In the First Stanza of The Secret Doctrine, Parabrahman as the Father (1st Logos) and Mulaprakriti as the Mother (2nd Logos) live within the Maha-Pralayic darkness before the dawn of differentiation. When the potential point begins to vibrate within the immaculate white disk, then Parabrahman and Mulaprakriti become the androgynous Father-Mother that "radiates" their child, the central point (3rd Logos). In this case, the term used for their child is "Akasa," a common reference to the 7th cosmical principle (stretching down into the 5th cosmical principle of Mahat) or the Central Sun as Paramatman that is tinctured by the central point. The passage makes it evident that the "ETERNAL PARENT" slumbers because no evolving entities in the Mundane Egg are sufficiently awake to observe its life. It must be noted that the Father and the Mother do not transform into the hyphenated Father-Mother until the potential point vibrates in the immaculate white disk during the Maha-Pralaya, thereby implicitly giving the hint that Parabrahman and Mulaprakriti possess a life of their own in the Kosmos or twelve-fold universe before they become parents and whose complete life-cycle extends throughout both the Maha-Manvantara and the Maha-Pralaya. G. de Purucker supported H.P. Blavatsky's position in Studies on page 464 when he clarified that the numerical figures for the time period of the "Manvantara of our entire Galaxy," or "Home-Universe," as well as the "Manvantara of our Kosmos" and "all the Galaxies that belong to something still greater" far exceeds the 311 trillion years of a Great Age.
The length of time of the "Seven Eternities" prior to the Maha-Manvantara answers "in its duration" to the length of time for a Great Age, or "311,040,000,000,000"years. This means that the largest cycle in The Secret Doctrine consists of a Maha-Manvantara of approximately 311 trillion years and a Maha-Pralaya of approximately 311 trillion years, or 622 trillion years. In regard to this complete cycle in The Secret Doctrine 1:371, H.P. Blavatsky presented the case of the "lucky Jivanmukti" who could spend nearly twice the length of a Great Age in his own "Nirvana." G.de Purucker provided his own reference in Fountain-Source of Occultism on page 178 to the "Seven Eternities" as the "vast period of time-space equivalent in length to the preceding mahamanvantara" when "all manifestation has been swept out of existence." But these "Eternities" belonged to the "most secret calculations." The evolution of the Universal Kosmos when the Central Suns broke away from manifested existence to continue their journeys back into the Father-Mother during the previous Maha-Pralaya could not "be given," but these journeys took place during its 311 trillion-year cycle. And so H.P. Blavatsky advised that the way to study the Maha-Manvantara and the Maha-Pralaya is through the evolution of a solar system. In her Secret Doctrine Commentary 1:21, she pointed out that the "fifteen-figure Manvantaric cycle" of 311 trillion years applied to the "solar system," while also clarifying that there is an even larger "Manvantara" for the "whole of the objective universe, the Mother-Father."
In Studies on page 464, G. de Purucker advised viewing the Maha-Manvantara of 311 trillion years from the perspective of a solar system; the "saurya manvantara" of "some three hundreds of trillions of human years" only referred to "our Solar System." He reaffirmed this position in several Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary definitions: 1) Solar System--the "final consummation of the solar system, so far as the planetary chain is concerned" 2) Maha-Kalpa--the "time period between the beginning and end of a complete solar manvantara." But he also acknowledged in his definition of "Maha-Manvantara" that the Great Age could be discussed in terms of a "universe" as well as a "solar system" or "planet" but only on the scale of a "great cycle of cosmic manifestation and activity." Further, G. de Purucker related the Great Age of 311 trillion years in Fundamentals on page 184 to a "universal cosmical cycle" which points to a large number of universal solar systems under the power of multiple Central Suns coming to an end of their manifested lives.
There are many ways to define a Maha-Manvantara. But H.P. Blavatsky simply did not disclose how a Maha-Pralaya specifically affects the deeper interior aspects of the Central Suns and even the central point. G. de Purucker only provided general statements in Fountain-Source such as found on page 178. When the "universe" is rolled back into itself, the evolving intelligences, though appearing to slumber, are actually engaged in "intense spiritual and super intellectual activity characteristic of the highest planes of the cosmic essence." It is best to heed H.P. Blavatsky's advice in The Secret Doctrine 2:700 not to "extend our speculations" beyond the "solar system" to avoid acting as do "presumptuous fools."
Sources:
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 2019).
H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine Commentary (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1994).
G. de Purucker, Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary, Retrieved from theosociety.org.
G.de Purucker, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1979).
G. de Purucker, Studies in Occult Philosophy (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1973).
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