After completing the creation of the entire cosmos, Lord Brahma asked his sons Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanathkumara andSanatsujata to continue the task of further creation. The four sons refused saying,"Lord we cannot do it. We have toperform penance." They left the place for good. The lord was sad. He asked his another son, sage Narada,"My dear sonplease help me in great task of creation. Don't behave like your brothers." Narada was not interested in the taskassigned to him. He said,"Dear father, I don't want to get entangled in this difficult task of creation. I desire to perform penance."
The lord was very angry at the ungrateful behaviour of his sons. He said,"What! Do you consider the task of creationso low? Narada, you must leave this Satyaloka and be born twice as an ordinary human being and suffer the pains of life in the world. Only then you can come back here. You should realise the trials and tribulations of earthly life.Let your heart feel for them. May the realisation that the salvation of other created beings is far more important than your own dawn on you and may regard the desires and ambitions of others with real feeling.
Lord Brahma's curse began to work on Narada. He was born as the son of Chitraketu, the king of gandharvas(CelestrialMusicians). He was named Upabharana. Now as a gandharva, he naturally loved music. He learnt music under able teachersand attained a high degree of proficiency in it. He had a great love for stringed musical instrument. He inventeda new musical instrument Veena. He got himself initiated to Vaishnavadeeksha from Brihaspathi Acarya, the divinepreceptor of Gods. He began to pray and meditate.
Once while he was in deep meditation, the daughters of Chitraratha, a gandharva, happened to pass that way. When theylooked at the handsome figure of Upabharna they fell in love with him. They decided to marry him. With the consent ofelders, the marriage of Upabharana with the daughters of Chitraratha was solemized. He began to live with them. Hespent a number of happy years with his wives. When he realised that the day had come for him to leave gandharvaloka,he engaged himself in deep meditation and one day he renounced his body and his soul left its destined place.He had to live another earthly life before going to satyaloka and therefore he was born as a son to a housemaid in a brahmin'shouse on the earth. The master of the house gave the name Narada to the child. The servant maid a number of relativesbut they did not take care of her. She was a person who did not want to seek help from them at the expense of herself respect. She lived independently with the wages she got from her master. She did not know how to read and writebut she was highly cultured. She had but one aim in life, that was, to see that her son was brought up well and made ahighly cultured human being.