Who are the Asuras ?

[Guest guest]

This is an article I read by Shri AUROBINDO and thought you might all

like to read it.

 

Sri Auro on Asuras

 

 

 

 

 

Sri Aurobindo on Asuras and hostile forces

 

"There are two kinds of Asuras -- one kind were divine in their

origin but have fallen from their divinity by self-will and

opposition to the intention of the Divine: they are spoken of in the

Hindu scriptures as the former or earlier gods; these can be

converted and their conversion is indeed necessary for the ultimate

purposes of the universe.

 

But the ordinary Asura is not of this character, is not an

evolutionary but a typal being and represents a fixed principle of

the creation which does not evolve or change and is not intended to

do so. These Asuras, as also the other hostile beings, Rakshasas,

Pishachas and others resemble the devils of the Christian tradition

and oppose the divine intention and the evolutionary purpose in the

human being: they don't change the purpose in them for which they

exist which is evil, but have to be destroyed like the evil. The

Asura has no soul, no psychic being which has to evolve to a higher

state; he has only an ego and usually a very powerful ego; he has a

mind, sometimes even a highly intellectualised mind; but the basis of

his thinking and feeling is vital and not mental, at the service of

his desire and not of truth. He is a formation assumed by the life-

principle for a particular kind of work and not a divine formation or

a soul. "

 

"The Asuras are really the dark side of the mental, or more strictly,

of the vital mind plane. This mind is the very field of the Asuras.

Their main characteristic is egoistic strength and struggle, which

refuse the higher law."

 

"The Death's Head is the symbol of the Asura (the adversary of the

gods) vanquished and killed by the Divine Power."

 

"The hostile forces are those whose very raison d'etre is revolt

against the Divine, against the Light and Truth and enmity to the

Divine Work."

 

"The hostile forces do not need a cause for attacking -- they attack

whenever and whoever they can. What one has to see is that nothing

responds or admits them."

 

"It is better not to trouble about the hostile forces. Keep your

aspiration strong and sincere and call in the Divine in each thing

and at each moment for support and in all that you feel keep yourself

open to (the Divine). That is the easiest way to the Divine. If you

begin to concern yourself about the hostile forces, you will only

make the path more difficult."

 

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This is in plain English and i hope this will lift up all his

confusion .

 

Aum shanti!