A View of Santhigiri Ashram

A View of Santhigiri Ashram
Lotus Parnasala and Sahakarana Mandiram , Santhigiri Ashram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The History of Original Sin and the Manu Cycles



Gurucharanam Saranam


The history of the ‘original sin’ and the Manu cycles is a very important topic because it has the potential to unite us spiritually. The history of Manu or Adam is shrouded in mystery. The Bible writers mention about the story of Adam and Ave and the sin they committed against the will of God. It is presented as a myth, which is both conceptually vague and lacking in historical details. The Adam myth relates to a long forgotten spiritual error in the history of human race, which is little different from the one mentioned in the Bible. First of all, Bible creates the impression that Adam and Eve were the first human beings who lived in the garden of God (it is not clear whether it was on the earth or in the heaven) and that their sexual union after eating the forbidden apple had caused their fall.

The Biblical myth related to Adam in the Genesis and his lineage up to Noah appears in one of the Hindu Puranas (Bhavishya Purana, 4th Ch.). It has been mentioned here that Adaman and Haimavati (equivalent to Adam and Eve) were living in their heavenly abode. Adaman ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of sin and they were expelled from the heavens. The names of Adaman’s successors have close resemblance to the Biblical names, Adam for Adaman, Seth for Shwethanama, Enoch for Anoohan, Kenan for Keenashan, Mahallalel for Mahallalan, Methuselah for Manochillan, Lamech for Lomakan and Noah for Newhan.

However, I shall present a different version of the original sin and the spiritual status of Adam according to the original vision of Indian rishis (sages). The word Adam was derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Adi’ (the First or Origin) says Blavatsky, the Russian mystic, who was one of the founders of the Theosophical Society in her book The Secret Doctrine: ‘Even the name of the first man (Adam) in the Mosaic Bible had its origin in India… the words ‘Ad’ and ‘Adi’ mean in Sanskrit ‘the First’, in Armenian, ‘One’ (Ad-ad, the Only One); in Assyrian, ‘Father’, whence Ak-Ad or ‘Father Creator’. And once the statement is found correct it becomes rather difficult to confine Adam to the Mosaic Bible alone and to see therein simply a Jewish name’. (The Secret Doctrine, Adam Adami, Page 44).

The equivalent name for Adam and Eve in Indian spirituality is Manu and Satarupa. Manu is not an earthly creation. He is the First Born of God or the First Cosmic Person, the Father in Heaven.  A solar system is born out of the conception of Manu. Because of this, the rishis calculated the age of the universe in terms of Manvantara, after the name of Manu. Fourteen such Manus or Adams appear in a single episode of creation called ‘Kalpa’ which is time-space continuum formed by billions of years (4,320,000,000 years). The time of one Manu cycle is equal to 306,720,000 years consisting of 71 age-quartets or chaturyugas. One chaturyuga consists of four cosmic ages (Yugas), viz. Satya (golden age), Treta, Dwapara and Kali. We are living in the Kali Yuga, the last leg of the 28th age-quartet of the seventh Manu cycle. Kali Yuga has a duration of 4,32,000 years and it has begun only 5200 years ago after the time of Sri Krishna.

The first ray of life originated in the waters of the earth billions of years ago out of the copulation of cosmic rays from the sun and moon in rhythm with the planetary movements in the solar system and in alignment with twenty seven stars and twelve constellations (zodiacs). Life evolved and evolved and it became man, in the perfect image of God. The spiritual evolution of man happens through a brotherhood of Mahatmas or Preceptors, who appear at the turn of every age (as well as within the duration of a long age), according to the spiritual requirement of every age. This is the spiritual administration of God known as Sanatana Dharma, meaning the ‘Eternal Religion’.  I mentioned all this mind-blowing details as a preamble to explain when and how the original sin occurred.

Everything went on in accordance with the Will of God. Then a great preceptor in the Manu lineage committed an error by equating himself to God. His name was Satyatrana. In his spiritual ecstasy and supreme God realization, he uttered:  ‘I am God’. It went against the Will of God and he fell from the grace of God. An individual evolute may realize God but cannot equate himself to God. The mistake had egoistic origin. The above said error happened in the 3rd chaturyuga of the present Manu cycle. As a consequence, a curse came from God: ‘May the memory of Manu be erased from the human race’. Thus, the awareness about Manu, the Adam of human race was lost. A long age of darkness followed. Then, in the 7th chaturyuga, God initiated a correction through three spiritual entities – Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. Thereafter, the system of worshiping gods and goddesses in different names and manners originated all over the world – in India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, etc.

The very error, which happened to Satyatrana gets repeated with the gods too as gods began to be equated with the Supreme. A preceptor in this tradition charts the cosmic time order of Manus as subservient to Brahma, the god of creation in Hinduism. Gods were erroneously equated with the supreme God through mythological treatises (puranas). The Will of God is violated…  Interpolations take place in the scriptures. The way of spiritual guidance through the sages in the Manu lineage is ignored. A system of worship based on the propitiation of gods and goddesses gains strength in which priests became the spiritual authority.

The spiritual order of Manu was distorted. Great avatars like Krishna and Buddha and various other sages appeared to rectify this error. When their efforts failed, God sends messengers and prophets such as Moses, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed and others in other parts of the world. It has been revealed that 2444 Gurus have taken birth in India and in different parts of the world for this purpose since the beginning of this Kali age. The story does not end there. The prophets and messengers of God are persecuted by powerful super-evil spirits scuttling the mission of these messengers. The Will of God remains unfulfilled and humanity suffers again without true spiritual guidance. Then all great souls pray for a divine intervention. Several sages predict the imminent birth of a Divine Soul in the 20th century.

September 1st, 1927 – a Divine Soul is born in Kerala, known as Gods Own Country. His name is Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru. God initiates a long awaited correction through Him. In the year 1973, revelations were made to the Guru from the Supreme Light about the aforesaid history of the original sin occurred in the spiritual order of Manu. These revelations are never available in any scriptures. It is a new beginning, a new spiritual dawn.

Mukundan P.R.