Shree Krishna tells Arjun,
इमं विवस्वते योगं प्रोक्तवानहमव्ययम् | …
Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam…- Gita 4.1
“Hey Arjun, this knowledge of the Gita is eternal. It is avyayam (imperishable). It exists eternally. It can never disappear or be destroyed. And I gave this same knowledge that I am giving to you now to Vivasvan, the celestial sun god. I gave it to him a long time ago, and he gave it to his son, Vaivasvat, and he gave it to his son, Ikshvaku, and it was passed on like that through generations of Rajarishis (Saintly kings). But eventually this knowledge became lost, you can say. It was unavailable for ordinary souls on the earth planet, so I am revealing the same knowledge again to you now.”
So Arjun asked, “But Vivasvan is the father of Vaivasvat, who is the current manu (progenitor of mankind for a manvantar). So You must have told this knowledge to him millions of years ago, before the current civilization began on this earth planet. So how is it possible for You? I see You standing here now before me. We are both here. How is it that You are saying that You gave this same knowledge to Vivasvan so long ago?”
The beginning of our manvantar (the reign of one manu) is more than 120 million years ago. That is when Krishna is saying He gave this knowledge to the father of our current manu. Manu means the one who started civilization on the Earth planet. There is a different manu for each manvantar. A day of Brahma has 14 manvantars. Just like our day has 12 hours and our night has 12 hours, Brahma’s day has 14 divisions. Each division is called a manvantar. And each manvantar is 71 cycles of the four yugas (ages). The four yugas are satyug (age of truth), treta yug, dwapar yug, and kali yug. One cycle of these four yugas is 4.32 million years.
Kali yug is 432,000 years long. Dwapar yug is twice that, 864,000 years long. Treta yug is three times that, 1,296,000 years long. And sat yug is four times the duration of kali yug, 1,728,000 years long. When you add them all up, you get 4,320,000 years. That is one mahayug (complete cycle of the four yugas), one full cycle through the four yugas. Do that 71 times and you get one manvantar. And 14 of those manvantars make one day of Brahma. So Brahma’s day is, in fact, 4,320,000,000 years long.
But Krishna is saying, “I am not talking about the beginning of Brahma’s day. I am just talking about the beginning of this manvantar.”
And we are in the 28th cycle of the four yugas in this manvantar. Remember, 71 cycles make the whole manvantar. We are through 28 cycles. So it is more than 120,000,000 years ago that Krishna is saying He gave this knowledge to Vivasvan. And he gave it to his son, Vaivasvat, who is the current manvantar’s Manu. So it means that Manu and his wife produced the first offspring on the Earth planet, and we are all descendants of them. That is why we are called manushya (human beings), because we are descended from Manu. And Manu is the son of Brahma. And Brahma is the son of Krishna. So, in fact, we are all children of Shree Krishna.
…अमृतस्य वै पुत्राः…
…amṛtasya vai putrāḥ..
The Vedas (eternal Divine scriptures) say,
“All souls are the children of Shree Krishna.”
And we do not just mean that figuratively. Literally, we are!
