GitaChapter 10Verse 6

Gita 10.6

Vibhuti Yoga

महर्षयः सप्त पूर्वे चत्वारो मनवस्तथा | मद्भावा मानसा जाता येषां लोक इमाः प्रजाः ||६||

maharṣayaḥ sapta pūrve catvāro manavas tathā | mad-bhāvā mānasā jātā yeṣāṁ loka imāḥ prajāḥ ||6||

In essence: Every being alive traces their lineage to mind-born sages and Manus who themselves emerged from the Divine Mind - you are not orphaned but descended from Infinity.

A conversation between a seeker and guide to help you feel this verse deeply

Sadhak-Guru Dialogue

Sadhak: "This sounds like mythology - seven sages, four Manus, mind-born beings. How literally should I take this?"

Guru: "What do you think the teaching wants you to understand, regardless of cosmological literalism?"

Sadhak: "That all beings have divine origin? That we trace back to something sacred rather than being random accidents?"

Guru: "Yes. Whether there were literally seven named sages or not, the teaching is about lineage. Does knowing your great-great-grandparents' names change your DNA, or change how you understand yourself?"

Sadhak: "It changes my self-understanding, my sense of belonging to something larger than my individual life."

Guru: "Exactly. This verse gives cosmic genealogy - not for historical record but for identity transformation. When you know yourself as descended from divine mind, how does that affect your sense of worth?"

Sadhak: "I can't be worthless if my ultimate origin is divine thought. I can't be merely biological if my ancestors were 'mānasā jātā' - mind-born."

Guru: "And what about other beings - the person you judged yesterday, the animal you ignored, the plant you stepped on?"

Sadhak: "'Yeṣāṁ loka imāḥ prajāḥ' - from whom all these beings descended. They share my origin. We're all descended from divine mind through the same progenitors."

Guru: "Now mythological cosmology becomes transformative insight. Literal or not, the verse creates vision: all life as divine family. Can you live from that vision today?"

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🌅 Daily Practice

🌅 Morning

Divine lineage meditation: Upon waking, trace your existence backward: 'I came from my parents, who came from their parents...' Continue this mentally as far back as you can, then make the leap: '...ultimately from sages who were born from Divine Mind, from Krishna's thought.' Feel yourself as the end point of a sacred lineage, not a random occurrence. Carry this into the day: 'I am descended from divine mental creation. I carry that nature in me.'

☀️ Daytime

Recognizing divine family: When encountering others - especially difficult people or different species - recall: 'Yeṣāṁ loka imāḥ prajāḥ - all these beings descended from the same source.' That annoying colleague shares your cosmic ancestry. That animal on the street is your distant relative. This isn't sentiment; it's cosmological fact according to this verse. Let this recognition soften your responses and expand your compassion three times today.

🌙 Evening

Contemplating mental creation: Before sleep, consider that you exist because Divine Mind thought the sages, who generated lines of being leading to you. You are, in a sense, a divine thought thinking itself. Tomorrow, your thoughts and actions will contribute to the ongoing creation. Ask: 'What am I creating mentally? What 'mānasā' (mind-born) realities am I generating through my thoughts?' Resolve to make your mental creations worthy of your divine mental origin. Rest in awareness of your sacred genealogy.

Common Questions

Who are the seven sages and four Manus specifically? Do I need to know them for this teaching to apply?
The seven sages (Saptarṣi) are Marīchi, Atri, Aṅgiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and Vasiṣṭha - seers who received and transmitted Vedic wisdom. The Manus are progenitors of human epochs (Svāyambhuva, Svārociṣa, Uttama, Tāmasa in one accounting). However, memorizing names matters less than understanding the teaching: all beings trace to divinely-originated sages. Whether you know their names or not, you're being invited to see yourself as part of a sacred lineage rather than an isolated biological occurrence. The names connect you to a tradition; the teaching transforms your self-understanding.
If beings descended from mind-born sages, what about evolution? Does this contradict scientific understanding?
These can be complementary rather than contradictory. Science describes how forms developed over time; this verse describes the ultimate source of the consciousness that animates all forms. Evolution traces biological lineage; this verse traces consciousness lineage. A scientist and a sage can both be right: bodies evolved through natural selection AND the consciousness experiencing through those bodies has divine origin. The verse isn't making biological claims; it's making ontological claims about the nature and source of being. 'Mad-bhāvā' (partaking of My nature) refers to consciousness-nature, not body-structure.
The verse says these sages and Manus were born 'from Krishna's mind.' Does this mean they're less real than physically born beings?
Quite the opposite - in this cosmology, mind-born beings are MORE fundamental. Physical birth depends on pre-existing matter; mental creation is primary. The sages and Manus are templates from which physical beings derive. Your physical body is descended from theirs, but their bodies were direct divine emanation. They're closer to the Source, not further. 'Mānasā jātā' (mind-born) indicates direct divine generation without intermediate causes. This is why they're called 'mad-bhāvā' - they partake of divine nature directly, while we partake of it through them. Less mediated means more real in this framework.