Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

SECTION XI. MANWANTARA OR THE DELUGE.

The next larger cycle of time is called the Manwantara or the Deluge. When the Divine Cycle has revolved 71 times it brings about a cataclysm. The oceans surge up and cover the entire earth with its waters, even the highest peaks of the Himalayas being submerged, and remain so for the period of 71 Divine Cycles. This world-wide natural catastrophy occurs periodically, owing to more and more increased accumulation of the sins of humanity, who, along with all living beings and vegetation are thus destroyed by submersion. The only man saved is the most virtuous and spiritual man of the time, who becomes the Manoo elect, that is, the spiritual governor of the next Cycle which extends between the time of the reappearance of land after the Deluge to the next Deluge. This period is called Manwantara, the period between two Manoos. The account of the Deluge as given in the Old Testament of the Bible has been taken from minute accounts recorded in the Alatsya (Fish) Purana and the condensed facts about them given in all the Purānas as well as the Mahābhārata. Only, the Bible version is distorted in some particulars.

Since the beginning of the present Kalpa creation, six Manwantaras, each ending with the Deluge, have passed away. We are just now living in the seventh of which twenty-seven Divine Cycles have rolled away and we are now living in the Iron Age of the twenty-eighth. Many millions of years therefore have gone by since the last Flood. Towards the end of the Kali Yuga of the last Manwantara, mankind became filled with the utmost corruption. But there was, according to the Mahābhārata and the Bhāgavat Purana, one man, by the name of King Satyavrata, whom this spirit of corruption failed to touch. He was almost as pure and spiritually powerful as Brahmā, the Creator, while he was possessed of uncommon physical beauty. He was engaged in spiritual austerities and meditation in a holy forest on the top of the Himalayan mountains for many hundred years. One day, while he was sitting in contemplation on the bank of the river Cheerinee, a little fish leapt out of the water into his hands. He threw it back into the river but the fish, to his surprise, spoke and begged the king to protect him from a large fish coming to devour him. Satyavrata out of compassion took the fish into his hands again, went home and placed it in a water-pot. He tended him as his own offspring. The fish gradually grew so big that he had to be taken to a large pond, but after a few years the pond could no more hold the fish, so large had it become. The King wondering at this unprecedented growth suspected the fish to be Vishnoo Himself. The fish begged Satyavrata to put him into the holy Ganges which he did by his Yoga power. In time, however, the fish growing still larger, he had to be taken to the ocean. The King exhibited his yoga-power again by carrying that huge fish to the ocean.

As soon as he was thrown into the sea, the phenomenal Fish smiled and thus addressed the King, "O thou kind one! Thou hast saved and protected me in every way, but I will leave nothing undone to return this kindness. Now, listen! The time has come for one of the great events of the world. The destruction of the earth is at hand. On the seventh day from this, the earth shall be swallowed up by the waters, from which thou canst not be saved except through me. A large ark shall come to thee into which thou must get with the seven Rishis (Illumined Beings) of the Great Bear who shall help and bear you company. Take thou also all kinds of seeds of all trees, plants, shrubs and creepers, as also pairs of all animals and creeping things on this boat and wait for me. I will soon appear there, bedecked with horns. Do not doubt my words, but do as I tell thee."

The strange Fish then disappeared as Satyavrata said, "So shall it be." He then did just as the Fish had told him. When the ark came, he went aboard with the Seven Rishis of the Great Bear and seeds and animals and waited in anxious contemplation of the Divine Fish which soon appeared as he had promised, bedecked with horns and high as a hillock. He made salutation to him and tied the ark to his horns with a strong heavy rope, whereupon the Fish pulled the ark with great speed and began to play upon the bosom of the ocean.

Then the ocean heaved with huge waves and the waters roared. It all looked as if the ocean was performing a wild dance. The ark was then tossed and whirled about with great force, and soon not a trace of land or sign of any direction was visible. Earth and sky seemed one vast expanse of water under which all men and beasts and birds and vegetation were drowned and destroyed. The Fish and the ark and Satyavrata with the Seven Rishis and the seeds and animals alone existed. The Divine Fish drew and preserved the ark for many years on the surface of the deep.

Long, long time after, when the waters subsided and the highest peak of the Himalayas made itself visible, the Fish drew the ark to it and said in a pleasant voice, addressing the Rishis, "O ye illumined ones! Bind the boat for a while to this mountain-peak," which the Rishis did. In commemoration of this event, this peak of the Himalayas is still called the "Boat-Binding Peak."

When the ark was safely tied, the Fish said again to the Rishis: "I am Brahmā of Brahmā, the Creator. I have taken the form of the Fish to save you all from the Flood. Now this Satyavrata will be known as Vaivaswata Manoo. He will, by my grace and power of his Yoga, create all mobile and immobile beings of the earth, gods and asuras and men." So saying the Fish vanished.

Vaivashwata Manoo, who is also called Shraddhadeva, then sat in meditation and in time, by his Yoga-power, created all the beings and creatures of the earth and celestial planes as he was bidden to do.

This is the shortest sketch of a very long account of the Deluge in the Hindoo Books. The word Manoo has been distorted into the word "Noah" in the Old Testament.

In the distorted version of the Deluge in the Holy Bible, this principal factor of the preservation of Noah and his Ark, the Divine Fish, has not been mentioned out of ignorance of the detailed facts of the cataclysm. This ignorance is excusable, judging from the fact of the remoteness of the time when the last Flood occurred. What the Bible estimates as 6,000 years the Hindoo Books put down at more than 4,000,000, when Manoo (Noah) was afloat on the waters of the universal inundation. The Divine Fish is an incarnation of Vishnoo who is worshipped and prayed to in that form even now in India. When God Himself in Fish-form was the guide and protector of Manoo there was no need of birds being sent out to reconnoitre as to the reappearance of land. It was the Fish that first espied the highest peak of the Himalayas visible above the waters and drew the ark to it and asked Noah and the Seven Rishis to bind that boat to that peak. That peak is still called the Boat-Binding Peak, the Sanscrit word being "Nour-Bandhan" peak. The Bible calls it the Ararat and they are now trying to locate it in Syria and many other places. Even a common sense view of the matter ought to decide in favor of the Himalayas which are ever known as the highest mountains. That the first subsidence of the waters should first uncover a Himalayan peak is only natural to suppose.

With the appointment of a new Manoo are also appointed some highly spiritual souls as gods, as well as the Seven Rishis (illuminated beings) who govern the seven stars of the Great Bear, in the places of the gods and Rishis of the past Alanwantara, whose terms of office extend through the duration of one Manwantara, the cyclic period between two deluges. As every civilized country on the face of the earth is governed by a king and ministers and officers, according to systematic laws and regulations, the three spheres Bhur, Bhuba, Swar are likewise ruled by a king, ministers and officers. The government of the British Dominions may be taken as some sort of example to illustrate the Divine Administration. If we take England as the Swar sphere, Ireland as the Bhuba sphere, India and Canada may stand for the Bhur or Earth sphere. Manoo, governor of the three spheres, can be likened to the King of England, though, unlike the English King, he is invested with Supreme Power; Indra is his Prince Minister. The Seven Rishis of the Great Bear may be called his independent Cabinet Ministers and Advisers but superior to him in wisdom and intelligence. The gods may be compared to Members of Parliament, Secretaries of India and the Colonies and departmental administrators. The Sons of Manoo act like Governor-Generals of India and Canada, etc.

At the beginning of a Kalpa cycle, which is measured by one thousand Divine cycles or a little over 14 Manwantaras, the Manoos, Rishis and gods of all the 14 Manwantaras are selected beforehand. We are now lining in the Seventh Manwantara. Shrāddhadeva, called also Vaivaswata, is our Manoo. The Saints Kāsyapa, Atri, Vasistha, Viswāmitra, Gautama, Jamadagni and Bharadwāja are the seven Rishis; Purandar is the present Indra. The Manoos, the Rishis, the Indras are all named for the coming seven Manwantaras of the present Kalpa in the Shāstras.

The prevalent belief among Western Orientalists is that Manoo was a man who was born a few hundred years ago and died a natural death after writing his law institutes for The Hindoos. A more erroneous idea could not exist from the Hindoo point of view. Manoo, being the spiritual administrator of the three worlds, has to live all through his term of office, which extends through 71 Divine cycles of which we are living in the 28th. Every Manoo incarnates himself as a Rishi towards the end of every Golden Age and compiles his law, and institutes for the benefit of humanity, while the seven Rishis incarnate among men at the end of each Kali Yuga to reveal the truths of the Vedas which are forgotten and lost before that time.