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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 agreen 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.
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