03 – How Old is the Creator, Really!

Hi Friends!

Today, let’s take a look at how the Indian mythology tells stories about Time. This is the promised “numbers” story. This is quite mathematical, but gives us an idea of the vastness of this universe of stories. Large numbers alert, so you may want to get your calculators ready!

Base check first! One year consists of 12 months, each of 30 days. We shall call this a “human year”. Every 6 human years, there is an extra month or “adhik maas” of 30 days. Please note that this gives us the average number of days per year as 365. There are a few more adjustments, but let’s ignore for now. All adds up with the world we know?

Fine! Now we enter the world of mythology. Have you noticed that some small insects live very short life’s, of less than a day or a few days? Now the story-tellers realised that humans are as insignificant to the gods, as the insects are to humans. So they defined a Divine Year, whose each day is equal to a human year. So a divine year is of 360 human years. Remember this, as the further numbers are easier to remember, if we count in Divine Years.

A. Era’s of Good and Not-so-good: The Indian mythology looks at “good practices” as the source of all good. They call it Dharma. It gives us strength, and is useful. So they equated Dharma with a bull. Now Dharma is sometimes strong and sometimes weak. Let us imagine Dharma, as a bull with four legs; and the various eras when his strength is more or less, as times when his legs are “healthy” or “broken”.

• First is the Kreta Yuga, when Dharma stands strong on 4 legs. It consists of 4000 Divine Years, with 1/10th additional in the start as Dawn of the Era, and 1/10th additional at the end as Dusk of the Era, giving us a total of 4,800 Divine Years, which as we know is equivalent of 1,728,000 human years.
• Second is the Treta Yuga, the era when Dharma stands on 3 legs, not as strong as in Kreta, yet mostly good. It consists of 3000 Divine Years, with the similar Dawn and Dusk of the Era of 10% each. This lasts for 3,600 Divine Years, or 1,296,000 human years.
• Third is the Dwaapar Yuga, the era when one more leg of Dharma gets broken, with only two legs supporting him. The world is almost equal parts good and equal parts sinful. It consists of 2000 Divine Years (+Dawn and Dusk periods), hence lasting for 2,400 Divine and 864,000 human years.
• Lastly comes the Kali Yuga, the era when Good is precariously balanced on one leg. It is expected to last for a total of 1,200 Divine, i.e. 432,000 human years.

This set of four eras (almost a count-down) together is called a Maha-Yuga, or sometimes Chatur-Yuga. Adding up we get a total of 12,000 Divine Years, or 4,320,000 human years.

B. The Intervals of Man(u): In the last post we had met a son of Brahma, by the name of Manu. We humans are called manushya, or (children) of Manu. There is a small revision. This Manu, or Swayambhu Manu, meaning Self-Created Manu, is not the only Manu… just the first. Time goes in cycle of the Intervals of Manu or Manu-Antara, or Manvantara (speak the two words fast!). There are supposed to be 14 Manu’s in all (more on it later).

• Each Manvantara gets a new Manu, who is the titular presiding king/progenitor of mankind for that cycle. In fact each time we get a fresh set of Seven Sages, or Saptarishi’s (some overlap allowed, hence so many different list of names). There is a separate King of Heavens as well. In fact each of these cycles has a different set of gods (lower-case). This cycle consists of 71 Maha-Yugas (i.e. 852,000 Divine or 306,720,000 human years).
• At the end of the Manvantara, there is Pralaya, or Manvantara Sandhya. This is of a period equal to one Kreta Yuga (i.e. 4,800 Divine or 1,728,000 human years). In this time all the land gets flooded, with just the Manu (along with those he saves) escaping, mostly with the help of Vishnu. Then Manu along with his family, with the help and guidance of the Saptarishi’s brings back life and civilisation. Interestingly, there is another story of a man who saves a few in a great flood, and helped bring back life, when the flood waters departed. He was not called Manu. He was called Noah. Similar names, right?

For sake of records, we are in the Seventh Manvantara (just about in the middle). Our Manu is called Vaivasvata Manu. Within the Manvantara #7, this is the 28th Maha-Yuga. And within the #28 Maha-Yuga, we are sadly (and you may have guessed by now) in the Kali-Yuga. The Bull of Goodness stands on just one leg. I hope we help him stand strong!

C. Just in a Brahma Day’s Work: As we mentioned, that there are expected to be 14 Manu’s, each with a Manvantara to preside upon. The first Manvantara had a Sandhya before it, and there is a Sandhya (or Sandhi, i.e. interconnection) of Deluge between each consecutive Interval of Manu, and the last Manvantara would have a Deluge at the end.

• So there are 14 Manvantaras, and 15 Manvantara Sandhya’s. That comes to 12,000,000 Divine or 4,320,000,000 human years. This period of 4.32 Billion human years is just one Day in the life of Brahma.
• After the Brahma Day comes a Brahma Night, which is of the same length. During this period, there are no interval of Manus, no cycle of Yugas, as Brahma rests in his sleep. Some (if not all) of Creation is dissolved, and may need remaking or mending once he wakes up.
• Thirty such Brahma Days and Nights make a Brahma Month.
• Similarly, twelve such months make a Brahma Year, which if you calculate equals 8.64 Billion Divine or 3.1104 Trillion human years.
• Brahma lives for a Maha-Kalpa, that consists of 100 Brahma Years, which is 864 Billion Divine, or 311 Trillion 40 Billion human years.

What happens after that? May be another Brahma is born, and it starts all over again.

And every time some things change, but some thinges remain the same. We don’t know how many Creators came before our Brahma. Oh, by the way our Brahma has just had his 50th birthday. Counted in Brahma Years obviously! So let’s wish him a belated Happy Birthday, and sign-off for the day.

Next time, let’s look at the story of our Manu (the 7th overall), and his Strange Adventure with a Fish.