The Ark's occupants from a Koranic depiction
There are so many myths in different World Mythologies regarding the DELUGE that it certainly seems to have been a historical phenomenon of Global proportions!
In Greek Mythology,
Deucalion is forewarned of the flood and he builds an ark and staffs it with creatures. Similar legends exist in Norse Mythology, African legends and the foundational myths of the
Quiché and
Mayas, and the story of
Utnapishtim in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh.
It is MORE than likely that all the above myths refer to the same phenomenon, one which we scientifically KNOW to have taken place - that of the Ice Age!!
The Ark carrying
Manu/Noah/Utnapishtim/Deucalion and other survivors would have been guided by the global currents generated by the melting waters. The Quran claims that this Ark rested atop
Mount Judi. However, Hindu records identify the site with
Manali in the Himalays, which was obviously the highest land available on the planet. In fact, on my visit to Himachal Pradesh, I discovered that the ONLY temple to Manu in the entire World is located at Manali, and the name of the place itself commemorates Manu's landing!!
Temple of Manu at Manali
The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago and this would have been the time-period of our current Manu.
Manu and his wife
Shradha are believed to have ushered in the New Age through their 10 sons-
Ikshvaku, Drisht, Sharyati, Narishyanta, Nabhag, Disht, Karush, Prishadhra, Vasumana and
Sudyumna/Ila.
As mentioned earlier, the eldest one IKSHVAKU gave rise to the illustrious
Suryavansh in which was born Lord Rama, while from ILA, came the
Chandravansh, in which Lord Krishna took birth. For details of these two genealogies, please check the following links: {
Suryavansh - The Solar Dynasty and
Chandravansh - The Lunar Dynasty}.
Genetically speaking, our Manu would probably have been brown-skinned in order to cover all color variations from fair to the dark! Also, medically, the Blood-groups for
Manu and
Shradha would probably have been A-ve for Manu and B+ve for Shradha in order to to cover all the groups from the ABO series!! Would be interesting to find some archaeological evidence for this hypothesis.
All different races of Mankind are derived from Manu and Shradha
In
Theosophy, Vaivasvat Manu is one of the most important beings at the highest levels of Initiation of the 'Masters of Ancient Wisdom', along with Sanat Kumar, Gautam Buddha and others. These beings act as the 'ROOT' for the Human race in the New Eon.
Coming to the divinities, our present Indra is
Shakra, also known as
Purandar and his courtiers are the
Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, Vishvadevas, Marudgana, and the
Ashwini Kumars. Kashyapa, Atri, Vashishtha, Vishvamitra, Gautam, Yamdagni and Bhardwaj are the Saptarishis. During this Manvantar, Lord Vishnu has incarnated as
Vaman, the son of Kashyap and Aditi.
Vaman Avatar of Lord Vishnu
It is interesting to note, that while the Indra had changed from one Manvantar to the other, the ruler of the Asurs was STILL Maharaj Bali.
Maharaj Bali was a benevolent king but he was ambitious and urged by his rakshas subjects, attacked and wrested control of the Heavens from Indra. The Devas were thus rendered homeless and to help them regain control of their planet, Lord Vishnu incarnated as the dwarf Vaman.
The Lord thus took back the THREE WORLDS from Bali and sent him to rule the Underworld. We saw in the previous post{
Lokas, the Abodes of Advanced Aliens}, that Bali Maharaj right now resides in the lower planetary system of
Sutal.
However, there's more to this story and we shall see what happens to Bali Maharaj ahead. Till now, we have discussed the Six Eons which have passed and the one that is going on. You would be surprised to know, that the Puranic descriptions do not stop at this!
The SEVEN Manvantars of the FUTURE are equally well detailed in the Bhagavaatm complete with the list of the Indras, Manus, Saptarishis, other gods, their sons and the incarnations of Lord Vishnu!!
The FUTURE Manvantars of Varah Kalpa
(8).
Savarni Manvantar - King Surath, whom we encountered in the Second Manvantar, would be born as the son of
Surya and Chhaya and because of Goddess Durga's blessings, would become the eighth Manu -
Savarni.
We saw in the previous Manvantar that
Lord Vaman had wrested control of the Three-Worlds from Bali Maharaj. However, because of his goodness of heart and spiritual nature, the Lord blessed him to become the Indra in the next Manvanatar!
Hence, Vairochan Bali, the pious Asura who was the King of Demons for two Manvantars, would become the King of Gods in the next Manvantar!!
Bali arrives in Amravati to claim his right from Purandar
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-_XToYp5jYnk%2FT5ZkYTLj7CI%2FAAAAAAAADLY%2Frw8MwqYY8sk%2Fs640%2Fgrant-morrison-18-days-04.jpg&hash=f1ebf55be48cc87bcdf6a12ad2c621d7)
Image courtsey Grant Morrison's 18 Days
{Artist - Mukesh Singh}
This shows that even if you are born a demon, with the Lord in your heart, you can even obtain the highest position in the Swarga-Loka, that of Indra himself! However, it seems our present Indra would not be too willing to let go of his throne (quite similar to our modern politicians eh!) and Bali will need help from the next incarnation of Lord Vishnu -
Sarvabhaum, (the son of Devguhya and Saraswati) to obtain the title of Indra.
In this incarnation, Lord Vishnu would snatch the kingdom of
Swarga-loka from Purandar and give the crown to King Bali.
Sutap, Amitabh and
Mukhya will be the categories of demigods with 20 deities each and Galav, Diptiman, Parashuram, Ashwatthama, Kripacharya, Rishyashring and Vyas would be the Saptarishis.
(9).
Ninth Manvantar -
Daksha-savarni, the son of
Varun, the Lord of the Ocean would be the ninth Manu.
Adbhut would be the Indra and during that Manvantar,
Para, Marichgarva and
Sudharma will be the three categories of gods with 12 deities each.
(10).
Tenth Manvantar - Upashloka’s son
Brahma-savarni would be the tenth Manu. He would be very pious in nature and have sons like Bhurishen etc.
Shambhu would be the Indra, with Suvasana, Viruddh etc. as his main courtiers.
Lord Vishnu would appear in the incarnation of
Vishwasen as the son of Vishwasrij and his wife Vishuchi and would be a friend of Indra.
Sudhama and
Vishuddh will be the two categories of gods with 100 deities each.
(11).
Eleventh Manvantar - In the eleventh hour of Brahma's Kalpa,
Dharma-savarni would be the eleventh Manu and would have ten sons.
Vaidhrit would be the Indra with Vihangam, Kamagam, etc. as main courtiers.
(12).
Twelfth Manvantar -
Rudra-savarni would be the twelfth Manu whose sons would be led by Devavan. The demigods would be called
Haritas, Indra would be
Ritadhama, and the seven sages would be led by Tapomurti. The incarnation of Lord Vishnu in this manvantara is
Svadhama, born to Satyasaha and Sunrita.
(13)
Thirteenth Manvantar - In the period of the thirteenth Manu, the Manvantar would be led by
Deva-savarni. Among his sons the famous one would be Chitrasena, the demigods would be called
Sukarmas, Indra would be
Divaspati, and Nirmoka would lead the Sapta-rishis. Lord Vishnu's manvantar-avatar is
Yogeshvar, who would be born of Devahotra and Brihati.
(14)
FINAL Manvantar - In the final period of this Kalpa, the Manu would be
Indra-savarni and among his sons would be Uru and Gambhira. The demigods would be known as
Pavitras, Indra's name would be
Shuchi, and among the sages would be Agni and Bahu. The incarnation for this manvantar would be
Brihadbhanu, born of Shatrayana from the womb of Vitana.
Exhausting as it has been, I have shared with you a summary of all 14 Manvantars of the Present Kalpa of Brahma. We have read about the Avataras, Indras, Sapta-rishis, Devatas, and of course the various Manus of the
Present Kalpa of Brahma.
If you have noted Lord Vishnu's incarnations, you would have observed one startling fact - The ten incarnations or
Dashavatar are not in the order generally mentioned. For example, the 1st incarnation
Matsya, took place just BEFORE the onset of present Manvantar while the 3rd one, that of
Varah, occurred LONG AGO at the beginning of the Kalpa!!
As stated in an earlier post {
Evolution in Dashavatar}, the artifical order of the Ten Incarnations actually represents the development of Life on this planet and gives support to the Organic Evolution Theory as propunded by Charles Darwin.
What is more amazing to me is that sinceEACH Manvantar is ~307 Million Years long, all these predictions cover a period of
4.32 Billion Years between them! Nostradamus and his elk could not even make proper predictions for the 2nd Millenium and here we have predictions lasting the entire lifespan of our Earth!!
Yet, even with the mind-boggling numbers, this period is just ONE DAY in the Life of Brahma; One day of Brahma is just 1/720th of his YEAR; One Year of Brahma is just 1/100th of his LIFETIME; and the lifetime of One Brahma and his Universe is just a SINGLE BREATH of Lord Maha-Vishnu.
Lifetime of Our Universe is just a single Breath of Shri Maha Vishnu!
We keep fighting over petty issues all our life yet, this life, is not even a fraction of a second of Lord
Maha-Vishnu's Breath. What is important, is to understand the ephemeral nature of all existence and strive to get out of this Material Creation.
Even with mankind descending from such an illustrious ancestor and making remarkable progress with each decade, we have somewhere lost our purpose of Life. We owe it to our ancestor Manu, to try and follow the path of the most ancient Dharma - Sanatan Dharma.
To conclude, I'll leave you with some verses inspired by the
Shatapatha Brahmana's account of events that transpired at the Twilight of the Present Manavantar.
One morning Manu went to the river,
To offer oblations along the sands,
But when he took a palmful of water,
He found a fish between his hands!
"Save me O King and I'll save Thee!"
"Save me?" asked Manu, "How can that be?"
"A great flood will destroy all you know;
But I can save you and help you go."
Manu asked, "What must I do?"
Save me from the monsters it said,
"Its the Jungle Law - Fish eat Fish,
So keep me safe and let me grow."
"When I grow too big in size,
Dig a pond and keep me in;
When I get too big for that,
Take me down to sea for a swim."
When the fish reached the Ocean,
It told the King, "The flood is coming;
I know the time when it is due.
So listen to me and start planning."
When Deluge comes I'll send a ship,
This shall happen in Seven days,
Keep all species and Saptarishis with you,
And I will save you from drowning waves."
The flood came, but Manu was safe,
They tied the ship to Matsya's horn,
For an endless night, the waters poured,
Till there appeared the rainbow of Morn.
Matsya said: "Now you're saved.
Mind the water going down,
Come out slowly, as the level drops,
And let free your ship's entire town".
Manu did all that he was told,
And became the Lord of present Manvantar,
The flood destroyed every living thing,
But the pious were saved from going under.
This is the way Kaalchakra works,
For each Morn there is a Twilight,
Only the ones with faith in the Lord,
Can look out the tunnel and see the Light.
.