods away, each to his dwelling, and they left with bent heads. At once god Vishnu created a duplicate of himself and called him Arihat. He said to that robotlike monster, "I shall create a deceptive holy text. Strain yourself to extend it. Even magic arts shall be at your command." (p 820-1)
On hearing this, the robot king Arihat, which looked exactly like Vishnu, recited the main tenets in the deceptive philosophy god Vishnu had thought up for that case, after Shiva had furnished the golden clues on how to go forwards in the crooked way of deceit to outsmart brave and good ones and benefit Hindu gods.
The straight and fair city-inhabitants could be deformed and routed out without limit when they first were fooled away from being upright and decent. That was Shiva's masked meaning, and Vishnu meant to carry it out in earnest, to make a must of cheating and killing on top of envy - even if no inhabitant had ever given offence.
Hare Vishnu: "Initiate them. Go there and destroy these men and women. Your cult shall certainly expand. (p 821-2)
The robot king massed gruesome, false teaching to become worthy of guru-giver respect. He did it in a thrice:
"Hell itself is functioning right here," he uttered. Then the deceptive sage, followed by disciples in the Indian way, entered the three cities and created illusion. He tried as best he could to fascinate, and failed. (p 821-3)
His illusiory tricks and schemes did not work among the staunch city-inhabitants. It was then that Shiva transmitted guru-telepathically to Vishnu to summon the false and ruthless Narada. Narada is often held to be a prototype of a devotionalist guru.
Narada was ordered to go to the three cities and delude the residents there. Narada was an expert in godly, strong magic, and quickly met with the Arihat teacher who stood there and spoke in a non-discreet way. What Narada did, was to get himself initiated, sure that he could float on his reputation among non-initiates. Next he told the king of the three cities,
"This sage who initiated me, surely masters all kingly knowledge. I suggest you go and get yourself initiated."
By this the governor was deluded enough to exclaim and hail,
"Since Narada has been initiated wee too shall be initiated."
The governing guy was deluded by Arihat too, and begged him to initiate him, saying, "I shall become a disciple." (p 823-4)
As could be predicted, perhaps, the heretic sage, the counterpart of Vishnu, professed to be eternal, and spoke with emphasis, "If you are ready to do just as I decree, I shall initiate you. Otherwise not."
The king said, thankfully, "I shall carry out whatever you command, and I shall not transgress."
Now the guru had him, as an expert in Hindu magic. The guru said - and this is a quite protruding sermon: (p 825)]
"Our bodies perish. God the creator has a body that perishes too. Non-violence is the greatest virtue. (p 826-7)He next criticised the womanly virtues of chastity. And the fascinated men practised rites of seduction - gaining other men's wives. (p 830)
Protection shall be given to the frightened, medicine to the sick, learning to the student, and food to the hungry. (p 827-8)
Older Aryan texts that encourage slaughter of animals, are due to erroneous notions - Bliss shall be taken as it is. (p 828)
Be prepared to give away even the body - Old men say that creation began with the Creator God Brahma. But modern people on the other hand ... Also, to divide up folks in castes and outcasts does not appear to be sound. No difference between man and man should be entertained." (p. 829)
Finally evil reigned on top. "Blessing" them with extreme delusion of intellect, perpetrated by the illusion of Vishnu, Narada became contented. Narada and the heretic sage (Vishnu's robot) were not defiled, though, because of lord Shiva. (p 830)
As Shiva willed, the capacity of the king and his kin became stunted and thwarted. (p 831)
Now the Indian gods came creeping up and hailed the god that terminated goodness to let evil take the upper hand - by initiation, fervent guru bossing, leading astray. The former upright ones were led astray by the tops among Indians.
God the Creator hailed god Shiva here: "It is at your own bidding they have been deluded. You induced them." (p 834)
Hearing these words, the Indian gods were delighted. But they soon lost heart again - terrified at the thought of the dangers of battle. Spineless gods gave up and fled in great confusion. Unnerved they fled. One crawled on his knees; it was Indra. Now Vishnu had the guts to say,
"Say this holy sound: "Om. Namah. (To Shiva). Subham. Subham. Kuru. Kuru. Sivaya Namah Om." (p 836)
If you repeat it extremely much, Shiva will do what you beg, if you are meticulous about it. And Shiva popped up and said,
"The long mantra you mutter is highly meritorious and auspicious. It generates godly pleasure. It yields cherished desires and brings about happiness and so on." (p. 839)
This was warfare by muttering and mental incantations. Now god Shiva got a godlike wagon to ride in. Vishnu had to assume the form of a kingly bull under it. He had to kneel down and crawl on the ground. God Shiva steadied the horses, and now he could ride towards the three cities at last. Before he could attack full well, he ordered the Hindu gods to become animals. All the gods became animals. Now god Shiva was the lord of animals moving about in the sky.
Shiva shot one arrow, and burnt the three cities with that one shot. A great many who lived there were burnt to death. (p 843-50)
Comments
THE GURU of Self-Realization Fellowship, Yogananda, talks warmly of Narada and devotion as well.The old Puranic tale is food for thought. We should take as much care as we can; and not trust any foreign helper deeply all at once, for what if he is a plotting expert? If that is what he is, what are his prominent features? That is for you to find out.
Among the SRF (Self-Realization Fellowship) gurus, Krishna is venerated - he is understood to be one of the incarnations of the deceptive, fraudulent God Vishnu - And Krishna says he is Narada, presented as a rascal in the story above, which is part of classical Hindu literature.
The story tells that Hindu devas (gods, even) are not always nice and fair, may dupe, use trickery and magic, and wreak havoc and destruction in the long run,like animals (the ending). By the way, the Persian religion-maker Zoroasther of an ancient, related culture came to the conclusion that Hindu devas were evil spirits and had to be shooed. In ancient times Old Persian and Sanskrit were closely related languages; they were closer to one another than Rikvedic Sanskrit and later Sanskrit. And much in their cultures were similar too. So there can be more than one old Aryan outlook here. [Ebu "deva"; Cf. Zah]
As for massive guru help, if it helps your family, your garden things and so on, "fie" is seldom the proper response. Now:
- There can be good and vicious elements inside a family. Guru-devas too belong to various groups, and are endowed with individual traits and properties.
- There can be bad, passable, and very good trait within one and the same individual.
Abraham Lincoln once made a remark about his heredity. Let President Lincoln add a liberating note to the Prahlada tale:
Speaking of his ancestry Lincoln once humorously remarked,
"I do not know who my grandfather was - I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be." [Of]
Fair teaching, fair study on top of that
Good stories build a computing bank inside our heads. Various tales serve as platforms for shared cultural exchanges most often, and lots of lessons are derived from them. Classical fables attributed to Aesop, is our European standard example of how figurative elements bring fair handling norms in some cases.
"They say I tell a great many stories; I reckon I do, but I have found in the course of a long experience that common people, take them as they run, are more easily informed through the medium of a broad illustration than in any other way, and as to what the hypercritical few may think, I do not care." [Of]
Who cut off the head of his own mother?
THE OLD Sanskrit work Siva Purana in Professor J. Shastri's four-volumed and UNESCO-sponsored translation, is held to be excellent. In one passage, during a war, the powerful Taraka reveals this:"Gods are shameless, especially Indra and Vishnu. Formerly, both of them had acted in violation of the Vedic path.
Vishnu is deceptive, defective and indiscreet, capable of deception with sinful intention. Kaitabha was beheaded by his roguishness. Vishnu forsook the Vedic path. He violated sanctity of vows and assumed the form of an enchantress.
Taking birth as Rama, he killed a woman. Bali's death was brought about by him with a vile trick. A Brahmin descendant was killed by him.
Sinful as he was, he forsook his own innocent wife for achieving his selfish ends and cut off the head of his own mother. Further, he insulted his own teacher's son.
Incarnating as Krishna he defiled the wives of others and forced them to violate the virtues of family. He contracted his marriages outside the established Vedic path.
Later he preached the atheistic philosophy called Buddhism (as Buddha) [Buddhism has it differently].
Indra, his elder brother, is a greater sinner [Indra is called king of gods]. On this most Hindus have to agree." (p 750-51]. (#3.4)
Comments
The sinful guys forsook the older Aryan path and established divergent lines of rigid discipline and thinking. Within such divergent lines of thinking we find devotionalist obsession. It could form part of horrible and hidden schemes. Moreover, if we believe a Vishnu avatar, we may be fooled for a life-time, just as fish are fooled by the baits of fishermen.In old times, Vedic times, it was the custom that guru and possible disciple took a long look at one another before they engaged in a guru-disciple relationship. It might not be easy. You can find many hints of how they fared in the Hindu classics we host. [LINK]In Mahayana Buddhism, devotionalist obsession is not thought much of. As with Shankara, piousness is fit if it is directed self-ward. But devotion may serve to transgress the inward-turning by some murky "you-craze".
Saying
The cosmic person has two bodies: the superior body is pure consciousness and the other is the world. [Yoga Vasistha, Yv 404]
Literature
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: SRF, 1975.
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main ed.), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Clh: Dimmit, Cornelia and van Buitenen, J. A. B. trs: Classical Hindu Mythology. Philadelphia: Temple University, 1978.
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006.
Of: Fuller, Edmund: 2500 Anecdotes for All Occasions. New York: Wings, 1970.
Ha: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 12th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1981.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1971.
Si: Shastri, J. ed: Siva Purana, vol 1-4. Delhi: Banarsidass, 1969.
Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
Yv: Venkatesananda, swami, tr. The Concise Yoga Vasistha. Albany: State University of New York, 1984.
Zah: Surti, B.: Thus Spake Zarathushtra. 2nd ed. Madras: Ramakrishna Math, 1981.
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