[Advaita-l] Gita Jayanti

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Tue, 2 Dec 2025, Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l wrote:

>
> महर्षयः सप्त पूर्वे चत्वारो मनवस्तथा ।
> मद्भावा मानसा जाता येषां लोक इमाः प्रजाः ॥ ६ ॥
>
>
> "The Seven maharShis and the four previous Manus, are born from My mind and 
> from them, the peoples of these worlds."
>

Swami Anandagiri's tika on the shankarabhashya shows a way to clear up the 
confusion.

सावर्णा इतीति। प्रसिद्धाः पुराणेषु प्रजानां पालकाः स्वयमीश्वराश्चेति शेषः। महर्षीणां मनूनां 
च तुल्यं विशेषणं

"sAvarNA etc." The four guardians of the people who are famous in the 
puraNas [alternatively: since ancient times] and veritably Ishvaras 
themselves. These maharShis are equivalent to Manus."

So Manu is not being used literally but as a metonym just like because 
Indra is king of the devas, Indra is used in e.g. Yogendra, Mrgendra etc. 
to mean "king of" or "lord of", "chief of"  etc.  Manu is the ancestor of 
mankind so one who is like an ancestor of mankind is figuratively a "manu".

Also it must be noted that Manu is literally the ancestor of Arjuna.  The 
current Manu, Vaivasvata is the son of sUrya (vivAsvan) and his son 
IkshvAku is the founder of the sUryavaMsha of Kings of whom Arjuna is the 
lineal descendent.

Who are the famous four? Swami Anandagiri doesn't explicitly say; perhaps 
they were so famous it went without saying but other Acharyas in their 
tikas have provided the answer.


nIlakaNTha:


सनकादयश्च पूर्वे प्रसिद्धा महर्षय इति संबन्धः।

"The import is that the seven, Bhrigu etc. and four others, Sanaka etc. 
were famous maharShis in the past."


shrIdhara Swami

पूर्वेऽन्ये चत्वारो महर्षयः सनकादयः


"There were also four other maharShis before them [the seven maharShis], 
such as Sanaka"


Swami madhusudana sarasavati

तथा चत्वारो मनवः सावर्णा इति प्रसिद्धाः। अथवा महर्षयः सप्त भृग्वाद्याः?तेऽभ्योऽपि पूर्वे 
प्रथमाश्चत्वारः सनकाद्या महर्षयो? मनवस्तथा

"And the four manus known as sAvarNas. Or [alternatively] the seven 
maharShis Bhrigu etc. and the first four Maharshis Sanaka etc. before 
them.


All these eminent persons consider the four to refer to the four 
Sanatkumaras: Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanatakumara. However, 
unlike Shankara/Anandagiri they seem to consider the sanatakumaras as 
enumurated alongside the Manus with the exception for Madhusudana who 
notes the bhAShyakAras interpretation while offering the other one as an 
alternative. (Though he also has the problem that there are more than four 
sAvarNa Manus.)

So according to all this, a better translation of this shloka might be:

"The Seven maharShis, the four ancients and Manus, are born from 
My mind and from them, the peoples of these worlds."

The interpretation as Sanatakumaras is apt as they are said to be 
mind-born (from Brahma but as Bhagavan says Brahma is also an aspect of 
Himself.) They assisted Brahma in the mAnasika sR^iSTi (however note: men 
and other living things are from the maithunika sR^iSTi.)

I hesitate to consider this a final conclusion though.  As far as I can 
see, nowhere else in the mahAbhArata or other shAstras are sanatakumaras 
equated with Manus.  If anyone knows of examples, please comment.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>