Guest guest Report post Posted July 9, 2003 In the Vedic scriptures, whenever an individual is referred to as a "demon," what exactly does that mean? Is it anyone with an evil mentality or maybe even another species besides a human being? Haribol. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yasodanandana 0 Report post Posted July 9, 2003 there were ages when we had planets of demons and planets of devotees then families of demons and families of devotees then individual demons and individual devotees now.. in kali yuga we have a demon and a devotee inside every single person . . . (or something like that....) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
I_love_krishna_ 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2003 To my understanding a "Demon" is basically a person of a certain "Tattva" , There are three kinds of "Tattvas", Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic. May be, Demon is an individual with more Tamasic tattva than rajasic or sattvic tattvas. The "Tattva" however refers to behavior, it is a direct translation.. I think. Sattvic would be a mode of goodness. Rajasic would be a mode of passion and Tamasic would be a mode of ignorance. Ignorance is evil, thats why the demons in many scriptures from our past try to take people away from sattvic tattva people. There are good demons though, for example, the demon that comforted Sita in Ravana's prison. She is a demon, however she has Sattvic tattva, so she is not a demon... Ok I am confusing my self, I will stop /images/graemlins/crazy.gif Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted July 10, 2003 "She is a demon, however she has Sattvic tattva, so she is not a demon... Ok I am confusing my self, I will stop " it is not possible to advance in consciousness without the mercy of the devotee of the lord.... she was for caste, guna, family, karma a demon (=ignorance), but accepting the mercy of Sri Sita, she achieved the pure sattva, the devotional service, bhakti.... much more elevated than the "material" sattva guna Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted July 10, 2003 your all reffering to demons as human beings? wow, not any of the scriptures mention that, they're referring to divinity races such as rakshasas especially, the Demon King Ravana was lord of the rakshasas (demons), and even took over Indra's heaven and most of the deities fell (the first mention of the fall of heaven). dont fain the scriptures plz..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rudraksha 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2003 i know many liberal advaitic hindus and peoples of diff. cultures like to twist things around and say our holy stories are just symbolic, but devotionalists of shiva and vishnu should never resort to believing this, demons are very real entities, they arent made up from the mind or from someone's written pen. Our stories are real, our deities are real, they refer to our history and culture as a whole, its true stories our ancient history that have been handed down and celebrated to this day, there are over 1 billion hindus, and most follow some sort of vedic life. we learn from these hardships where demons rule the earth and the deities come to save mankind, we learn to love and worship life more only as we realize its fragile value and oneness with the Lord..... not all (asuras) demons are evil natured, theyre a race of deities not unlike the devas, many are against them, and have been since the dawn of time, some are not, such as Maya the mystical demon archetecht of the underworld, he was quite benevolent and befriended krishna and the pandavas in some quite fascinating stories from the Mahabharata. and like Ravana, especially the Rakshasas are an evil race, (not all) but most. the demon Indrajit (ravana's son) however was very intelligent and wise, often boasting of his greater spiritual knowledge even towards his father. that story is in Ramayana. ~Aum Namah Shivaya~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gHari 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2003 Lord Krsna described the Divine and Demoniac Natures in the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita:<blockquote>The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Fearlessness; purification of one's existence; cultivation of spiritual knowledge; charity; self-control; performance of sacrifice; study of the Vedas; austerity; simplicity; nonviolence; truthfulness; freedom from anger; renunciation; tranquillity; aversion to faultfinding; compassion for all living entities; freedom from covetousness; gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigor; forgiveness; fortitude; cleanliness; and freedom from envy and from the passion for honor-these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature. Pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance-these qualities belong to those of demoniac nature, O son of PRthA. The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities make for bondage. Do not worry, O son of PANDu, for you are born with the divine qualities. O son of PRthA, in this world there are two kinds of created beings. One is called the divine and the other demoniac. I have already explained to you at length the divine qualities. Now hear from Me of the demoniac. Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. Neither cleanliness nor proper behavior nor truth is found in them. They say that this world is unreal, with no foundation, no God in control. They say it is produced of sex desire and has no cause other than lust. Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world. Taking shelter of insatiable lust and absorbed in the conceit of pride and false prestige, the demoniac, thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent. They believe that to gratify the senses is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus until the end of life their anxiety is immeasurable. Bound by a network of hundreds of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification. The demoniac person thinks: "So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him, and my other enemies will also be killed. I am the lord of everything. I am the enjoyer. I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice." In this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance. Thus perplexed by various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, they become too strongly attached to sense enjoyment and fall down into hell. Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes proudly perform sacrifices in name only, without following any rules or regulations. Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demons become envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in their own bodies and in the bodies of others, and blaspheme against the real religion. Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life. Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, O son of KuntI, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence. There are three gates leading to this hell-lust, anger and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul. The man who has escaped these three gates of hell, O son of KuntI, performs acts conducive to self-realization and thus gradually attains the supreme destination. He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination. One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated.</blockquote> Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gHari 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2003 As above, Bhagavad-gita 16.20 explains the fate of the asura, demon:<blockquote><center><font color=red>AsurIM yonim ApannA mUDhA janmani janmani mAm aprApyaiva kaunteya tato yAnty adhamAM gatim </center> AsurIm--demoniac; yonim--species; ApannAH--gaining; mUDhAH--the foolish; janmani janmani--in birth after birth; mAm--Me; aprApya--without achieving; eva--certainly; kaunteya--O son of KuntI; tataH--thereafter; yAnti--go; adhamAm--condemned; gatim--destination. </font> Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, O son of KuntI, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence. PURPORT It is known that God is all-merciful, but here we find that God is never merciful to the demoniac. It is clearly stated that the demoniac people, life after life, are put into the wombs of similar demons, and, not achieving the mercy of the Supreme Lord, they go down and down, so that at last they achieve bodies like those of cats, dogs and hogs. It is clearly stated that such demons have practically no chance of receiving the mercy of God at any stage of later life. In the Vedas also it is stated that such persons gradually sink to become dogs and hogs. It may be then argued in this connection that God should not be advertised as all-merciful if He is not merciful to such demons. In answer to this question, in the VedAnta-sUtra we find that the Supreme Lord has no hatred for anyone. The placing of the asuras, the demons, in the lowest status of life is simply another feature of His mercy. Sometimes the asuras are killed by the Supreme Lord, but this killing is also good for them, for in Vedic literature we find that anyone who is killed by the Supreme Lord becomes liberated. There are instances in history of many asuras--RAvaNa, KaMsa, HiraNyakazipu--to whom the Lord appeared in various incarnations just to kill them. Therefore God's mercy is shown to the asuras if they are fortunate enough to be killed by Him.</blockquote> A nice sincere devotee once told me that Srila Prabhupada said that there were no big demons now, just all us little demons. gHari Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted July 10, 2003 for this reason is very difficult to go back to krsna!! if we were big demons krsna would come to kill us if we were big devotees krsna would come to deliver us beeing little demons and little devotees....... :-( (yasoda nandana dasa.... not logged) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted July 10, 2003 In reply to: for this reason is very difficult to go back to krsna!! if we were big demons krsna would come to kill us if we were big devotees krsna would come to deliver us beeing little demons and little devotees....... :-( ***** Sri Krishna-Caitanya Mahaprabhu is considered patita-pavana, He's come to deliver all kinds of conditioned souls with the krishna-sankirtana. As long as you have faith in Lord Nityananda-Rama and Haridas Thakura's marketplace of the Holy name then Lord Caitanya will swiftly deliver you no matter your qualifications or disqualifications. Jaya Srila Prabhupada for bringing this wonderful sankirtana to the west!!! Hare Krishna Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
I_love_krishna_ 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2003 You are probably more right than me, but now I am curious. So, I ask this out of curiosity... How can Ravana be a demon and a brahmana. He was a great learned vedic brahmana before he got that false ego that destroyed his life. Brahmanas are sattvic, but demons are just plain tamasic, so how can sattvic brahmana be a demon at the same time. Wouldn't that require him to have tamasic buddhi in him ? If he has Tamasic Buddhi then he will be considered demon right? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted July 10, 2003 also inside the gunas there are the three cathegories... you can go in a jail and you will found people relatively sattvik, rajasic, tamasic and ravana probably, in a material point of view, was a perfect scholar of rites, cerimonies, rules etc.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
reindeermaya 0 Report post Posted July 11, 2003 I would very much appreciate you expounding on your knowledge of this particular demon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
