Krita Yuga (Satya Yuga) according to Manusmruti; Sathya Sai discourse extracts on it; What about Muddenahalli group Sathya Yuga (Krita Yuga)?
In response to my Facebook post asking Muddenahalli group leaders to give us more details about their Sathya Yuga, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1673812349502002, bro. Ivan Escalona wrote a knowledgeable about Vedic (Hindu) scripture comment which I felt appropriate to share as a separate post (bro Ivan was OK with this post being put up).
Ivan Escalona wrote:
I think that definition of Satya Yuga is inaccurate. For one thing lets take that in Satya yuga (actually from what Ive seen, Swami always refered to it as krta yuga and not satya yuga) there are a lot of troubles from time to time, for instance you see that the first 4 of the dashavatara of Vishnu incarnated in this era, mind you, hiranyaksha and hiranya kashipur conquered the 3 worlds and put every good person to death, religion ceased, atheism was on the rise and he even tried to change the name of hari from the vedas to hiranyakashipur for instance. So we can see that krta yuga is not the paradise everyone imagine, I grant it that it is a more pure era in the sense that all the legs of dharma are standing.
I think what makes it a big challenge for them to explain is things like the ones that appear in the vedas regarding it. I recall some of things from the Manu Smrti about this yuga. Swami have said that this Manu Smriti is the most highest scripture of dharma there is, all the other dharma shastras come from it.
For one thing it is said that in krta yuga people will live an average of 400 years, it is in Kali where the people are expected to live 100 years. The prescribed way of liberation in kali age is namasmarana and the prescribed dharma is charity or service, whereas in krta yuga it is dhyana, but not just your regular 5min jyoti meditation before going to work, a dhyana that lasts for hundreds and even thousand of years and the prescribed dharma is tapas (like the ones we see in the puranas that after then they were granted boons and so and so). No I ask them, if we are in Krta yuga, then of what avail was all of Swami's instructions on namasmarana and bhajans and his insistance on those if we are now to do another practice of which actually few of not nobody knows of and doesnt have the strength or even enough lifespan to perform. But wait, there is more, in Kali Yuga the Manu smriti is not the best one to follow, but the parashara smriti, in krta yuga the manu smriti is the one to follow, so how are we going to do this? We should now have kings ruling us, not presidents and not democracies... Also it is said that in Krta yuga we are accountable for other people's sins, in threta it is a country that its accountable for having a sinner citizen, in dwapara yuga it is the family, only in kali yuga we are accountable only for our own sins regardless of our association with sinners. So how is it going to be now?
And speaking of sins, kali yuga is suposed to end with the destruction of the sinners on the hands of kalki avatar. People often say swami is the kalki avatar, I disagree and will elaborate on this:
Kalki avatar is suposed to be married (twice if im not mistaken). He will be born from the last brahmin family that will exist in the face of the earth, today there are still lots of brahmin families. The kalki purana actually gives the name of the parents but I honestly dont remember them, but looking at our Swami, was he born in a brahmin family?? No. Kalki avatar is suposed to be here for 1000 years, so even if people will try to justify this by adding up the ages of the three sai avataras then Prema Sai would have to live for over 800 years so one can only figure how the plot is thickening. Another one is that kalki avatar will be trained in combat arts by parasurama avatar, he will be his guru, was Swami trained by any guru? He didnt even had upanayanam as I recall now, did he? Swami had 16 kalas, we all know that and many pose proud to have recognized and met and interacted with such a powerful avatar, kalki avatar on the other hand will have 8 kalas. So what are we talking about? Finally bhagavan vyasa will come out of his hiding place and will reveal himself and recognize kalki avatar as such.
--- end comment ---
Ravi: I thought I will browse the net to provide some reference sites for what bro. Ivan has written above.
From http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/manusmriti_1.asp, Manusmriti, The Laws of Manu - Part 1, Trnaslated by George Bühler:
Chapter I
81. In the Krita age Dharma is four-footed and entire, and (so is) Truth; nor does any gain accrue to men by unrighteousness.
...
83. (Men are) free from disease, accomplish all their aims, and live four hundred years in the Krita age, but in the Treta and (in each of) the succeeding (ages) their life is lessened by one quarter.
...
85. One set of duties (is prescribed) for men in the Krita age, different ones in the Treta and in the Dvapara, and (again) another (set) in the Kali, in a proportion as (those) ages decrease in length.
86. In the Krita age the chief (virtue) is declared to be (the performance of) austerities, in the Treta (divine) knowledge, in the Dvapara (the performance of) sacrifices, in the Kali liberality alone.
--- end extracts from Manu Smruti ---
Some words about Krita Yuga (i.e. Satya Yuga) from Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's discourses are given below:
1) From http://www.sssbpt.info/summershowers/ss2000/ss2000-13.pdf, 27 May 2000:
In the Krita Yuga it was tapas,
In the Tretya Yuga it was yajna,
In the Dwapara Yuga it became worship,
And now in the Kali Yuga it is namasmarana.
Embodiments of Love! Students, Boys and Girls!
The teachings of Manu offer an unsurpassed guide for achieving lasting happiness and joy in each and every yuga or age. Manu declared that for the Krita Yuga the right path was penance and meditation; for the Treta Yuga it was performing appropriate yajnas [Vedic rituals]; for the Dwapara Yuga the prescribed path was worship, and for the Kali Age it is namasmarana or chanting the Name of the Lord.
...
The people of the Krita Age were engaged in the constant meditation of the Lord. They meditated not for just a few minutes or hours or even days; they were always absorbed in the thought of God. They were guided by the scriptural teaching:
Sarvada Sarvakalesu Sarvatra Hari Cintanam.
Contemplate on God at all times and under all circumstances. In those days, people were beyond unworthy desires and narrowminded feelings. Their hearts were pure, their feelings were sacred, their mind was mature, and they were ever in bliss. They therefore never entertained any petty or worldly desires. They enjoyed God’s grace and were blessed with good crops as well as all the other needs of daily life. Such people are not to be found these days. The essence of bharatiya culture was amply reflected in the behaviour, conduct, and the sacred feelings of the people of the Krita Yuga. People of those times sought unity in diversity. They did not have any kind of dissatisfaction or discontent. A sacred heart produces a mature mind. In that age, life moved at a leisurely pace. Unlike people of modern times who are tied to rigid schedules, they did not have specific meals at specific times, like breakfast, lunch, etc. They did not have the wide variety of vegetables that is available today. Their meals were thus very simple in nature; they ate rice with curds in the morning and did so again at night. That is why people of those days were both healthy and strong. They made use of all available time for contemplating on God. However, with the passage of time, this practice of simple living and high thinking began to get slowly eroded.
2) From http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume29/d960712.pdf, Prasanthi Nilayam, 12 July 1996:
There is nothing greater than the chanting of the Divine Name in this Kali Age. This is the best medicine for all worldly ills. Meditation, sacrifice, and worship) are prescribed as the primary means of liberation in the Krita, Treta and Dwapara Yugas, respectively. Namasmarana (remembrance of the name) is the easiest path to liberation in this Kali Yuga.
Therefore, people born in this yuga are more fortunate than those that lived in the other three yuga. But, unfortunately, people today are not able to follow such an easy path. You are unable to sit steadily even for a couple of minutes. Then what sort of penance can you perform? It is impossible. Therefore, take refuge in namasmarana. There is no greater spiritual discipline (sadhana) than this. When you continuously sing the Divine Name, it drives away all your evil qualities. You yourself can see how blissful you become when you sing the Divine Name. That is why God is described as Ganalola and Ganapriya (lover of music).
--- end divine discourse extracts ---
Ravi: So now that Muddenahalli group is out of Kali Yuga and into Satya Yuga (Krita Yuga), it would be wonderful if Shri B.N. Narasimhamurthy and Shri Madhusudhan Naidu give some details about Muddenahalli Satya Yuga (Krita Yuga) like what has been given above.
====================================================================
Some additional input from FB post comment exchanges:
Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Great input, Ivan Escalona. Thanks a ton. I would like to put up your comment alone as a Facebook post, and even put it up on my FREE blog, to give it more visibility. Are you OK with either or both? ... In this context, I would like to add that I was told some years ago (before Mahasamadhi), by a faculty of the Sai university, who is a Sai university alumnus and somebody with some interest in such scriptural matters, that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba does not appear in every Kali Yuga! He has chosen to appear in this particular yuga-cycle! But I don't know whether this has been mentioned in any Sai literature, and so cannot comment on the authenticity of the info.
----------
Ivan Escalona wrote:
Please do so, it is not mine, it is vaidika vidya, so it belongs to the humanity!
...
I have only heard that, not read it. But it is true, in every maha yuga or cycle of 4 yugas (krta, threta, dwapara and kali), the happenings repeat themselves but not in the same way, different avatars incarnate in different mahayugas. For instance this one is a very blessed one, we have 3 purna avataras in the same maha yuga.
Ivan Escalona wrote:
I think that definition of Satya Yuga is inaccurate. For one thing lets take that in Satya yuga (actually from what Ive seen, Swami always refered to it as krta yuga and not satya yuga) there are a lot of troubles from time to time, for instance you see that the first 4 of the dashavatara of Vishnu incarnated in this era, mind you, hiranyaksha and hiranya kashipur conquered the 3 worlds and put every good person to death, religion ceased, atheism was on the rise and he even tried to change the name of hari from the vedas to hiranyakashipur for instance. So we can see that krta yuga is not the paradise everyone imagine, I grant it that it is a more pure era in the sense that all the legs of dharma are standing.
I think what makes it a big challenge for them to explain is things like the ones that appear in the vedas regarding it. I recall some of things from the Manu Smrti about this yuga. Swami have said that this Manu Smriti is the most highest scripture of dharma there is, all the other dharma shastras come from it.
For one thing it is said that in krta yuga people will live an average of 400 years, it is in Kali where the people are expected to live 100 years. The prescribed way of liberation in kali age is namasmarana and the prescribed dharma is charity or service, whereas in krta yuga it is dhyana, but not just your regular 5min jyoti meditation before going to work, a dhyana that lasts for hundreds and even thousand of years and the prescribed dharma is tapas (like the ones we see in the puranas that after then they were granted boons and so and so). No I ask them, if we are in Krta yuga, then of what avail was all of Swami's instructions on namasmarana and bhajans and his insistance on those if we are now to do another practice of which actually few of not nobody knows of and doesnt have the strength or even enough lifespan to perform. But wait, there is more, in Kali Yuga the Manu smriti is not the best one to follow, but the parashara smriti, in krta yuga the manu smriti is the one to follow, so how are we going to do this? We should now have kings ruling us, not presidents and not democracies... Also it is said that in Krta yuga we are accountable for other people's sins, in threta it is a country that its accountable for having a sinner citizen, in dwapara yuga it is the family, only in kali yuga we are accountable only for our own sins regardless of our association with sinners. So how is it going to be now?
And speaking of sins, kali yuga is suposed to end with the destruction of the sinners on the hands of kalki avatar. People often say swami is the kalki avatar, I disagree and will elaborate on this:
Kalki avatar is suposed to be married (twice if im not mistaken). He will be born from the last brahmin family that will exist in the face of the earth, today there are still lots of brahmin families. The kalki purana actually gives the name of the parents but I honestly dont remember them, but looking at our Swami, was he born in a brahmin family?? No. Kalki avatar is suposed to be here for 1000 years, so even if people will try to justify this by adding up the ages of the three sai avataras then Prema Sai would have to live for over 800 years so one can only figure how the plot is thickening. Another one is that kalki avatar will be trained in combat arts by parasurama avatar, he will be his guru, was Swami trained by any guru? He didnt even had upanayanam as I recall now, did he? Swami had 16 kalas, we all know that and many pose proud to have recognized and met and interacted with such a powerful avatar, kalki avatar on the other hand will have 8 kalas. So what are we talking about? Finally bhagavan vyasa will come out of his hiding place and will reveal himself and recognize kalki avatar as such.
--- end comment ---
Ravi: I thought I will browse the net to provide some reference sites for what bro. Ivan has written above.
From http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/manusmriti_1.asp, Manusmriti, The Laws of Manu - Part 1, Trnaslated by George Bühler:
Chapter I
81. In the Krita age Dharma is four-footed and entire, and (so is) Truth; nor does any gain accrue to men by unrighteousness.
...
83. (Men are) free from disease, accomplish all their aims, and live four hundred years in the Krita age, but in the Treta and (in each of) the succeeding (ages) their life is lessened by one quarter.
...
85. One set of duties (is prescribed) for men in the Krita age, different ones in the Treta and in the Dvapara, and (again) another (set) in the Kali, in a proportion as (those) ages decrease in length.
86. In the Krita age the chief (virtue) is declared to be (the performance of) austerities, in the Treta (divine) knowledge, in the Dvapara (the performance of) sacrifices, in the Kali liberality alone.
--- end extracts from Manu Smruti ---
Some words about Krita Yuga (i.e. Satya Yuga) from Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's discourses are given below:
1) From http://www.sssbpt.info/summershowers/ss2000/ss2000-13.pdf, 27 May 2000:
In the Krita Yuga it was tapas,
In the Tretya Yuga it was yajna,
In the Dwapara Yuga it became worship,
And now in the Kali Yuga it is namasmarana.
Embodiments of Love! Students, Boys and Girls!
The teachings of Manu offer an unsurpassed guide for achieving lasting happiness and joy in each and every yuga or age. Manu declared that for the Krita Yuga the right path was penance and meditation; for the Treta Yuga it was performing appropriate yajnas [Vedic rituals]; for the Dwapara Yuga the prescribed path was worship, and for the Kali Age it is namasmarana or chanting the Name of the Lord.
...
The people of the Krita Age were engaged in the constant meditation of the Lord. They meditated not for just a few minutes or hours or even days; they were always absorbed in the thought of God. They were guided by the scriptural teaching:
Sarvada Sarvakalesu Sarvatra Hari Cintanam.
Contemplate on God at all times and under all circumstances. In those days, people were beyond unworthy desires and narrowminded feelings. Their hearts were pure, their feelings were sacred, their mind was mature, and they were ever in bliss. They therefore never entertained any petty or worldly desires. They enjoyed God’s grace and were blessed with good crops as well as all the other needs of daily life. Such people are not to be found these days. The essence of bharatiya culture was amply reflected in the behaviour, conduct, and the sacred feelings of the people of the Krita Yuga. People of those times sought unity in diversity. They did not have any kind of dissatisfaction or discontent. A sacred heart produces a mature mind. In that age, life moved at a leisurely pace. Unlike people of modern times who are tied to rigid schedules, they did not have specific meals at specific times, like breakfast, lunch, etc. They did not have the wide variety of vegetables that is available today. Their meals were thus very simple in nature; they ate rice with curds in the morning and did so again at night. That is why people of those days were both healthy and strong. They made use of all available time for contemplating on God. However, with the passage of time, this practice of simple living and high thinking began to get slowly eroded.
2) From http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume29/d960712.pdf, Prasanthi Nilayam, 12 July 1996:
There is nothing greater than the chanting of the Divine Name in this Kali Age. This is the best medicine for all worldly ills. Meditation, sacrifice, and worship) are prescribed as the primary means of liberation in the Krita, Treta and Dwapara Yugas, respectively. Namasmarana (remembrance of the name) is the easiest path to liberation in this Kali Yuga.
Therefore, people born in this yuga are more fortunate than those that lived in the other three yuga. But, unfortunately, people today are not able to follow such an easy path. You are unable to sit steadily even for a couple of minutes. Then what sort of penance can you perform? It is impossible. Therefore, take refuge in namasmarana. There is no greater spiritual discipline (sadhana) than this. When you continuously sing the Divine Name, it drives away all your evil qualities. You yourself can see how blissful you become when you sing the Divine Name. That is why God is described as Ganalola and Ganapriya (lover of music).
--- end divine discourse extracts ---
Ravi: So now that Muddenahalli group is out of Kali Yuga and into Satya Yuga (Krita Yuga), it would be wonderful if Shri B.N. Narasimhamurthy and Shri Madhusudhan Naidu give some details about Muddenahalli Satya Yuga (Krita Yuga) like what has been given above.
====================================================================
Some additional input from FB post comment exchanges:
Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Great input, Ivan Escalona. Thanks a ton. I would like to put up your comment alone as a Facebook post, and even put it up on my FREE blog, to give it more visibility. Are you OK with either or both? ... In this context, I would like to add that I was told some years ago (before Mahasamadhi), by a faculty of the Sai university, who is a Sai university alumnus and somebody with some interest in such scriptural matters, that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba does not appear in every Kali Yuga! He has chosen to appear in this particular yuga-cycle! But I don't know whether this has been mentioned in any Sai literature, and so cannot comment on the authenticity of the info.
----------
Ivan Escalona wrote:
Please do so, it is not mine, it is vaidika vidya, so it belongs to the humanity!
...
I have only heard that, not read it. But it is true, in every maha yuga or cycle of 4 yugas (krta, threta, dwapara and kali), the happenings repeat themselves but not in the same way, different avatars incarnate in different mahayugas. For instance this one is a very blessed one, we have 3 purna avataras in the same maha yuga.
In the book 'Sri Sathya Sai Anandadayi' pg 65 and 66, it is mentioned as below.
ReplyDelete"Sometime during late 1940s Swami proclaimed to devotees at the old mandira:
'Three avataras will descend to earth after Rama and Krsna. All these would be in the very sacred and holy land of Bharata. The first in Shirdi as Shirdi Sai, then at Puttaparthi as Sathya Sai and the third in a village in Karnataka as Prema Sai. Sri Shirdi Sai avatar is over. The present body of Sathya Sai avatara will last for ninety six years and after a gap of one year, Prema Sai avatara will assume human body and last for seventy five years.'
...
'Once Swami said, "Kalpas, manvantaras and caturyugas have come and will come again. many caturyugas have come and in those caturyugas, dasavataras will advent. in the present caturyuga, the tenth avatara, Kalki, has split into three aspects as the forms of Shirdi Sai, Sathya Sai and Prema Sai. This has not happened before and can only be seen in this Kaliyuga. Sai avataras neither had taken place in earlier Kaliyugas nor will take place in future Kaliyugas. During Shirdi avatara, I was preparing the food. In Sathya Sai avatara, I am serving the food. People say that Sri Shirdi Sai Baba used to get angry. While preparing the food, if the children trouble the cook, will he not get angry? In Prema Sai avatara, everyone will enjoy the fruits of the divine meal.'"
Great share! Thanks a ton. Will share it with others on Facebook rightaway. Noted that http://www.sathyasai.org/intro/premasai.htm mentions part of what you wrote.
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