The date of Raama - 4

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SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

 

With the back-ground information on Chatur yugas which are also known

as Maha yugas or Divya yugas, which are nothing but about the journey

of the Sun along with our home planet at cosmic or galactic scale, let

us now explore the yuga classification at human level!

 

By a simple logic we say that if something of the nature of Maha yuga

exists (which is very often spoken by puranas and other olden texts),

there it is underlined that Mini yugas do exist at the bottom of the

classification. If Wave theory envisions an inverted pyramid,

denoting the springing of Creation from a single point to an ever

widening cosmos, we, standing at upper layers of the inverted pyramid

will see the immediate environment as simplified or fine-tuned form or

a miniature of the much complicated converging tip of the pyramid.

 

Here the question is whether the texts speak about a simplified model

of this Maha yuaga at human level.

 

Bhagawan Shree Krishna, the ever compassionate friend of mankind seems

to have given us several clues in this regard.

Let us begin like this.

 

At the human level, how did creation proceed?

Bhagawan says,

“The seven great seers of yore and similarly the four Manus, all

possessing my disposition, were born of My mind. All these creatures

of the world were descended from them” (BG –10-6)

 

The seven rishis of yore were the Saptha rishis who were the Manasa

puthras of Bhagawan at the beginning of the first Manvanthra. The

Saptha Rishis who are endowed with 7 special gunas (Vayu purana gives

the details) have been spoken of by the Bhagawan in Shanthi Parvam

(Mahabharatha) as those who have been commanded by Him to do the job

of Prajapathi.

 

The saptha Rishis change in every Manvanthra, that is, once in every

71 chatur yugas. A particular set of saptha rishis take care of,

supervise, devise rules and become Gothra-pravarthakas for human race

during those 30,67,20,000 years. If we look at further details in this

regard, we are pleasantly surprised to see some crucial astronomical /

cosmic data and connection with a cycle of a whole lot of generations

of mankind.

For simple understanding and for not stretching this essay too long to

the level of boredom, let me summarise them as follows:

 

(1) The 7 rishis as we see in the northern sky seem to rotate around

the Pole star (Dhruva) and as I said in the earlier mail, the circle

formed by the axis of earth’s rotation due to precession of equinoxes

encompasses the Saptha rishi mandalam (The Big Bear or Great Dipper).

The 7 rishis of the present Manvanthra are Vishwamithra, Jamadhagni,

Bhradwaja, Gouthama, Athri, Vasishta and Kashyapa and it is

interesting to note that according to texts, barring Athri and

Vasishta, others are not Maanasa puthras of Bhagawan. Science has so

far established that in spite of individual motion of all these

stars in different directions and in different speed, vasishta (the

6th star in the handle of the dipper) along with the fainter star

star Arundhathi (which is however not a binary), will seem to remain

together, as seen from the earth for thousands of years to come. The

implication is that Vasishta remains as he is from the beginning of

the 1st manvanthra when he was created by the sankalpa of the

Bahgawan.

 

(2) By saying that others are not maanasa puthras, it may be implied

that barring these two stars (Athri & Vasishta), others were formed

as second generation or third generation stars, as how our Sun is a

third generation star.

 

 

(3) It will be interesting if someone takes up the calculation given

in scriptures and produce computer models which in my opinion would

give the precise nature of how the 4 pole stars within the circle

formed by the precession would be replaced, with the complete

shifting of the circle once every 71 chatur yugas, thereby denoting a

new set of Saptharishis and a new cycle of human evolution and of

course a new place for the planet earth in the back drop of the

zodiac etc. This implies that Dhruva too changes from manvanthra to

manvanthra and it is to be investigated from scriptures whether, he

continues in the next generation of manvanthra too. If so the new

progression will continue to have this nakshathra. (Again a

challenging one for astronomers of today, who can however take clues

from our texts.) If not so, it is implied that repetition of events

continue in the new set up too, (just as saptha rishis etc) and

Dhruva’s story may once be enacted. But only that Dhruva may not be

known as Dhruva but by some other name!

 

(4) Here we don’t consider the 4 Manus for determining this mini

yuga cycle. (In the above quoted verse) the ‘PurvE chatwara:’ as

mentioned by Bhagawan are the 4 purva rishis of ‘sana’ type, namely,

Sanaka, Sanandhana, Sanaadhana and Sanathkumara whose job has been

earmarked as reviving and giving the world (mankind) the Athma jnana

when it disappears during pralaya.

 

 

(5) The verse also tells about ‘manava:’ or the 14 Manus and we

exclude them too for they too have been entrusted with lesser tasks

than the saptha rishis.

 

(6) Further on it is said by Bahgawan that other entities such as

Indra, manu-kumaras etc also change in each manvanthra. But the

crucial information for our exploration that who is responsible for

the propagation, sustenance etc of each manvanthra is replied as

‘saptha rishis’. This is made out in other puranas too by explaining

their 7 gunas and the 6 jobs they do.

 

 

Now coming to yuga classification at their level, Vedic astronomy

speaks about cycles of 28,800 years of precession of equinoxes when

the saptha rishis move around the 4 Dhruvas.

One interesting classification of Maha yugas, namely the split up of

the 4 yugas in the ratio 4:3:2:1 with a corresponding avathara of the

Lord (4 in Krutha yuga, 3 in Threta yuga, 2 in dwapara yuga and 1 in

Kali yuga or in other words, the Lord taking an avathara once every

10th of the total years of the of 4 yugas) perfectly applies to this

28,800 year cycle.

 

That is there are 15 cycles of 28,800 years in the Kali maha yuga of

4,32,000 years and 150 cycles in the entire Chatur yuga. For 1

manvanthra it is 150 x 71. In other words, 28,800 year cycle forms

the basic unit of the whole classification. This also makes us wonder

whether this cycle is indeed the mini yuga cycle.

 

 

Since every cycle is supposed to have 2 sides, like day and night,

white (remember swetha varaha in sankalpa sloka) and black (is the

night kalpa of the manvanthra known as Krishna something?), positive

and negative vibrations, progression and pralaya etc, let us divide

this period into 2. Then we arrive at the figure 14,400 which is

nothing but 120 times 120. This once again sounds interesting and

mystic too, in that the average life span of a man as covered by the

influence of the 9 planets is 120 (Krishna lived this entire span,

so too our Acharya Ramanuja).

 

The reasons for harping on these figures are as follows:

(1) First we have to explore and establish that a mini yuga does

exist and how it proceeds.

(2) The question on average life span which is described as running

to 1000s of years with particular reference to Raama’s reign for

11,000 years needs to be understood in proper perspective.

We will see the details of these in the next mail.

Regards,

Jayasree saranathan.