{"id":1371,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:23","slug":"43-deva-and-asura-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13\/43-deva-and-asura-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","title":{"rendered":"-43_Deva and Asura.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\n\t\t
\n\t\tSEVENTEEN<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t
\n\t\tDeva<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/span> and Asura<\/span>*<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            T<\/font>HE<\/font> practical difficulty of the
\nchange from the ignorant and shackled normal nature of man to the dynamic
\nfreedom of a divine and spiritual being will be apparent if we ask ourselves,
\nmore narrowly, how the transition can be effected from the fettered embarrassed
\nfunctioning of the three qualities to the infinite action of the liberated man
\nwho is no longer subject to the Gunas<\/span>. The transition
\nis indispensable; for it is clearly laid down that he must be above or else
\nwithout the three Gunas<\/span>, trigunātīta<\/i><\/span>, nistraigunya<\/i><\/span>. On
\nthe other hand it is no less clearly, no less emphatically laid down that in
\nevery natural existence here on earth the three Gunas<\/span>
\nare there in their inextricable working and it is even said that all action of
\nman or creature or force is merely the action of these three modes upon each
\nother, a functioning in which one or other predominates and the rest modify its
\noperation and results, gunā<\/i><\/span>
\ngunesu<\/i><\/span> vartante<\/i><\/span>. How
\nthen can there be another dynamic and kinetic nature or any other kind of
\nworks? To act is to be subject to the three qualities of Nature; to be beyond
\nthese conditions of her working is to be silent in the Spirit. The Ishwara, the
\nSupreme who is master of all her works and functions and guides and determines
\nthem by his divine will, is indeed above this mechanism of quality, not touched
\nor limited by her modes, but still it would seem that he acts always through
\nthem, always shapes by the power of the swabhava<\/span> and
\nthrough the psychological machinery of the Gunas<\/span>.
\nThese three are fundamental properties of Prakriti, necessary operations of the
\nexecutive Nature-force which takes shape here in us, and the Jiva<\/span> himself is only a portion of the Divine in this
\nPrakriti. If then the liberated man still does works, still moves in the
\nkinetic movement, it must be so that he moves and acts, in Nature and by the
\nlimitation of her qualities, subject to their reactions, not, <\/p>\n

*Gita, XVI.<\/span><\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 448<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 in so far as the natural part of
\nhim persists, in the freedom of the Divine. But the Gita has said exactly the
\nopposite, that the liberated Yogin<\/span> is delivered from
\nthe guna reactions and whatever he does, however he lives, moves and acts in
\nGod, in the power of his freedom and immortality, in the law of the supreme
\neternal Infinite, sarvathā<\/i><\/span>
\nvartamāno\u2019pi<\/i><\/span>
\nsa<\/i><\/span> yogī<\/i><\/span> mayi<\/span><\/i> vartate<\/i><\/span>. There seems
\nhere to be a contradiction, an impasse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But this is only when we knot ourselves up in
\nthe rigid logical oppositions of the analytic mind, not when we look freely and
\nsubtly at the nature of spirit and at the spirit in Nature. What moves the
\nworld is not really the modes of Prakriti<\/span>,\u2014 these are
\nonly the lower aspect, the mechanism of our normal nature. The real motive
\npower is a divine spiritual Will which uses at present these inferior
\nconditions, but is itself not limited, not dominated, not mechanised<\/span>,
\nas is the human will, by the Gunas<\/span>. No doubt, since
\nthese modes are so universal in their action, they must proceed from something
\ninherent in the power of the Spirit; there must be powers in the divine Will-force
\nfrom which these from aspects of Prakriti have their origin. For everything in
\nthe lower normal nature is derived the higher spiritual power of being of the Purushottama<\/span>, mattah<\/i><\/span> pravartate<\/i><\/span>; it does not come into being de novo and without
\na spiritual cause. Something in the essential power of the spirit there must be
\nfrom which the sattwic light and satisfaction, the rajasic kinesis, the tamasic
\ninertia of our nature are derivations and of which they are the imperfect or
\ndegraded forms. But once we get back to these sources in their purity above
\nthis imperfection and degradation of them in which we live, we shall find that
\nthese motions put on a quite different aspect as soon as we begin to live in
\nthe spirit. Being and action and the modes of being and action become
\naltogether different things, far above their present limited appearance. <\/p>\n

For what is
\nbehind this troubled kinesis of the cosmos with all its clash and struggle?
\nWhat is it that when it touches the mind, when it puts on mental values, creates
\nthe reactions of desire, striving, straining, error of will, sorrow, sin, pain?
\nIt is a will of the spirit in movement, it is a large divine will in action
\nwhich is not touched by these things; it is a power of the free
\n <\/p>\n

1<\/sup>tapas<\/font><\/i>, cit<\/i>–śakti<\/i><\/span>.<\/font><\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 449<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 and infinite conscious Godhead
\nwhich has no desire because it exercises a universal possession and a spontaneous
\nAnanda<\/span> of its movements. Wearied by no striving and
\nstraining, it enjoys a free mastery of its means and its objects; misled by no
\nerror of the will, it holds a knowledge of self and things which is the source
\nof its mastery and its Ananda<\/span>; overcome by no sorrow,
\nsin or pain, it has the joy and purity of its being and the joy and purity of
\nits power. The soul that lives in God acts by this spiritual will and not by
\nthe normal will of the unliberated<\/span> mind: its kinesis
\ntakes place by this spiritual force and not by the rajasic<\/span>
\nmode of Nature, precisely because it no longer lives in the lower movement to which
\nthat deformation belongs, but has got back in the divine nature to the pure and
\nperfect sense of the kinesis. <\/p>\n

And again what
\nis behind the inertia of Nature, behind this Tamas<\/span>
\nwhich, when complete, makes her action like the blind driving of a machine, a
\nmechanical impetus unobservant of anything except the groove in which it is set
\nto spin and not conscious even of the law of that motion,\u2014 this Tamas<\/span> that turns cessation of the accustomed action into
\ndeath and disintegration and becomes in the mind a power for inaction and
\nignorance? This tamas<\/span> is an obscurity which
\nmistranslates, we may say, into inaction of power and inaction of knowledge the
\nSpirit’s eternal principle of calm and repose \u2014 the repose which the Divine
\nnever loses even while he acts, the eternal repose which supports his integral
\naction of knowledge and the force of his creative will both there in its own
\ninfinities and here in an apparent limitation of its working and
\nself-awareness. The peace of the Godhead is not a disintegration of energy or a
\nvacant inertia; it would keep all that Infinity has known and done gathered up
\nand concentratedly<\/span> conscious in an omnipotent silence
\neven if the Power everywhere ceased for a time actively to know and create. The
\nEternal does not need to sleep or rest; he does not get tired and flag; he has
\nno need of a pause to refresh and recreate his exhausted energies; for his
\nenergy is inexhaustibly the same, indefatigable and infinite. The Godhead is
\ncalm and at rest in the midst of his action; and on the other hand his very
\ncessation of action would retain in it the full power and all the
\npotentialities of his kinesis. The liberated soul enters into this<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 450<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

calm and participates in the
\neternal repose of the spirit. This is known to everyone who has had any taste
\nat all of the joy of liberation, that it contains an eternal power of calm. And
\nthat profound tranquillity<\/span> can remain in the very
\nheart of action, can persevere in the most violent motion of forces. There may
\nbe an impetuous flood of thought, doing, will, movement, an overflowing rush of
\nlove, the emotion of the self-existent spiritual ecstasy at its strongest
\nintensity, and that may extend itself to a fiery and forceful spiritual
\nenjoyment of things and beings in the world and in the ways of Nature, and yet
\nthis tranquillity<\/span> and repose would be behind the
\nsurge and in it, always conscious of its depths, always the same. The calm of
\nthe liberated man is not an indolence, incapacity, insensibility, inertia; it
\nis full of immortal power, capable of all action, attuned to deepest delight,
\nopen to profoundest love and compassion and to every manner of intensest<\/span> Ananda<\/span>. <\/p>\n

And so too
\nbeyond the inferior light and happiness of that purest quality of Nature, Sattwa<\/span>, the power that makes for assimilation and
\nequivalence, right knowledge and right dealing, fine harmony, firm balance,
\nright law of action, right possession and brings so full a satisfaction to the
\nmind, beyond this highest thing in the normal nature, admirable in itself so far
\nas it goes and while it can be maintained, but precarious, secured by
\nlimitation, dependent on rule and condition, there is at its high and distant
\nsource a greater light and bliss free in the free spirit. That is not limited
\nnor dependent on limitation or rule or condition but self-existent and
\nunalterable, not the result of this or that harmony amid the discords of our
\nnature but the fount of harmony and able to create whatever harmony it will.
\nThat is a luminous spiritual and in its native action a direct supramental
\nforce of knowledge, jyotih<\/i><\/span>,
\nnot our modified and derivative mental light, prakāśa<\/i><\/span>. That is the
\nlight and bliss of widest self-existence, spontaneous self-knowledge, intimate
\nuniversal identity, deepest self-interchange, not of acquisition, assimilation,
\nadjustment and laboured<\/span> equivalence That light is
\nfull of a luminous spiritual will and there is no gulf or disparateness between
\nits knowledge and its action. That delight is not our paler mental happiness, sukham<\/i><\/span>, a
\nprofound concentrated<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 451<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 intense self-existent bliss
\nextended to all that our being does, envisages, creates, a fixed divine but rapture,
\nAnanda<\/span>. The liberated soul participates more and more
\nprofoundly in this light. and bliss and grows the more perfectly into it, the
\nmore integrally it unites itself with the Divine. And while among the gunas<\/span> of the lower Nature there is a necessary disequilibrium,
\na shifting inconstancy of measures and a perpetual struggle for domination, the
\ngreater light and bliss, calm, will of kinesis of the Spirit do not exclude
\neach other, are not at war, are not even merely in equilibrium, but each an
\naspect of the two others and in their fullness all are inseparable and one. Our
\nmind when it approaches the Divine may seem to enter into one to the exclusion
\nof another, may appear for instance to achieve calm to the exclusion of kinesis
\nof action, but that is because we approach him first through the selecting
\nspirit in the mind. Afterwards when we are able to rise above even the
\nspiritual mind, we can see that each divine power contains all the rest and can
\nget rid of this initial error.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

We see then that
\naction is possible without the subjection of the soul to the normal degraded
\nfunctioning of the modes of Nature. That functioning depends on the mental,
\nvital and physical limitation into which we are cast; it is a deformation, an incapacity,
\na wrong or depressed value imposed on us by the mind and life in matter. When
\nwe grow into the spirit, this Dharma or inferior law of Nature is replaced by
\nthe immortal dharma of the spirit; there is the experience of a free immortal
\naction, a divine illimitable knowledge, a transcendent power, an unfathomable
\nrepose. But still there remains the question of the transition; for there must
\nbe a transition, a proceeding by steps, since nothing in God’s workings in this
\nworld is done by an abrupt action without procedure or basis. We have the thing
\nwe seek in us, but we have in practice to evolve it out of the inferior forms
\nof our nature.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup>The account given here of the supreme spiritual and
\nsupramental forms of highest Nature action corresponding to the Gunas<\/span> is not derived from the Gita, but introduced from
\nspiritual experience. The Gita does not describe in any detail the action of
\nthe highest Nature, rahasyam<\/i><\/span>
\nuttamam<\/i><\/span>; it
\nleaves that for the seeker to discover by his own spiritual experience. It only
\npoints out the nature of the high sattwic<\/span> temperament
\nand action through which this supreme mystery has to be reached and insists at
\nthe same time on the overpassing<\/span> of Sattwa<\/span> and transcendence of the threeGunas. <\/span><\/p>\n

2 <\/span><\/sup>This is from the point of view of our nature
\nascending upwards by self-conquest, effort and discipline. There must also
\nintervene more and more a descent of the divine Light, Presence and Power into
\nthe being to transform it; otherwise the change at the point of culmination and
\nbeyond it cannot take place. That is why there comes in as the lastmovement<\/span> the necessity of an absolute self-surrender.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

  Page \u2013 452<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 Therefore in the action of the
\nmodes itself there must be some means, some leverage, some point<\/i> d’appui<\/i><\/span>,
\nby which we can effect this transformation. The Gita finds it in the full
\ndevelopment of the sattwic<\/span> Guna<\/span>
\ntill that in its potent expansion reaches a point at which it can go beyond
\nitself and disappear into its source. The reason is evident, because Sattwa<\/span> is a power of light and happiness, a force that
\nmakes for calm and knowledge, and at its highest point it can arrive at a
\ncertain reflection, almost a mental identity with the spiritual light and bliss
\nfrom which it derives. The other two Gunas<\/span> cannot get
\nthis transformation, Rajas into the divine kinetic will or Tamas<\/span>
\ninto the divine repose and calm, without the intervention of the sattwic<\/span> power in Nature. The principle of inertia will
\nalways remain an inert inaction of power or an incapacity of knowledge until
\nits ignorance disappears in illumination and its torpid incapacity is lost in
\nthe light and force of the omnipotent divine will of repose. Then only can we
\nhave the supreme calm. Therefore Tamas<\/span> must be
\ndominated by Sattwa<\/span>. The principle of rajas for the
\nsame reason must remain always a restless, troubled, feverish or unhappy
\nworking because it has not right knowledge; its native movement is a wrong and
\nperverse action, perverse through ignorance. Our will must purify itself by
\nknowledge; it must get more and more to a right and luminously informed action
\nbefore it can be converted into the divine kinetic will. That again means the
\nnecessity of the intervention of Sattwa<\/span>. The sattwic<\/span> quality is a first mediator between the higher and
\nthe lower nature. It must indeed at a certain point transform or escape from
\nitself and break up and dissolve into its source; its conditioned derivative
\nseeking light and carefully constructed action must change into the free direct
\ndynamics and spontaneous light of the spirit. But meanwhile a high increase of sattwic<\/span> power delivers us largely from the tamasic<\/span> and the rajasic<\/span>
\ndisqualification; and its own disqualification, once we are not pulled too much
\ndownward by Rajas and Tamas<\/span>, can be surmounted with a
\ngreater ease. To develop sattwa<\/span> till it becomes full
\nof spiritual light and calm and happiness is<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 453<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 .the first condition of this
\npreparatory discipline of the nature. <\/p>\n

That, we shall
\nfind, is the whole intention of the remaining chapters of the Gita. But first
\nit prefaces the consideration of this enlightening movement by a distinction
\nbetween two kinds of being, the Deva<\/span> and the Asura<\/span>; for the Deva<\/span> is capable of
\na high self-transforming sattwic<\/span> action, the Asura<\/span> incapable. We must see what is the object of this
\npreface and the precise bearing of this distinction. The general nature of all
\nhuman beings is the same, it is a mixture of the three Gunas<\/span>;
\nit would seem then that in all there must be the capacity to develop and
\nstrengthen the sattwic<\/span> element and turn it upward
\ntowards the heights of the divine transformation. That our ordinary turn is
\nactually towards making our reason and will the servants of our rajasic<\/span> or tamasic<\/span> egoism, the
\nministers of our restless and ill-balanced kinetic desire or our self-indulgent
\nindolence and static inertia, can only be, one would imagine, a temporary
\ncharacteristic of our undeveloped spiritual being, a rawness of its imperfect
\nevolution and must disappear when our consciousness rises in the spiritual
\nscale. But we actually see that men, at least men above a certain level, fall
\nvery largely into two classes, those who have a dominant force of sattwic<\/span> nature turned towards knowledge, self-control,
\nbeneficence, perfection and those who have a dominant force of rajasic<\/span> nature turned towards egoistic greatness,
\nsatisfaction of desire, the indulgence of their own strong will and personality
\nwhich they seek to impose on the world, not for the service of man or God, but
\nfor their own pride, glory and pleasure. These are the human representatives of
\nthe Devas<\/span> and Danavas<\/span> or Asuras<\/span>, the Gods and the Titans. This distinction is a very
\nancient one in Indian religious symbolism. The fundamental idea of the Rig Veda
\nis a struggle between the Gods and their dark opponents, between the Masters of
\nLight, sons of Infinity, and the children of Division and Night, a battle in
\nwhich man takes part and which is reflected in all his inner life and action.
\nThis was also a fundamental principle of the religion of Zoroaster. The same
\nidea is prominent in later literature. The Ramayana is in its ethical intention
\nthe parable of an enormous conflict between the Deva<\/span> in
\nhuman form and the incarnate Rakshasa<\/span>, between the
\nrepresentative of a high culture and<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 454<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 Dharma and a huge unbridled force
\nand gigantic civilisation<\/span> of the exaggerated Ego. The
\nMahabharata, of which the Gita is a section, takes for its subject a lifelong
\nclash between human Devas<\/span> and Asuras<\/span>,
\nthe men of power, sons of the Gods, who are governed by the who are out for the
\nservice of their intellectual, vital and physical ego. The ancient mind, light
\nof a high ethical Dharma and others who are embodied Titans, the men of power more
\nopen than ours to the truth of things behind the physical veil, saw behind the life
\nof man great cosmic Powers or beings representative of certain turns or grades
\nof the universal Shakti, divine, titanic, gigantic, demoniac, and men who
\nstrongly represented in themselves these types of nature were themselves
\nconsidered as Devas<\/span>, Asuras<\/span>,
\nRakshasas<\/span>, Pisachas<\/span>. The
\nGita for its own purposes takes up this distinction and develops the difference
\nbetween these two kinds of beings, dvau<\/i><\/span> bhūtasargau<\/i><\/span>.
\nIt has spoken previously of the nature which is Asuric<\/span>
\nand Rakshasic<\/span> and obstructs God-knowledge, salvation
\nand perfection; it now contrasts it with the Daivic<\/span>
\nnature which is turned to these things. <\/p>\n

Arjuna<\/span>, says the Teacher, is of the Deva<\/span>
\nnature. He need not grieve with the thought that by acceptance of battle and slaughter
\nhe will be yielding to the impulses of the Asura<\/span>. The
\naction on which all turns, the battle which Arjuna<\/span>
\nhas to fight with the incarnate Godhead as his charioteer at the bidding of the
\nMaster of the world in the form of the Time-Spirit, is a struggle to establish
\nthe kingdom of the Dharma, the empire of Truth, Right and Justice. He himself
\nis born in the Deva<\/span> kind; he has developed in himself
\nthe sattwic<\/span> being, until he has now come to a point
\nat which he is capable of a high transformation and liberation from the traigunya<\/i><\/span> and
\ntherefore even from the sattwic<\/span> nature. The distinction
\nbetween the Deva<\/span> and the Asura<\/span>
\nis not comprehensive of all humanity, not rigidly applicable to all its
\nindividuals, neither is it sharp and definite in all stages of the moral or
\nspiritual history of the race or in all phases of the individual evolution. The
\ntamasic<\/span> man who makes so large a part of the whole,
\nfalls into neither category as it is here described, though he may have both
\nelements in him in a low degree and for the most part serves tepidly the lower qualities.
\nThe normal<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 455<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 man is ordinarily a mixture; but
\none or the other tendency is more pronounced, tends to make him predominantly rajaso-tamasic<\/span> or sattwo-rajasic<\/span>
\nand can be said to be preparing him for either culmination, for the divine clarity
\nor the titanic turbulence. For here what is in question is a certain
\nculmination in the evolution of the qualitative nature, as will be evident from
\nthe descriptions given in the text. On one side there can be a sublimation of
\nthe sattwic<\/span> quality, the culmination or manifestation
\nof the unborn Deva<\/span>, on the other a sublimation of the
\nrajasic<\/span> turn of the soul in nature, the entire birth
\nof the Asura<\/span>. The one leads towards that movement of
\nliberation on which the Gita is about to lay stress; it makes possible a high
\nself-exceeding of the sattwa<\/span> quality and a
\ntransformation into the likeness of the divine being, vimoksaya<\/i><\/span>. The other leads away
\nfrom that universal potentiality and precipitates towards an exaggeration of
\nour bondage to the ego. This is the point of the distinction. <\/p>\n

The Deva<\/span> nature is distinguished by an acme of the sattwic<\/span> habits and qualities; self-control, sacrifice, the
\nreligious habit, cleanness and purity, candour<\/span> and
\nstraightforwardness, truth, calm and self-denial, compassion to all beings,
\nmodesty, gentleness, forgivingness, patience, steadfastness, a deep sweet and
\nserious freedom from all restlessness, levity and inconstancy are its native
\nattributes. The Asuric<\/span> qualities, wrath, greed,
\ncunning, treachery, wilful<\/span> doing of injury to others,
\npride and arrogance and excessive self-esteem have no place in its composition.
\nBut its gentleness and self-denial and self-control are free too from all
\nweakness: it has energy and soul force, strong resolution, the fearlessness of
\nthe soul that lives in the right and according to the truth as well as its
\nharmlessness, tejah<\/i><\/span>,
\nabhayam<\/i><\/span>, dhrtih<\/i><\/span>, ahimsā<\/i><\/span>, satyam<\/i>. The whole being, the whole
\ntemperament is integrally pure; there is a seeking for knowledge and a calm and
\nfixed abiding in knowledge. This is the wealth, the plenitude of the man born
\ninto the Deva<\/span> nature. <\/p>\n

The Asuric<\/span> nature has too its wealth, its plenitude of force,
\nbut it is of a very different, a powerful and evil kind. Asuric<\/span>
\nmen have no true knowledge of the way of action or the way of abstention, the
\nfulfilling or the holding in of the nature. Truth is not in them, nor clean
\ndoing, nor faithful observance. They see<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 456<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

naturally in the world nothing
\nbut a huge play of the satisfaction of self; theirs is a world with Desire for
\nits cause and seed and governing force and law, a world of Chance, a world
\ndevoid of just relation and linked Karma, a world without God, not true, not
\nfounded in Truth. Whatever better intellectual or higher religious dogma they
\nmay possess, this alone is the true creed of their mind and will in action;
\nthey follow always the cult of Desire and Ego. On that way of seeing life they
\nlean in reality and by its falsehood they ruin their souls and their reason.
\nThe Asuric<\/span> man becomes the centre or instrument of a
\nfierce, Titanic, violent action, a power of destruction in the world, a fount
\nof injury and evil. Arrogant, full of self-esteem and the drunkenness of their
\npride, these misguided souls delude themselves, persist in false and obstinate
\naims and pursue the fixed impure resolution of their longings. They imagine
\nthat desire and enjoyment are all the aim of life and in their inordinate and
\ninsatiable pursuit of it they are the prey of a devouring, a measurelessly
\nunceasing care and thought and endeavour<\/span> and anxiety
\ntill the moment of their death. Bound by a hundred bonds, devoured by wrath and
\nlust, unweariedly<\/span> occupied in amassing unjust gains
\nwhich may serve their enjoyment and the satisfaction of their craving, always
\nthey think, \u201cToday I have gained this object of desire, tomorrow I shall have
\nthat other; today I have so much wealth, more I will get tomorrow. I have killed
\nthis my enemy, the rest too I will kill. I am a lord and king of men, I am
\nperfect, accomplished, strong, happy, fortunate, a privileged enjoyer of the
\nworld; I am wealthy, I am of high birth; who is there like unto me? I will
\nsacrifice, I will give, I will enjoy.\u201d Thus occupied by many egoistic ideas,
\ndeluded, doing works, but doing them wrongly, acting mightily, but for
\nthemselves, for desire, for enjoyment, not for God in themselves and God in man,
\nthey fall into the unclean hell of their own evil. They sacrifice and give, but
\nfrom a self-regarding ostentation, from vanity and with a stiff and foolish
\npride. In the egoism of their strength and power, in the violence of their wrath
\nand arrogance they hate, despise and belittle the God hidden in themselves and
\nthe God in man. And because they have this proud hatred and contempt of good and
\nof God, because they are cruel and evil, the Divine casts them down continually<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 457<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 into more and more Asuric<\/span> births. Not seeking him,
\nthey find him not, and at last, losing the way to him altogether, sink down
\ninto the lowest status of soul-nature, adhamām<\/i><\/span> gatim<\/i><\/span>. <\/p>\n

This graphic description, even
\ngiving its entire value to the distinction it implies, must not<\/span> be pressed to carry more in it than it means. When it is
\nsaid that there are two creations of beings in this material world, Deva<\/span> and Asura,1<\/sup> it is not meant that human
\nsouls are so created by God from the beginning each with its own inevitable
\ncareer in Nature, nor is it meant that there is a rigid spiritual
\npredestination and those rejected from the beginning by the Divine are blinded
\nby him so that they may be thrust down to eternal perdition and the impurity of
\nHell. All souls are eternal portions of the Divine, the Asura<\/span>
\nas well as the Deva<\/span>, all can come to salvation: even
\nthe greatest sinner can turn to the Divine. But the evolution of the soul in
\nNature is an adventure of which Swabhava<\/span> and the
\nKarma governed by the swabhava<\/span> are ever the chief
\npowers; and if an excess in the manifestation of the swabhava<\/span>,
\nthe self-becoming of the soul, a disorder in its play turns the law of being to
\nthe perverse side, if the rajasic<\/span> qualities are given
\nthe upper hand, cultured to the diminution of sattwa<\/span>,
\nthen the trend of Karma and its results necessarily culminate not in the sattwic<\/span> height which is capable of the movement of
\nliberation, but in the highest exaggeration of the perversities of the lower
\nnature. The man, if he does not stop short and abandon his way of\u00a0 <\/span>error, has eventually the Asura<\/span>
\nfull-born in him, and once he has taken that enormous turn away from the Light
\nand Truth, he can no more reverse the fatal speed of his course because of the
\nvery immensity of the misused divine power in him until he has plumbed the
\ndepths to which it falls, found bottom and seen where the way has led him, the
\npower exhausted and misspent, himself down in the lowest state of the soul
\nnature, which is Hell. Only when he understands and turns to the Light, does
\nthat other truth of the Gita come in, that even the greatest<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup>The distinction between the two creations has its
\nfull truth in supraphysical<\/span> planes where the law of
\nspiritual evolution does not govern the movement. There are worlds of the Devas<\/span>, worlds of the Asuras<\/span>, and
\nthere are in these worlds behind us constant types of beings which support the
\ncomplex divine play of creation indispensable to the march of the universe and
\ncast their influence also on the earth and on the life and nature of man in
\nthis physical plane of existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 458<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 sinner, the most impure and
\nviolent evil-doer is saved the moment he turns to adore and follow after the
\nGodhead within him. Then, simply by that turn, he gets very soon into the sattwic<\/span> way which leads to perfection and freedom. <\/p>\n

The Asuric<\/span> Prakriti<\/span> is the rajasic<\/span> at its height; it leads to the slavery of the soul
\nin Nature, to desire, wrath and greed, the three powers of the rajasic<\/span> ego, and these are the threefold doors of Hell, the
\nHell into which the natural being falls when it indulges the impurity and evil
\nand error of its lower or perverted instincts. These three are again the thedoors<\/span> of a great darkness, they fold back into Tamas<\/span>, the characteristic power of the original Ignorance;
\nfor the unbridled force of the rajasic<\/span> nature, when
\nexhausted, falls back into the weakness, collapse, darkness, incapacity of the
\nworst tamasic<\/span> soul-status. To escape from this
\ndownfall one must get rid of these three evil forces and turn to the light of
\nthe sattwic<\/span> quality, live by the right, in the true
\nrelations, according to the Truth and the Law; then one follows one’s own
\nhigher good and arrives at the highest soul-status. To follow the law of desire
\nis not the true rule of our nature; there is a higher and juster<\/span>
\nstandard of its works. But where is it embodied or how is it to be found? In
\nthe first place, discovered is embodied in its Shastra<\/span>,
\nits rule of science and knowledge, rule of ethics, rule of religion, rule of
\nbest social living, rule of one’s right relations with man and God the human
\nrace has always been seeking for this just and high Law and whatever it has and
\nNature. Shastra<\/span> does not mean a mass of customs, some
\ngood, some bad, unintelligently followed by the customary routine mind of the tamasic<\/span> man. Shastra<\/span> is the
\nknowledge and teaching laid down by intuition, experience and wisdom, the science
\nand art and ethic of life, the best standards available to the race. The
\nhalf-awakened man who leaves the observance of its rule to follow the guidance
\nof his instincts and desires, can get pleasure but not happiness; for the inner
\nhappiness can only come by right living. He cannot move to perfection, cannot
\nacquire the highest spiritual status. The law of instinct and desire seems to
\ncome first in the animal world, but the manhood of man grows by pursuit of
\ntruth and religion and knowledge and a right life. The Shastra<\/span>,
\nthe recognised<\/span> Right that he has set up <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 459<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>to govern his lower members by
\nhis reason and intelligent will, must therefore first be observed and made the
\nauthority for conduct and works and for what should or should not be done, till
\nthe instinctive desire nature is schooled and abated and put down by the habit
\nof self-control and man is ready first for a freer intelligent self-guidance
\nand then for the highest supreme law and supreme liberty of the spiritual
\nnature.<\/p>\n

For the Shastra<\/span> in its ordinary aspect is not that spiritual law,
\nalthough at its loftiest point, when it becomes a science and art of spiritual
\nliving, Adhyatma-shastra<\/span>,\u2014the Gita itself describes
\nits own teaching as the highest and most secret Shastra<\/span>,\u2014it
\nformulates a rule of the self-transcendence of the sattwic<\/span>
\nnature and develops the discipline which leads to spiritual transmutation. Yet
\nall Shastra<\/span> is built on a number of preparatory
\nconditions, dharmas<\/span>; it is a means, not an end. The
\nsupreme end is the freedom of the spirit when abandoning all dharmas<\/span> the soul turns to God for its sole law of action, acts
\nstraight from the divine will and lives in the freedom<\/span>
\nof the divine nature, not in the Law, but in the Spirit. This is the
\ndevelopment of the teaching which is prepared by the next question of Arjuna<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 460<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEVENTEEN Deva and Asura*               THE practical difficulty of the change from the ignorant and shackled normal nature of man to the dynamic freedom…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","wpcat-31-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}