Durga | ✓

02. Good Devas and Bad Asuras

The next few days, Durga was as busy as a bee. And even an ant. She would sweep the house, dust the house, clean her kitchen, buy groceries after bargaining, cook the food, unpack her clothes, arrange them in the wardrobe and clean her father's study table. She had fought a battle with rats, lizards - short and long both, spiders and cockroaches.

She visited to electricity board several times for electricity connection. She even visited to the neighbours for saying thanks, with some fruits. Today she was little free as the electricity finally reached her home.

She looked at her father's book shelf. It had thick books arranged in an order. The pages had turned yellow and were half torn. She searched for a book to read. She found a book.

The Devas and the Asuras

Durga looked at the first page. It was written by her father which was published in the newspaper.

The good Devas and bad Asuras divide misleading us?

Durga closed the book and took it to her to the porch. She placed the book on the table. She went inside the house and got a cup of tea. Looking at the adjacent chair, she sat on a chair.

I wish you would be here Appa... to occupy the seat next to me... to taste the cup of tea I made... to complain that you don't have diabetes whenever you found sugar less in the tea.. the way it was six years ago...

She opened the book and started sipping the tea slowly. Her father had published some articles in the newspaper which he had carefully preserved it. Durga liked reading those articles. He was too delighted to find out that her daughter was as crazy as him in history. She started reading.

The good Devas and bad Asuras divide misleading us?

Not all Asuras were bad. Not all enemies of Devas were Asuras.

If you read the Vedas, which are nearly 4000 years old, the word 'asura' does not mean demon, or villain, but quite the opposite, a divine being. It is a title given to Agni, Rudra, Varuna, and most Vedic deities. Vrita, the enemy of Indra, wasn't an asura.

Durga stopped reading. She again read the last sentence.

Vrita, the enemy of Indra, wasn't an asura. Indra.... Indra-jeet! ..... stop thinking about him Durga, he doesn't mean anything to you....

Shaking her head, she noticed her cup was now empty. She kept it down on the table. She continued reading it.

However, things change in the Puranas, composed 2000 years ago. Here, asuras are villains and enemies of Devas or gods. Both devas and asuras are children of Sage Kashyapa, born of different wives. Devas are called Adityas, because their mother is called Aditi. Asuras are daityas and danavas because they are children of Diti and Danu. The devas and asuras are constantly fighting each other. Devas are blessed with amrita or nectar of immortality. Asuras were blessed with Sanjivani vidya, the herb to bring the dead back to life. The two function as force and counterforce, yet one sees a desire to make them complementary, not antagonist. Thus Goddess Lakshmi is Pulomi, daughter of the asura king Puloman, but also Sachi, wife of Indra, in other words, asura putri and deva patni. We wonder what it means? Could it be that asuras, who live under the earth, in Patala, are the source, hence father of wealth, and devas, who live in the sky above the earth, in Swarga, is the place where wealth comes to have value?

Appa you always confuse me with your words.

If one reads the Gita, which was a part of the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna uses devas as an adjective for positive qualities such as generosity, compassion, magnanimity, equanimity, faith and patience, while asuras embody all people who are greedy, egotistical, avaricious, territorial and combative. Here, the divide is clear : devas are good and asuras are bad. Goodness, in the Gita, is the result of believing in something beyond the material and tangible.