‘Do you believe in the legend or myth of Manu’s Ark, Vidyut?’ enquired Dwarka Shastri.
He was not going to unfurl the reality of Vidyut and his own deep association with Manu and the Ark.
Not yet.
‘There are thousands of examples around us that point to a lost civilization, Vidyut. Towards ancient wisdom that went missing in the sands of time...or should I say drowned to the depth of the great oceans,’ said Dwarka Shastri.
Vidyut was listening intently.
‘Think hard and observe carefully, my son. You will see signs of a lost age everywhere. Let me start with some widely known myths and tales. You are a well-read man. You have in-depth knowledge of your epics and scriptures. So tell me, who were the people or characters that were present across both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, even though these two epics are separated by eons in time?’
After just a few seconds of mentally scanning through the great epics, Vidyut responded, ‘Well, there was definitely Lord Hanuman – we find him present in both the epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. He was Lord Rama’s greatest devotee and the Ramayana would be incomplete without his tales of valor and wit. Whether it was the burning of the golden city of Lanka or the leaping across vast seas, Hanuman is omnipresent in the Ramayana. He later finds several mentions in the Mahabharata as well, where he crushes the conceit of the great Bheema in the form of a small monkey. He eventually places himself on the banner of Arjuna’s chariot during the great battle of Kurukshetra.’
‘Good, but this one was easy. Who else?’ enquired Dwarka Shastri, clearly enjoying this conversation.
‘Then there is the mighty bird Garuda – carrier of none other than Lord Vishnu himself. Garuda comes to the help of
Rama and Lakshman during the Ramayana, when the demon prince Meghnaad or Indrajeet strikes them with the infamously potent weapon, the Naagpasha. Garuda is summoned immediately to devour the poisonous serpents entrenched in the weapon. Then during the Mahabharata, or Krishnavatara, Garuda appears again, during Krishna’s battle with the raakshasa king Narakasur.’
The matthadheesh was smiling. ‘I am impressed, Vidyut. Now give me one last example.’
‘Baba, then there was the great warrior-saint Parashurama. Believed to be one of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu, Parashurama presents himself at the Swayamvara (wedding) of Sita, annoyed with the breaking of Lord Shiva’s bow Pinaaka by Rama. Later, in the Mahabharata he teaches the art of warfare to the three great warriors – Bheeshma, Dronacharya and Karna.’
‘Excellent!’ exclaimed Dwarka Shastri. ‘Now tell me this, Vidyut – what do you find common between the three names you have spoken about? What is a shared trait among Hanuman, Garuda and Parashurama?’
Vidyut had no real clue. He thought for a few moments, but could not find any connecting dots between Lord Hanuman, the powerful celestial bird Garuda and the legendary annihilator of evil, Parashurama.
‘Sorry Baba, but I am unable to see anything that these iconic personalities had in common. They are all so different in every sense!’
‘Yes, they are different. But there is one trait that binds them into one category. And that trait is speed. If you remember your epics well, Vidyut, all three were known for their ability to travel faster than mann ki gati or the speed of thought. Hanuman travelled at such lightning speed that he had leapt to swallow the Sun. Garuda was chosen by Lord Vishnu as his vehicle because of Garuda’s unparalleled velocity. Parashurama enjoyed a boon that permitted him to travel and reach any destination at the speed of thought!’
The grand old man paused for a few moments to allow his great grandson to absorb what he had just explained. After the brief interval, he continued.
‘Now do you find it to be a strange coincidence that the three characters that are present across eons of time, are the very three characters that could, proverbially, travel at, or perhaps even faster than, the speed of light?’
‘Oh my God!’ Vidyut jumped in a Eureka moment. ‘Are you saying that their eternally youthful presence across hundreds and thousands of years was possible because they were travelling at the speed of light?! And as per deductions of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, anyone travelling faster than light would experience time passing at a much slower speed than his static counterparts?’
‘Precisely, Vidyut!’ replied the grandmaster. ‘But the real question is this – if Einstein lived and propounded the Theory of Relativity only in the 20th century, how did the ancient rishis who wrote the epics and scriptures thousands of years ago, have any idea about such a modern scientific breakthrough? How did they know that only divine beings equipped with the speed of light could live across eons?’
By now the great grandfather and great grandson duo had discussed and shared scores of clues, insinuations and events from the ancient scriptures that pointed towards a society that was scientifically perhaps even more advanced than the present state of the human race.
‘Till telescopes were invented, it was impossible to differentiate between stars and planets. Then how did the ancients know there were nine planets or Navagraha in the solar system? In the Ramayana, Lakshman gets annoyed at king Janaka’s lamenting about the absence of valor in Aryavarta, and describes how he could toss the Earth like a ball. The Varaha avatara of Lord Vishnu is described as pulling Prithvi out of the deluge like a globe between its tusks. The earliest recorded mention of our planet being round was in Greek texts dating around the 6th century BCE. It did not become an accepted concept till as late as the 3rd century BCE, after Pythagoras championed it around 500 BCE. Then how did ancient Indians know about it hundreds or thousands of years before this time and describe the Earth as a sphere in the epics?’ added Vidyut to all the stunning nuances his great grandfather was pulling out from Indian mythology.
Dwarka Shastri was delighted to see his beloved Vidyut accepting and contributing to what he was trying to elucidate. He walked to his bookshelf and pulled out a volume that looked as if it were a million years old. The matthadheesh opened this prehistoric looking book and flipped its pages to look for some references.
‘Ayurveda, or the primeval Indian ‘science of life’, will dazzle you even more, Vidyut. Two ancient rishis, Sushruta and Charaka, have recorded volumes on sophisticated medicine and surgery. How could people, who had no access to technological instruments to study the impact of medication at a molecular level, execute advanced surgical procedures and offer spectacularly effective prescriptions? The Sushruta Samhita lists over 700 medicinal plants. But without elaborate testing laboratories and or even basic microscopes, how did they know these plants had healing properties? How could they perform surgeries as complex as caesarian section, removal of the prostrate gland, fitting of prosthetics...all without modern anesthetics?’
‘That is so true, Baba. And do you know, the portrayal given in the scriptures of the aftermath of the apocalyptic weapon Brahmaastra, has an uncanny similarity with the description of the atomic bomb explosion given by the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?’
‘Yes, I have read that, Vidyut. There was certainly a plethora of knowledge and scientific wherewithal with our primordial ancestors which got lost somewhere as the centuries passed. A star, which is now called Antares, is the 15th brightest object in the night sky. But the ancients called it Jyestha or the eldest or the biggest. Why would they do that, unless they knew that the Antares is indeed the biggest star in the night-sky, about 40,000 times the size of our Sun? Without massive telescopes like the Hubble, this knowledge was not possible!’
The grand old man and his impressive protégé sat there in the matthadheesh’s large room. They both had a profound and mystical connection with the ancient wisdom they were now unpeeling, layer by layer.
Like the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus had said, the only thing constant in the cosmos is change. The glory of India or Aryavarta that once held the key to the universe’s greatest wisdom, was slowly corroded by the passage of time and the connivanc
e of foreign powers in cahoots with a section of its own children.
Magnificent India has always been victim to betrayal by its own creed. Whether it was Aambhi who welcomed Alexander to the borders of the great sub-continent or Jaichand who conspired against the Rajput king Prithviraj; whether it was a Mir Jafar at Plassey, or an Ilahi Baqsh in the mutiny of 1857; whether it were the landlords who remained loyal to the British or those who propel western imperialistic, anti-national agendas even today - this splendid country, this nucleus of boundless wisdom, has been agonizingly unfortunate.
Harappa, 1700 BCE
SON AFTER SON, GENERATION AFTER GENERATION
Sura kicked the leathery remains of the sixth Saptarishi towards the fire. The icy wind and the punishing hailstorm were wreaking havoc on the morale of the asuras. The curse and the foretelling of the arrival of doomsday had terrified them to the core, their king included. It was only their stubborn madness that made them carry this now pointless slaughtering on. The crashing in the high mountains was nearing at an unnerving pace.
‘Stop, Sura! Did you not hear the tormented prophecy of Sara Maa?’ screamed Vivasvan Pujari, pointing towards the sapphire inferno that had engulfed five of the divine sages.
‘Were your ears deaf to the curse? What do you seek now, O asuras?’
Sura was as enraged as he was afraid. From the moment they had stepped into the abode of the Saptarishi, nothing was going as he had planned. Intoxicated with unbridled ambition and smelling an absolute victory round the corner, he had expected a swift elimination of the sages, paving the way for his unquestioned rule over all of Aryavarta and beyond. But the night had been a haunting one, to say the least. The unexplained aging and terrifying crumpling of the Saptarishi, their deathly white eyes, the raging blue fire, the nerve-wracking blizzard and now the horror of the curse!
Is the universe conspiring against my ascension to the throne of known Earth?
‘Back off, O a-devta!’ shouted the demon-king.
He walked towards Vivasvan Pujari, prancing purposefully on the rocky surface to accentuate his defiance.
‘You knew it, didn’t you?’ he asked the devta in an accusatory tone.
‘I told you Sura, these are just the mortal remains of the Saptarishi. Why do you think they age so horrendously? Because their immortal souls are gone. They are grandmasters of yogic sciences. Using their siddhi they have long abandoned their bodies. As we speak, their souls are somewhere else... and I think I know where...’ Vivasvan Pujari tried to reason.
Sura ignored every word the devta had said.
‘You knew these mayaavi a-rishis would unleash this black magic on us...’ he muttered to himself, his eyes darting and looking increasingly insane.
Suddenly Sura turned to his asuras and spoke belligerently, making his announcement like he was already the supreme overlord of everything and everyone around.
‘Do not let these dark tricksters fool you, my brave warriors! There is no curse! These wicked sages were master illusionists. All this is nothing more than deception conjured up by these wily wizards!’
The demon-king unsheathed his massive bone-cutter and raised it to the frightening sky.
‘Rise of the kingdom of the mighty Asuras!’ he shouted.
His vicious soldiers responded with their signature savagery. Each one of them brandished his lethal weapon and joined his king in challenging the Gods!
‘Rise of the kingdom of the mighty Asuras!’
They chanted in deafening unison.
Sura turned to look at the cruel commander of his elite regiment, who immediately understood what his bloodthirsty king wanted. He now tore into the sixth rishi through his back with a massive spear and lifted him on his pike like a hunter picks up dead game. The shriveled rishi let out a painful aaah, before he was stoked into the flames, still hanging on the long spear like a lump of meat being roasted. Still alive.
The commander and the fifty savages erupted in wild guffaws.
Just like the five sons of the Saraswati, the cindering sixth sage now spoke, from the heart of the blue embers.
“You make a feeble attempt to stop these butchers with mere words, O devta! And that when you are the possessor of the mighty cosmic weapon granted to you by the Gods! That when you bear the great Ratna-Maru! So be it.
Just the manner in which you have watched the divine Sages burn one after the other on this fateful night, fate will watch your lineage perish violently, son after son, generation after generation. I curse you and your entire bloodline, O fallen devta...
Every single son of your descent will die a death as violent and as horrible as the spectacle today!
I CURSE YOU! AND YOUR ENTIRE BLOODLINE!
THIS CURSE SHALL LAST TILL THE END OF
TIME!”
Just as before, Vivasvan Pujari did not flinch. Nevertheless, he was painfully bewildered.
How could the trikaal-darshi Saptarishi not know?
He folded his hands, ashamed and distraught as he was, and made his submission to the blurring figure of the burning rishi.
‘I accept your curse, just as I have always accepted your blessings. I deserve a violent and insufferable end. But you seem to forget, O great rishi...I will have no bloodline. My only son, the best son in the world...my Manu is already dead.’
He sighed and paused for a moment, choking in his tears and sorrow.
‘And yes, he probably did die an excruciating death...true to your curse, O rishi...my Manu died mutilated and poisoned!’
Before the sixth Saptarishi softly erupted into ashes, his voice spoke for the last time...this time with more pity than fury.
“You have turned truly blind, Vivasvan. A supreme human that could once gaze deep into the souls of men and into the sands of time, is today oblivious to his own child.
Your son lives, O tarnished Surya! And it shall be he, who will see the first rays of morning after the Great Deluge subsides.
Manu Pujari...will be the protector of all Creation!
AND SHALL BE KNOWN AND IMMORTALISED AS SATYAVRATA MANU...THE GUARDIAN OF ETERNAL TRUTH!
We pity you, you unfortunate father, you corrupted half-God!”
Banaras, 2017
THE DARK BROTHERHOODS PART III
‘It was the US President Woodrow Wilson who first used the term New World Order publicly,’ said Dwarka Shastri. ‘While it was in reference to the League of Nations that was established after the First World War, many believe it was the day the Order decided to gradually begin revealing its presence and its vision of establishing a totalitarian global government.’
‘Baba, before we move on, can you please trace the journey of the Order right from the time of the Knights Templar?’ asked Vidyut.
The matthadheesh nodded and spent a minute in collecting his thoughts, as he sat back on a large armchair.
‘The Knights Templar amassed such spectacular wealth that they are said to have owned the entire island of Cyprus. Their weapons and battle gear was the finest money could buy. As if their military might was not adequate, the Knights Templar were declared to be above all laws, as decreed by Pope Innocent II.’
‘What does that mean, Baba? Above all laws...?’
‘It basically meant that the Templars had to follow no local laws, could travel between kingdoms unstopped and unquestioned, had to pay no taxes and could kill at will.’
‘So there was a concerted joint effort by the king and the Church to transform the Knights Templar into the world’s most powerful brotherhood...’ said Vidyut aloud.
‘Precisely. But it is not the rise of the Templars that was as dramatic as their painful end. At the dawn of Friday, the 13th of October, 1307 AD, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest, torture and execution of hundreds of Templars. Fake charges of heresy were slapped, confessions were extracted via inhuman torture and executions carried out swiftly. A brotherhood that dominated Europe and the Middle East for centuries, was crushed brutally in a matter of days...’
‘They say King Philip owed so much money to the Knights
Templar, that he used mere allegations as an excuse to summarily destroy the Templars, and therefore simultaneously extinguish the huge debt he had mounted as a result of his war with England. But there is more to it. Once again the Church was deeply involved and the charges made were purely religious. So this time the king and the priest came together to accuse the brotherhood that spent hundreds of years protecting Christianity – of sacrilege! Clearly, at one time the Templars were an asset. Then something changed in the world-view or master plan of the underground society, and the Templars turned into a liability. The forces at play were the same. The same secret puppeteers who built and exploited the Templars, destroyed them in one swift stroke when their work was done.’
‘But what do you think could have been the reason behind this brutal annihilation, Baba?’
‘Who can say for sure, Vidyut? Like I explained, the secret brotherhood has a global blueprint spanning hundreds of years. A small change in the socio-political dynamics in one part of the world triggers a major revamping of their master plan, to stay aligned to their vision. Do you know the Knights Templar were not even permitted to surrender? No trials were held. No public hearing. The rapidity with which the entire purging was done, points to just one reality –
The Templars knew something that the secret society did not want revealed.’
‘So with the end of the Knights Templar, what happened to the secret brotherhood, Baba?’
‘Just like a terrifying mythical monster, the clandestine society of the world’s most powerful men and women kept shedding its skin, changing its identity and growing in influence. They slowly but surely established some of the world’s biggest business barons and banking institutions. They began to control the world economy, and with it everything that mattered – pharmaceuticals, oil, stock markets, weapons, technology and politics.
Pralay- The Great Deluge Page 15