A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"""200 THE REAL AND THE APPARENT MAN.of a period which they call the age of truth,when no mandied unless he wished to die ;when he couid keep his body \as long as he liked and his mind was pure and strong. ^There was no death at that time, and no evil and no misery;and the present ageis a corruption of that statetion.of perfecSide by side with this we find the story of the delugeeverywhere. That story itself is a proof that this presentage is held to be a corruption of the former by every religion. It went on becoming more and more corrupt until thedeluge swept away a large portion of mankind and againthe ascending series began. It is going up slowly again toreach once more that early state of purity. You are allaware of the story of the deluge in the Old Testament.The same story was current among the ancient Babylonians,the Egyptians, the Chinese and the Hindus. Manu, agreat ancient sage, was praying on the banks of the Gangeswhen a little minnow came to him for protection and heput it into a pot of water he had before him. What doyou want ? asked Manu. The little minnow declared hewas pursued by a bigger fish and wanted protection. Manucarried the little fish to his home and in the morning ithad become as big as the pot,and said,I cannot live inthis pot any longer."Manu put him in a tank, and thenext day he was as big as the tank and declared he couldnot live there any more. So Manu had to take him to ariver, and in the morning the fish filled the river. ThenManu put him in the ocean, and he declared, "Manu, I amI have taken this form to comethe Creator of the Universe,and warn you that I will delugethe world. You build anark, and in it put a pair of every kind of animal, and letyour family enter the ark and there will come out of thedeluge my horn. Fasten the ark to it,and when the delugesubsides come down and people the earth." So the world