Naradaji is one of the liberated souls, and after his liberation, he was known as Narada; otherwise, before his liberation, he was simply a son of a maidservant. The questions may be asked why Naradaji was not aware of the Supreme Lord and why he misconceived Brahmaji to be the Supreme Lord, although factually he was not. A liberated soul is never bewildered by such a mistaken idea, so why did Naradaji ask all those questions just like an ordinary man with a poor fund of knowledge? There was such bewilderment in Arjuna also, although he is eternally the associate of the Lord. Such bewilderment in Arjuna or in Narada takes place by the will of the Lord so that other, non-liberated persons may realize the real truth and knowledge of the Lord. The doubt arising in the mind of Narada about Brahmaji’s becoming all-powerful is a lesson for the frogs in the well, that they may not be bewildered in misconceiving the identity of the Personality of Godhead (even by comparison to a personality like Brahma, so what to speak of ordinary men who falsely pose themselves as God or an incarnation of God). The Supreme Lord is always the Supreme, and as we have tried to establish many times in these purports, no living being, even up to the standard of Brahma, can claim to be one with the Lord. One should not be misled when people worship a great man as God after his death as a matter of hero worship. There were many kings like Lord Ramacandra, the King of Ayodhya, but none of them are mentioned as God in the revealed scriptures. To be a good king is not necessarily the qualification for being Lord Rama, but to be a great personality like Krishna is the qualification for being the Personality of Godhead. If we scrutinize the characters who took part in the Battle of Kuruksetra, we may find that Maharaja Yudhisthira was no less a pious king than Lord Ramacandra, and by character study, Maharaja Yudhisthira was a better moralist than Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna asked Maharaja Yudhisthira to lie, but Maharaja Yudhisthira protested. But that does not mean that Maharaja Yudhisthira could be equal to Lord Ramacandra or Lord Krishna. The great authorities have estimated Maharaja Yudhisthira to be a pious man, but they have accepted Lord Rama or Krishna as the Personality of Godhead. The Lord is, therefore, a different identity in all circumstances, and no idea of anthropomorphism can be applied to Him. The Lord is always the Lord, and a common living being can never be equal to Him.
Source: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (2014 edition), “Srimad Bhagavatam”, Second Canto, Chapter 5 – Text 10
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