The story of creation

The material universe is temporary while spiritual universe is eternal. Material universe has
14 parts called lokas. One of them is Bhu i.e. Earth where we live. There are seven lokas
below Earth:-

Atal, Vital, Sutal, Talatal, Rasatal, Mahatal, Patal.

There are six locas above Earth:-

Bhuvar, Suvar, Mahar, Jan, Tap, Satya.

Lord Brahma lives in Satya lok.

Time is not the same in all lokas. Below, one year as measured on Earth is written as Earth
year. Please note that 1 Earth year = 360 day nights and not 365 or 366. This is because in
scriptures of Hinduism, one year equals 360 day nights.

There are 4 yugs. Their durations in Earth years are as given below:-
Satya yug(also called Krit yug) - 1,728,000
Treta yug - 1,296,000
Dwapar yug - 864,000
Kali yug - 432,000
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Total - 4,320,000

One revolution of the four yugs is called one Maha yug or one Divya yug. So, one Maha yug
equals 4,32,000 Earth years.

One day of Brahma equals 1000 Maha yugs i.e. 4.32 billion Earth years. His one night is of
the same duration.

When Brahma's night arrives, then he sleeps. At that time except the top four i.e. Mahar, Jan,
Tap, Satya, the other ten lokas are destroyed.

When Brahms's 100 years are over then all the 14 lokas i.e. the entire material universe is
destroyed and Brahma himself merges into the body of Lord Vishnu. After 100 years are over,
then the start of the next day, Brahma comes comes out and creates all the 14 lokas. Some
people believe that the same Brahma comes every time and some believe that after 100 years
a new Brahma comes.

In between on any new day, Brahma creates 10 lokas because they were destroyed the
previous night.
Out of the 100 years of the present Brahma, 50 years are already over. The 1st day of his 51st
year is going on. One day of Brahma is called as kalp. Let us go through creation in the
current day of Brahma:-

In the beginning of his current day, Brahma got up. He came out of a lotus flower coming out
of Lord Vishnu's navel. He created four sons from his mind. They are called as Kumar
brothers and their names are Sanak Kumar, Sanand Kumar, Sanatan Kumar and Sanat Kumar.
In spite of being very old, they always look like children. But they are highly knowledgeable.
They were not interested in family life. Not only that, they were not interested in any material
pleasures.

Then Brahma created following sages one after another: -

Marichi, Atri, Angira, Pulastya, Pulah, Kratu, Bhrigu, Vashishth, Daksh, Narad, Kardam.

Brahma thought that this was not sufficient to have enough population in the world. In order
for population to sustain, he needed to create both male and female. He created another body
just like himself. That body divided into two parts - male and female. Male was named
Swyambhuv and female was named Shatrupa.

Swyambuv and Shatrupa became husband and wife. Swyambhuv and Shatrupa had two sons
Priyavrat and Uttanpad and three daughters Akuti, Devhuti, Prasuti.

Akuti married Ruchi,

Devhuti married Kardam,
Prasuti married Daksh.

Kardam and Daksh were created by Brahma. Marichi created Ruchi from his mind while
Marichi himself was created by Brahma.

The descendants of the five children of Swyambhuv filled the world with population. This is
why Swyambhuv was given the tile of Manu, which means father of mankind.

In one day of Brahma there are 14 manus. Swyambhuv was the first manu. At present, there
is seventh manu named Sraddhadev; he is also called Vaivasvat Manu because he is the son
of Sun god Vivasvan.

Before a new Manu comes, majority of population becomes extinct. From Manu, population
again starts. That is why in any cycle of the new population creation, Manu is called as first
man. From Manu, the word Maanav has come, which means human. Since we are children of
Manu, we are Maanavs.Current Manu is Vaivasvat Manu. Therefore, we can say that
Vaivasvat Manu is the guardian of all mankind at present.

Before Akuti's marriage to Ruchi, Akuti's father Swyambhuv said that Swyambhuv himself
will raise the first male child of Ruchi and Akuti.

Ruchi and Akuti had a son named Yagya and a daughter named Dakshina. Yagya got the post
of Lord Indra at that time i.e. in the time of Swyambhuv Manu. During different manus, there
are different Indras.

Yagya was partial incarnation of Vishnu and Dakshina was partial incarnation of Laxmi. As
had been agreed upon, Swambhuv brought Yagya to his home while Dakshina remained with
Ruchi. When Yagya and Dakshina grew up, they married each other. This is one instance of
brother-sister marriage.

Yagya and Dakshina had 12 sons. They all became gods. As mentioned earlier, Yagya himself
became Indra i.e. king of gods.

Kardam and Devhuti had nine daughters and one son. The son was sage Kapil who was an
incarnation of Vishnu. The nine daughters were Kala, Ansuya, Shraddha, Havirbhu, Gati,
Kriya, Arundhati(also called Urja), Chitti, Khyati.

Kala married Marichi. They had one son Kashyap and one daughter Punima.
Ansuya married Atri and gave birth to Som, Dattatreya and Durvasa. Som became moon god.
Dattatreya and Durvasa became sages. Som was part of Brahma, Dattatreya was part of
Vishnu and Durvasa was part of Shiv.

Shraddha married Angira and gave birth to four daughters and two sons. One son Brihaspati
was a great scholar and he became the guru of gods.

Havirbhu married Pulastya and gave birth to two very famous sages Agasyta and
Vishrava.Vishrava was Ravan's father.

Gati married Pulah and gave birth to three great sages.

Kriya married Kratu and gave birth to sixty thousand great sages.

Arundhati married Vashishth and gave birth to seven great sages, the eldest of whom was
Chitraketu, who was a great devotee of Vishnu.

Chitti married Atharv and gave birth to a son named Ashwashir.

Khyati married Bhrigu and had two sons and one daughter. The daughter was named Sri and
she was an incarnation of Laxmi.

Thus the nine daughters of Kardam married sages created by Lord Brahma.

Daksh had thousands of sons. They became renunciates and did not have any children. After
that Daksh had 60 daughters who married sages and gods. One daughter Sati married Lord
Shiv.

Seventeen daughters of Daksh married sage Kashyap. These seventeen were mothers of
majority of living beings and gave births to various kinds of beings - gods, demons,
gandharvas, apsaras, animals, birds, snakes