What a pleasant surprise it was when the "Kalnirnay" of the "wall" fame indicated the Narad Jayanti on May 24! Well, I belong to a generation that grew up on stories galore. The arch ancestor of story tellers is Narad Muni in my opinion.
He tells tales. In every sense of the term "telling tales". That is to say, sure he tells stories. Often, however, these (hi)stories are 'his' stories which are created to cause some confounding chaos even in divine lives.
Want an example? Remember the story of the coral flower or the "tulabharanam" episode? It is supposedly Narad Muni who sows the seed of discontent in Satyabhama's mind, right? Narad Muni, moreover, is thus found in all the epics and other such texts centrally important to our ancient tradition, be it Ramayana or Mahabharata, the Vishnu Purana, and so on.
No wonder, the kids from the generation, now in their late twenties or early thirties, would remember that famous "Narayan, Narayan" as a memento of their childhood memories of the erstwhile television sagas.
Actually, all such popular (and populist, too) (mis)representations of the Narad figure distort the real Narad Muni. According to the 'legend'ary genealogy, he is the 'thought child' of Bramha. In a way, he is the sibling of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge.
He is wisdom personified indeed. He is proficient in the Vaidic philosophical/theological discourse. Moreover, he is good at many arts, especially narration, singing, and playing the veena. No wonder, he is the patron saint of the much revered "kirtan parampara", a great folk art that for ages guided the society in multiple ways. Hence the title of this blog, "Narday Namah:" as he truly deserves our respect.
Pratima@"Trust the tale" rather than who narrates it how to misrepresent whom where and when, and in which way!
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