Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

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.

SECTION XII. THE KALPA CYCLE.

When the Golden. Silver, Copper and Iron Ages, forming the Divine Cycle, have revolved for 1,000 times they complete a still larger cycle than the Manwantara, called the Kalpa. As each Manwantara is wound up with a Deluge, each Kalpa brings about a still greater disastrous event, that of the destruction of the lower three spheres of the universe, the Bhur, Bhuba and Swar. The description given of this great cyclic event in the Purānas as well as in the Mahābhārata, especialy by the Immortal Mārkandeya who has seen it many times, are simply appalling to the imagination of puny man.

As I have already said it is only the excessive accumulation of human sins (Tama-life) that causes these natural catastrophies. The sum of sins which causes the Kalpa dissolution is many times greater than that which is the cause of the Flood. Human sins, however, are the immediate cause. The real or latent cause is to be found in the operations of the Cardinal Attributes of Nature. Sattwa and Rāja are absolutely subdued by Tama, which then growing more and more intense bursts into a flame out of the friction of its own forces. This conflagration first manifests itself through etheric matter in the shape of seven suns suddenly appearing in the heavens and with their combined heat burning down the three spheres into ashes. This is followed by the appearance of strange clouds which then burst and deluge the ash-turned earth. The ash, in process of time, is absorbed by the water; then the air, turned into violent winds, absorbs the water; and then, when the air has been absorbed by ether (Akāsh), the destruction of the three spheres is completed.