How Narada was cursed to be a wanderer

Narada Muni is very well known to all. He is the Vishnu bhakta who never stays in one place. He always wanders the worlds, visiting good and bad men and beings, and often sparking off chaos. But Narada was not always this eternal wanderer. He was cursed to be so and by his own brother. This is the tale of how that curse came to be.

Daksha prajapati was commanded by Mahavishnu to create humans. He bestowed upon Daksha the beautiful Panchajani as his wife. Daksha lived with Panchajani happily and they had ten thousand sons, who were called the Haryasvas. When the Haryasvas set out, on Daksha’s orders, to go forth into the world and procreate, they first came across the Narayanasaras lake.

Daksha’s brother, Narada Muni, saw the boys sitting by the lake meditating and he came down. The Muni came to them and asked them how they intended to do their karma, that of creating, when they had not yet seen nor understood what all of creation was. They had never travelled far and wide enough to see all the glory of creation, after all.

The boys were quite taken aback when they realised that Narada was right. They had not seen all of creation, nor had they understood its purpose, then how did they qualify for the task father had set them? First of all, had they even correctly understood the task?

The Haryasvas came to the conclusion that they had been tested by Daksha and they were meant to undertake the path of moksha, which karma ultimately leads to. They decided they were not to take Daksha literally and start procreating.

The ten thousands boys bowed down to Narada gratefully for saving them from samsara and they left to seek moksha, the procreation mission abandoned.

When Daksha heard how Narada had diverted them, he was heartbroken. But he pulled himself together and got back to the task at hand. He had a thousand more sons, the Sabalasvas, and he sent them with the same instructions- to procreate. Narada again met them and sent them away to seek moksha.

Now, Daksha was heart broken as well as furious. Narada sensed his brother’s anger and he came to Daksha, hoping to talk him down. But Daksha was too angry with Narada for sending his sons away to seek moksha before their time had come and their Karma was done. Reeling with grief, he cursed his brother. He said, “O Narada, You sent my young sons away, never to set down roots, never to have a home or family or sons for themselves. I curse you. You too will never know a home or family, you shall never set down roots, nor stay in one place. May you wander the worlds eternally!”

Narada just smiled. Deeply steeped in Vishnu bhakti as he was, what did it matter to him if he never had a home or family or a fixed place to call his own? All he needed was Hari in his heart. And so Narada became a wanderer by his brother Daksha’s curse.

Daksha went on to father sixty daughters and through them, the process of creation went on as he was tasked to do.

(Story from Srimad Bhagavatham)