By Abhaya Mudra Dasi
“The Manu named King Satyavrata formerly saved himself by tying the small boat of the entire world to the horn of the Matsya avatara, the fish incarnation. By the grace of the Matsya avatara, Manu saved himself from the great danger of the flood. May that same fish incarnation save us from the great and fearful danger caused by the son of Tvashta.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam 6.9.23)
A single event of the ancient world has been covered by a number of scriptures—even though some of these old historical texts are not generally considered as Vedic. Elements of the history of Vaivasvata Manu, our current Manu, can be found as the story of “Noah and the Flood” both in the Bible and in the Koran. The great flood is also described in some other scriptures including the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jasher. The inundation is also described in the Sumerian epic poem Gilgamesh. Manu, who is the progenitor of humanity, has made a significant mark on history. Therefore it is natural that he has been discussed in numerous scriptures from different periods throughout millennia. It would appear that the Noah we read about in the Bible is none other than the current Vaivasvata Manu.
The Book of Jasher, which is an apocryphal work (and which is twice mentioned in the Bible) says the following in 4.13-14 about the birth of Manu:
“And the wife of Lemech conceived and bore him a son at that time, at the revolution of the year. And Metushelach called his name Noach, saying, ‘The ground was in his days at rest and free from corruption.’ And Lamech his father called his name Menachem (Manu), saying, ‘This one shall comfort us in our works and miserable toil from the ground, which YHWH (God) had cursed.’”
In the book of Enoch—an ancient Jewish religious work that is mostly preserved in its original form in Ethiopia—Noah is described as a follower of God’s rule (dharma). It is written there that he lived during a period that had become degraded due to the intermingling of the demigods with human women and that this intermingling had produced giants of demonic nature. In time practically all humankind became corrupted. Foolish people began to worship mere inhabitant of the Earth as gods … a vice that continues till this day in our present Kali Yuga.
The different Manus are described in Shrimad Bhagavatam 8.13 and the flood is described later.
“O King Parikshit, at the end of the past millennium, at the end of Brahma’s day, because Lord Brahma sleeps during the night, annihilation took place and the three worlds became covered by the waters of the ocean. At the end of Brahma’s day, when Brahma felt sleepy and desired to lie down, the Vedas were emanating from his mouth, and the great demon named Hayagriva stole the Vedic knowledge. Understanding the acts of the great demon Hayagriva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, who is full of all opulence, assumed the form of a fish and saved the Vedas by killing the demon.” (SB 8.24.7-9).
Shrila Prabhupada comments, “Because everything was inundated by water, to save the Vedas it was necessary for the Lord to assume the form of a fish.” (Note that this verse does not relate to the form of Matsya who saved Manu at the end of a certain millennia when only a partial annihilation takes place.)
At the end of each Manvantara (lit. “rule of one Manu”), and before the next progenitor of humankind Manu takes charge, a total dissolution of the Earth—a flood—occurs. This is obviously the same devastating flood that is also described in the Bible, in the Book of Enoch and in the Book of Jasher. As Noah was an enlightened personality, he was saved from the flood along with other sages and his sons. It is said that his ark, or huge boat, remained atop the Malaya Mountain after the flood.
The Book of Jasher 5.13 discusses why Vaivasvata (Noah) was chosen as the present Manu:
And Noach was a just man, he was perfect in his generation, and YHWH chose him to raise up seed from his seed upon the face of all the earth.
The book describes the many long years during which the flood ravaged the Earth. It tells how all creatures had to endure being tossed from one side of the ark to the other. Despite the fear that Manu and the rest of the animals and sages endured in the boat, we know from Shrimad Bhagavatam that Lord Matsyadeva protected the ark throughout the flood’s duration.
After the flood Manu and his sons populated the Earth. The sons of Manu are mentioned as being three in number in the Book of Jasher, but the Vedic literature mentions at least ten amongst whom Ikshvaku is prominent. Since the Book of Jasher was scribed in a mleccha tongue, it mentions only the facts that are considered more important for the people of that time and who spoke that language:
“And these are the names of the sons of Noach: Yafe (Ikshvaku), Ham and Shem; and children were born to them after the flood, for they had taken wives before the flood.” (Book of Jasher 7.1)
It is interesting that in the line concerning Noah, the name of Rama appears along with the name of Kush in the same paragraph, possibly an indirect reference to Lord Shri Ramachandra:
“And these are the sons of Ham; Kush, Mitzraim, Put and Kanaan, four sons; and the sons of Kush were Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama and Satecha, and the sons of Raama were Sheba and Dedan.” (Book of Jasher 7.10)
After some years the children and descendants of Manu populated the entire Earth. Once again, in due course of time, the people again became irreligious. They built a city with the Tower of Babel that was supposed to reach for the heavens where they proposed to install human idols. According to the Bible, such misguided plans could not work and their skyscrapers were destroyed by the designs of the Lord. Assisted by His devotees (the demigods), the mouths of the inhabitants of the city were made to mispronounce their language, and thus Babel became the source of the English word “babble.” Since the citizens could no longer understand each other, conflicts arose and in this way they destroyed both the city and themselves. Thus different languages were created which now rendered the immoral citizens incapable of working together and considering competing with the demigods. Since this occurs at the end of Kali Yuga, we propose that this event this could have marked the end of another chatura-yuga cycle and the beginning of another Satya Yuga.
Manu is described in the Bhagavata as living for seventy-one yuga cycles. Our present Manu has already lived for twenty-eight yuga cycles. This means that already in his lifetime twenty-eight major destructions must have occurred with the onset of each consecutive Satya Yugas.
In the Book of Jasher the nations that were born from the sons of Manu are mentioned and some of them, like Turkey and Bulgaria, are still recognizable today:
“And the sons of Yafet the son of Noach went and built themselves cities in the places where they were scattered, and they called all their cities after their names, and the sons of Yafet were divided upon the face of the earth into many divisions and languages. And these are the names of all their families according to all their cities which were built to them in those days after the tower.” (10.6)
“And the children of Tugarma are ten families, and these are their names: Kuzar, Partzinak, Bulgar, Elikanus, Ragvina, Turki, Buz, Zabuk, Ongar and Tilmatz; all these spread and rested in the north and built themselves cities. And they called their cities after their names, those are they who abide by the rivers Hital and Altak unto this day. But [the families of] Angoli, Bulgar and Partzinak, they dwell by the great river Danuvi; and the names of their cities are also according to their names.” (10.10)
As those nations were directly founded by different sons of Manu, it is obvious that their history—and thus the history of the world—is much older than the fairy tale that “historians” have been trying to wholesale us for the past many centuries. For example, Bulgaria has a modern history of around 1300 years which today’s so-called scholarship considers as one of the oldest nations. Bulgaria has preserved its name throughout the ages, and according to this ancient verse the histories of these areas are far, far more ancient. The Danuvi River mentioned is obviously the Danube which till today forms the northern bondary between Bulgaria and Romania.
All nations have one father and one culture which is the selfsame Vedic culture that is rooted in the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Shri Krishna. Today there is a demoniac policy of dividing the nations and erasing their united history. Such political foul play has only one goal, which is to keep the world chained to an ignorant babble that prevents people from seeking the real goal of life, or Krishna consciousness.
By Patita Pavana dasa
By Sri Nandanandana dasa
