A good communicator is a necessity in today’s world. Back in the earlier times or ‘Yugas’, there lived a famous communicator called, ‘Narada Muni’ who had the blessing of travelling or teleporting in all the three ‘loks’ heaven, earth and ‘Pataal’ (beneath Earth) and let people know what was happening to the others everywhere. Narada Jayanti is celebrated on the ‘Vaishakha Krishna Dvitiya’ or the day after ‘Purnima’ in the Hindu month, ‘Vaishakha’. Narad Muni or the ‘God of Communication’ was considered as one of the main seven, ‘Saptrishis’ who travelled throughout the entire world to spread information about the various Gods. Our ancient literature like the Rig Veda and the ‘Purans’ have a lot mentioned about the great sage. ‘Narada Jayanti’ is dedicated to the great sage and marks his birth anniversary. He is considered a true Lord Vishnu devotee who used to communicate news between the three ‘Lokas’ and unintentionally used to create troubles. The ancient scripts have assimilated the humor flavor through sage Narada.
This day is also popularly called, “Patrakar Diwas” and is celebrated by publication houses and media houses owing to Sage Narada’s nature of communicating information which is their main business. Musicians also worship the Sage this day, as he was considered the inventor of the musical instruments. The great sage was conversant with ‘Upnishads’ and ‘Vedas’ as well as ‘Psurans’. He was a great thinker who had knowledge of the basics of communication or language called initiation, grammar, prosody, explanation or basic terms, etc. He was blessed with a great memory and logical sense to understand various situations. He was a learned sage who helped in resolving a lot of problems just by his communication shills thereby avoiding wars.
What is the origin of the festival ‘Narada Jayanti’?
One school of thought says that the Sage Narada appeared from the forehead of Lord Brahma and is considered as his son. Another school of thought says that he was born to Sage ‘Kashyapa’. He was an ever wandering soul who did the job of communicating between various people informing them about important activities for which they had no access to. He was a great musician and used to play ‘Veena’ and sing praises as Lord Vishnu’s hymns. He is considered as the chief of ‘Gandharvas’ or the heavenly musicians. He was considered as the first journalist on the earth. He kept travelling throughout the universe to communicate information.
He used to greet everyone with, “Narayan Narayan” as he was a true devotee and worshipper of Lord Vishnu. He was the only one who had seen the Lord in his ‘Parmatama’ form and thus was enlightened about the great truth.
What are the rituals that should be observed on the festival of Narada Jayanti?
- Followers of the deity observe fast this day to pay homage and respect to him.
- People worship Lord Vishnu in order to seek the blessings of the sage.
- They also feed priests or sages.
- Intellectual meetings, prayers and seminars are held at various organizations.
- Elaborate ‘Pujan’ is done at various media houses by priests to attain blessings of the God.
