[Advaita-l] Asuras and Dharma

[H S Chandramouli]

Reg << Can we then say in Kali Yuga that asura represents the rajasik and
tamasik qualities in a person? If that is the case, was it also not true in
other yugas where Prahalad and Vibeeshana demonstrated dharmic and saatvik
qualities, so essentially being a deva although born to/as asuras?

On the other hand, Varuna for example is an Asura; without Varuna there is
no life. So I am not sure what the basis of classifying devas and asuras
would be. (lineage of children born to Aditi and Diti respectively?)
Kindly clarify. >>.


It is useful to recognize at the outset that the three qualities (
satwic,rajasic and tamasic ) are fully integrated and one cannot exist in
the absence of both the other two qualities. An excellent treatise on the
subject of Triguna is available in the work Sankhya Karika by Ishvara
Krishna with Vyakhyana of Vachaspati Misra ( which has been translated into
english ). It is a delight to read through this and I would say is a Must
for proper understanding of the subject.


It is not as if rajasic and tamasic qualities are intrinsically undesirable
always. They are essential to lead a normal life and in any case cannot be
dispensed with entirely except through Brahma Jnana. Even Iswara is endowed
with all the three qualities satwa,rajas and tamas. Otherwise Creation is
not possible. He has Desire to Create ( Ichha Shakti, tamasic quality),
Ability to Create ( Kriya Shakti, rajasic quality ) and the Knowledge to
Create ( Jnana Shakti, satwic quality ). The key is the tamasic and rajasic
qualities are active under the control of satwic quality. In asuras,
tamasic quality ( charecterized by the sixfold undesirable qualities of
kama,krodha,lobha,moha,mada and matsaryaकाम,क्रोध, लोभ, मोह, मद, मात्सर्य )
predominates followed by rajasic and satwic qualities in that order. In
devas, satwic quality is of a higher order than rajasic and tamasic
qualities. But not overly predominant as in the case of Iswara. Also
sometimes the latter two predominate over the former leading to
inconsistent behaviour . In the case of human beings, there is a regular
change in the predominance of the three qualities leading to desirable and
undesirable actions. That is the difference between the three. Depending
upon how far and how often desires and actions are controlled by the satwic
quality , they get graded as good and bad persons. It applies to all yugas.


Regards

On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 2:32 AM, Hari via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> HariOM,
>
> >
> > What you have said may be applicable to Kaliyuga. The Pauraniks mention
> > that Devas and Asuras lived in entirely different Lokas during Kritayuga
> > and used to come into conflict now and then with the Asuras moving into
> > Devaloka for war. In Tretayuga, they lived in the same Loka, but in
> > different regions. In Dwaparayuga, they lived in the same family . But in
> > Kaliyuga, they live in the same body ( that is , they coexist in each
> > individual, in the form of natural tendencies ).
> Can we then say in Kali Yuga that asura represents the rajasik and tamasik
> qualities in a person? If that is the case, was it also not true in other
> yugas where Prahalad and Vibeeshana demonstrated dharmic and saatvik
> qualities, so essentially being a deva although born to/as asuras?
>
> On the other hand, Varuna for example is an Asura; without Varuna there is
> no life. So I am not sure what the basis of classifying devas and asuras
> would be. (lineage of children born to Aditi and Diti respectively?)
> Kindly clarify.
>
> - Hari
>
>
>     On Thursday, January 7, 2016 2:06 PM, Santosh Rao via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>
>  Thank you, jaldhar, for your informative answers ad always.
>
> -Santosh
> On Dec 22, 2015 1:56 AM, "Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l" <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 20 Nov 2015, Santosh Rao via Advaita-l wrote:
> >
> > Namaskara,
> >>
> >> In the shastras we read about how some asuras were given knowledge by
> >> certain preceptors, for example, shukra is known to have been the guru
> of
> >> the asuras, while brighu was the preceptor of the devas.
> >>
> >
> > Brhaspati as per your correction.
> >
> >
> >> My question is, what exactly were these asuras learning? Was it the
> Vedas,
> >> or some other type of knowledge? If it was the Vedas, doesn't that mean
> >> there was adhikara for that to take place to begin with? How was that
> >> defined?  If there was adhikara, then why would the lord have to
> incarnate
> >> to mislead them with a false doctrine (buddha), instead of correcting
> them
> >> in their errors?
> >>
> >
> > It is Vedas.  The Devas and Asuras are half-brothers being the children
> of
> > Kashyapa Prajapati by his two wives Diti and Aditi.  So they have the
> same
> > adhikara. It is what they do with it which separates them.  The names of
> > the mothers give a clue.  Diti means finitude.  Aditi is its opposite
> e.g.
> > infinity.  So the problem with the Daityas is not necessarily that they
> > don't know dharma (there have been some virtuous ones such as Prahlad,
> > Baliraja, Vibhishana etc.) but they do not put it to proper ends. The
> > example of Indra and Virochana from Chhandogyopanishad has already been
> > mentioned.  Another is Ravana who was a great Shivabhakta but on
> acquiring
> > siddhis became drunk with power.
> >
> > In the Shatapathabrahmana of the shuklayajurveda there is a meditation on
> > Prajapati as the year and the devas and asuras as days and nights which
> > alternate in succession but neither prevailing over the other.
> >
> > These two sets of concepts, light and darkness, finity and infinity are
> > brought together in Ishopanishad which also belongs to shuklayajurvda. In
> > (rk 3) the worlds won by karma are called asurya which means asura
> because
> > they ar finite and limited hence.  The oposite is path symbolized by the
> > sun (rk 15.) Sun is surya and aditya.
> >
> > I also read somewhere that the carvaka atheistic philosophy has it's
> >> origins with rishi brhispathi....is this true? If so, was it's purpose
> to
> >> mislead a certain group of people similar to what we are taught about
> >> buddhism? Sorry if this is offtopic, I've been curious about it for a
> >> while.
> >>
> >
> > In the arthashastra of Kautilya the name of Brhaspati is given as a
> > founder of that vidya and same in the Kamasutra I think.  So it may just
> be
> > that Brhaspati is associated with "worldly" pursuits of all kinds not
> > necessarily just heretical ones.
> >
> > Another possibility is that it is just a big joke.  Atheists may have
> > wanted to ridicule astikas by pretending that the origin of their
> > philosophy is from the guru of the very Gods their opponents believed in.
> >
> > --
> > Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
> > _______________________________________________
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