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Primitive Pin Hole eyes of a sea creature |
One day in the life of Brahma consists of fourteen parts with each being associated with a different Manu. We are currently in the seventh Manu period of the current day in Brahma’s life. Chakshusa is the name of the manu previous to ours. The word Chakshu stands for eyes. The meaning of the word Raivata, the name of the previous Manu, is associated with abundance and is seen to coincide with the explosion of species 500-590 million years ago. The preceding period Manu has the name Tamasa referring to inertia which is an appropriate characterization of the great glaciations on planet Earth. Evolution probably came to a standstill during that period. The names of the first three Manus also have interesting association to evolutionary trends.
Vedic astronomy defines really large time units such as the Kalpa, the Manus and the Mahayugas. The scale of these units have hitherto appeared as a fancy of a megalomaniac poet. A careful study of the large time scale model reveals the importance given in it to the numbers 71 and 14. The former denotes the number of years taken to notice a slip of a day in the annual date of the equinoxes or to observe the precession of one degree. The latter denotes the precession degrees per year as recognized by Surya Siddhanta, an ancient astronomical text as a fraction 7/500 or 14/1000. In addition to conveying astronomical knowledge the Kalpa system of time units is also conveying evolutionary markers related to life forms.