The Manus and Yuga Cycles

Gurucharanam Saranam



The Manus and Yuga Cycles

(From the teachings of NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)



‘The present Kaliyuga is the Kaliyuga of the 28th Chaturyuga in the Manvantara of Vaivaswata Manu, the seventh Manu. The state of society depends on its comprehension and assimilation of the wisdom of the sages, which is encoded in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Our rulers kept us away from this knowledge. As a result, we as a people degenerated; we lost the capacity to understand the words of the wise. This is why we were not able to discern’.

(NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)



The Brahmic Will to be self-responsible for the divine dispensation for God-realization existed from the beginning of creation itself and continues incessantly. It is the same Godly Conception that manifests as the Subtle Being (the Impersonal Truth), Godhead (Manifested Truth), as a Deva (Deity), Sanyasi (Sage) or a Rishi and accepts worship through these mediums down the course of ages. But, there is a concept known as Yuga Dharma. Different eons like Satya, Treta and Dwapara had their characteristic dharmic dispensation, which in the present age – Kaliyuga – undergoes change. These changes in the dharmic code (Yuga Dharma) are brought about by sages and seers of transcendental wisdom, who manifest as the embodiment of enlightenment and Godly abstraction. NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru said.

According to the Rishis, the transition of Yugas, propelling the wheel of dharma, happens according to the Will of God and in accordance with the laws of Manu – the primordial human ancestor and preceptor. It is mentioned that the time period of a creation consists of 14 Manvantaras, or cosmic time segments. Each of this time segments is under a Manu, hence it is known as Manvantara.

There are thus 14 Manus in a creation. Each Manvantara is again divided into 71 Chaturyugas. One Chaturyuga consists of four yugas – Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali.

The preceptors or Rishis coming under the Manu lineage are known as Manu Parampara and the Dharma revealed through them is called Manu Dharma, or Sanatana Dharma (eternal dharma). Because of the error of a preceptor in the lineage of Manus, the real spiritual experience and grace of God was lost, as explained below in the words of Guru. This occurred in the 3rd Chaturyuga of this Manvantara. A great spiritual void followed subsequent to this, and mankind lost the knowledge about Manu and Manu Dharma.

'The present is the seventh Manvantara. In the third Chaturyuga of this Manvantara, a great soul in the tradition of Manu perceived that there is no action in this world that is not Manu’s. He saw this in all planes – the sookshmam (subtle), sthoolam (corporeal), kaaryam (cause), and kaaranam (effect). Out of this experience came the Chaturvakyas, or the four great enunciations. The very first one is, Aham Brahmasmi – I am the Brahman, the Absolute. He proved it to the people with the power of logic. He was full of his oneness with the Brahman, which he went on to mistake for himself being the Brahman.

Each one of us, each blade of grass, is full of the Brahman. But, is the Will of the Almighty confined to an individual evolute? One concludes: this sage did not have the grace to discriminate between the Absolute and the individual even if the individual has had the realization of the Absolute. Thus was blurred his awareness of the Will of the Absolute’.

Guru has further revealed that the cosmic time calculation of yugas was subsequently altered by a preceptor in the Trimurthy tradition. Only a ‘Kalanthara Guru’ – a Guru who brings about epochal changes – could see far deep into the cosmic time segments and evaluate this error.

‘What we are going through is the time-order of Manvantaras. That is our perspective or cognition of the world. In the Manu tradition, a great spiritual evolute fell from grace. As a result, the Brahman initiated a corrective in the seventh Chaturyuga, which was brought to a completion in the eleventh Chaturyuga. Thereafter, astral matters related to Mukti were revealed, which got codified as Vedas, Sastras and the Upanishads, without changing the old Manvantara order (to reaffirm that order).

Since the sages could not transcend those who received these astral matters, they did not inquire into the reason why they had received such knowledge, but used their intellect in understanding the path shown by the Almighty and charted their version of the Manvantara time-order – Chaturyugas, Manvantaras and Kalpas – as subservient to Brahma. Thus, they could not invoke Manu, the First Guru, and grasp the Error and correct it. This is a peril that has befallen us. The Error was repeated again and again as the evolutes, who were the spiritual authorities of revealed knowledge, could not discover the mystery and unravel it in full before us’.


Mukundan PR