Who Are The Nine Brothers of Narada?

SB 2.6.29 (Bhagavatam class of Sunday 12.1.2014)

(Lord Brahma says) My dear son, thereafter your nine brothers, who are the masters of living creatures, performed the sacrifice with proper rituals to satisfy both the manifested and nonmanifested personalities.

This morning when he gave class Aniruddha Prabhu asked who are the nine brothers of Narada? (Who are the ten sons of Lord Brahma?) I had no idea. Perhaps I was the only one, but for anyone who is interested, Canto 3 of Srimad-Bhagavatam tells us:

SB 3.12.21. Brahma, who was empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, thought of generating living entities and begot ten sons for the extension of the generations.

SB 3.12.22. Marici, Atri, Angira, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Bhrgu, Vasistha, Daksa, and the tenth son, Narada, were thus born.

PURPORT: The whole process of the creation, maintenance and dissolution of the cosmic manifestation is meant to give the conditioned souls a chance to go back home, back to Godhead. Brahma created Rudra to help him in his creative endeavor, but from the very beginning Rudra began to devour the whole creation, and thus he had to be stopped from such devastating activities. Brahma therefore created another set of good children, who were mostly in favor of worldly fruitive activities. He knew very well, however, that without devotional service to the Lord there is hardly any benefit for the conditioned souls, and therefore he at last created his worthy son Narada, who is the supreme spiritual master of all transcendentalists. Without devotional service to the Lord one cannot make progress in any department of activity, although the path of devotional service is always independent of anything material. Only the transcendental loving service of the Lord can deliver the real goal of life, and thus the service rendered by Sriman Narada Muni is the highest among all the sons of Brahma.

SB 3.12.23. Narada was born from the deliberation of Brahma, which is the best part of the body. Vasistha was born from his breathing, Daksa from a thumb, Bhrgu from his touch, and Kratu from his hand.

PURPORT: Narada was born from the best deliberation of Brahma because Narada was able to deliver the Supreme Lord to anyone he liked. The Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be realized by any amount of Vedic knowledge or by any number of penances. But a pure devotee of the Lord like Narada can deliver the Supreme Lord by his good will. The very name Narada suggests that he can deliver the Supreme Lord. Nara means the "Supreme Lord," and da means "one who can deliver." That he can deliver the Supreme Lord does not mean that the Lord is like a commodity that can be delivered to any person. But Narada can deliver to anyone the transcendental loving service of the Lord as a servitor, friend, parent or lover, as one may desire out of one's own transcendental love for the Lord. In other words, it is Narada only who can deliver the path of bhakti-yoga, the highest mystic means for attainment of the Supreme Lord.

SB 3.12.24. Pulastya was generated from the ears, Aìgira from the mouth, Atri from the eyes, Marici from the mind and Pulaha from the navel of Brahma.

Srimad-Bhagavatam ki jaya!