mark 0 Report post Posted January 27, 2005 Haribol, Could anyone enlighten me to the vaishnava view of the devil/satan/evil spirits please? During his forty days in the desert Jesus was apparently tempted by the'devil', but is the devil a seperate spritual entity or is the devil an aspect of ourselves, that has become personified as an evil entity. I have read that Jesus cast out 'unclean spirits' that had possessed people. Was this a description of him healing people who were mentally ill? I hear occasional stories of people being possessed and saved by exocism by priests/vicars. Are there spirit souls which 'hover around' the earthly plane waiting for their chance to possess people or is this just nonsense? I think that as in Christianity, Islam also recognises 'Satan' as an evil entity, and in Miltons story Paradise lost it was Satan/Lucifer who stirred up all the angels (the spirit souls), which resulted in them turning their backs on God and being ejected from heaven? It seems that many people who commit terrible crimes seem to like to have someone else to blame, ie the devil, rather than face up to the fact that it was they themselves who did it. Is the devil/Satan one of the many 'demons' that Krishna can so easily defeat, no matter how powerful they are ? I would be interested to hear everyones views. humble obeisances, Mark Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kcp1982 0 Report post Posted January 27, 2005 Hare Krishna. In the last few days I read that millions of Muslims were throwing stones at the devil, some Muslims were thinking of the US president at the time. We, the Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others are at times the satan/devil and at other times the saint/angel. The satan/devil is man gone astray. Man is the cause of all good in the world and all evil in the world. God does not create evil beings so that they can harrass and torment others. God creates good living beings, some of which go astray and become devils/satan. However, there is also a person called Kali, whos duty is to create irreligion (you can think of him as the satan/devil). I don't know much on this. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mark 0 Report post Posted January 27, 2005 Hare Krishna, I agree that God does not create evil beings, and that the beings themselves are able to choose to be good or evil, but some seem to take immense delight in being evil and tormenting other beings. The spirit souls not only have a tendency to want to lord it over material nature as S.P says, but it seems to me that they particularly want to lord it over other beings as well, either trying to have power over them or wishing to destroy them (although only physical bodies can be destroyed - not souls). Is this because they want to try to be powerful like God I guess? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
