When Narada has a transcendental body, how does he appear through Brahma’s body
Question: If Narada Muni possesses a transcendental body, how does he appear through the body of Brahma at the beginning of millenniums?
Answer: The interaction between the material and the spiritual is always a matter of complexity. We sometimes hold a naive or oversimplified idea that when the spiritual manifests in the material, it will be utterly disparate. While, categorically, the spiritual is eternal and the material is temporary, no doubt, the manifestation of the spiritual in the material realm involves something quite extraordinary and almost inconceivable.
Even when Krishna descends to the material world, our philosophy states that He comes in His self-same transcendental form. Yet, people see Him, touch Him, and even demons like Duryodhana attack Him. If His form is spiritual and spirit is not inherently visible to material eyes, how is His form seen by ordinary individuals or even by demons? Duryodhana perceives Krishna as a powerful person, not as someone who momentarily appears and then vanishes. Essentially, when the Lord descends, we must understand that a lila (divine pastime) is being performed, and whatever is required for the enhancement of that lila occurs. How exactly this happens remains beyond our complete comprehension.
For instance, it is said that Lord Chaitanya shed tears. Were these tears material or spiritual? Our philosophy affirms that everything about Him is spiritual, including His tears. Yet, these tears were seen and felt by His associates. Were all of His associates spiritual, possessing transcendental bodies? When Lord Chaitanya was on His South Indian tour, He embraced many ordinary people, and they became devotees. If they were already transcendental, He would not be Patita Pavana (the deliverer of the fallen); they would already be Pavana (pure). While we might argue that some of His intimate associates had transcendental forms, how did they interact with those around them? Did everyone perceive them as having some mystical form distinct from the material?
Consider Haridasa Thakura, who was beaten by the Nawab’s servants. Their blows physically impacted his body, and they felt the force of the blows. While they were wonderstruck by his unwavering morale, it wasn’t because he possessed a mystical body through which blows simply passed or didn’t land. All these examples illustrate that when the spiritual manifests in the material, it does so in whatever way is appropriate for the Lord’s lila to unfold. This means that if ordinary or demoniac people are to see and interact with Him, He must appear before them, to some extent, like an ordinary person. Of course, at times He also manifests His extraordinariness.
If this principle applies even to the Lord, then what to speak of His devotees? If we ask how a transcendental form like Narada’s appears through Brahma’s body, we could equally ask how Narada’s transcendental form is seen by anyone else at all. If his body is completely transcendental, how do Ravana or Kamsa see him?
Srila Prabhupada often used the analogy that for Krishna, from His perspective, matter and spirit are non-different, or more accurately, material and spiritual energies are non-different expressions of His potency. Just as an electrician or a power station manager understands that only electricity is flowing, even if one machine heats and another cools, it’s all the same electricity. Similarly, from Krishna’s perspective, material energy and spiritual energy are not fundamentally different. Krishna can make material energy act in a spiritual way by His inconceivable potency (acintya-shakti).
Thus, by Krishna’s inconceivable potency, even His associates who possess transcendental forms may appear and function in this world in a way that seems similar to ordinary material beings, if that is what is required to enhance His lila. Narada Muni’s credibility, even among demons, stems from their perception that he is saintly but lacks a “holier-than-thou” attitude. He doesn’t act as if he has a transcendental body that cannot be touched. For the particular lila of extraordinary, unconventional, or even subversive compassion that Narada Muni performs, the Lord provides him with whatever form is required. This is how, as part of his lila, he appears and disappears through the body of Brahma.