Studying Kālī/Kālikā

Originally Posted by NoOne

Here's a typical depiction of an Asura. I think we can safely say they're not human. The Western equivalent would be a Devil, Demon, Fallen Angel or Titan.

I have resized your image NoOne before it gets erased.

If ever you want to know how I do that let me know.

Regards

[NoOne]

Thanks!

I was wondering hiw one would do that.

Perhaps you should post a tutorial un the forum help section.

https://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/s...3&postcount=77

[kralaro]

Originally Posted by HITESH SHAH

This is not factual .

I picked it up from the Wikipedia page ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura ). "In early Vedic literature, the good Asuras are called Adityas and are led by Varuna, while the malevolent ones are called Danavas and are led by Vritra." This sentence even comes with a citation on the Wikipedia page; the citation is p 4 (page 4?) of this book: Ásura in Early Vedic Religion [Link]. As you say that isn't factual so you can try editing the Wikipedia page.

My reflection on Asuras "not necessarily being physical" was based on the fact that only a woman could slay them, the demon lord, being so sure that a woman would never step up.

To that I add that I genuinely think the Asuras Kali slayed were a physical manifestation of society's gender roles. So.. both then ! They appeared out of the "masses" fears.

Looking forward to what all of you make of this.

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by kralaro

I picked it up from the Wikipedia page ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura ). "In early Vedic literature, the good Asuras are called Adityas and are led by Varuna, while the malevolent ones are called Danavas and are led by Vritra." This sentence even comes with a citation on the Wikipedia page; the citation is p 4 (page 4?) of this book: Ásura in Early Vedic Religion [Link]. As you say that isn't factual so you can try editing the Wikipedia page.

I knew there must be some source from where you picked up .Aditi was first wife of Kashyap rishi and Diti was 2nd wife of kashyap rishi . Aditi's son are aditya and Diti's sons are Daitya (asura )

Kashyap married Aditi, with whom he fathered Agni, the Adityas, and most importantly Lord Vishnu took his fifth Avatar as Vamana, the son of Aditi, in the seventh Manvantara. With his second wife, Diti, he begot the Daityas.

Point of correction was to stress this word is more pointing to certain functional classification then to some family/tribe/caste .

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by NoOne

Here's a typical depiction of an Asura. I think we can safely say they're not human.

This is pictorial representation of functional qualities of people. and not the physical attribute of the person. So these certainly are humans with different .
At times these are more intelligent , handsome/beautiful and even soft-spoken.

Originally Posted by NoOne

The Western equivalent would be a Devil, Demon, Fallen Angel or Titan.

I certainly agree with this . These can be equivalents of setan/devil in western thought .

The Bible indicates that at times Satan and his demons may take on human form. In his attempts to deceive us, the Bible says, he may even seem like a messenger from God: “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). If our lives are built on Christ and his word, however, we will not be deceived.

[Aditi]

@kralaro Thank you for answering. I am familiar with the asuras killed by Krishna, I just don't know what I am supposed to make of them. In dvaita understanding, are those fights intended to be read as an account of history?

@HITESH SHAH Now that you mention it, I can think of a couple of examples where the Upanishads seem to use asuras to illustrate different types of people, where they use asuras to show the thinking process of materialist atheists. Not necessarily bad people, but people who experience the world as little more than bodies interacting with objects and other bodies.

@NoOne This particular image is from my own tradition. I can explain in more detail if anyone is interested, but this is Durga and Chamunda finishing off asura Raktabija. In my tradition, asuras either represent our own vices and weaknesses, or they represent things that get in the way of us performing our worldly duties, which can be external or internal problems. I lean more towards a non-dual understanding of asuras, myself (that they represent aspects of ourselves), but this understanding doesn't always make sense when applied to traditions that were written for a dualistic world view, like the stories of little Krishna.

@Just Tim Seeing demons as an anthropomorphic representation of social fears would also fall under dualism. My tradition presents Mahisha Mardini slightly different to the one you may be alluding to, which I would enjoy explaining, but I might do it in a second post, because this one is starting to run long.

[kralaro]

In the stories of Krishna killing asuras there are no or almost no moral/wisdom lessons, unlike panchatantra or jataka tales. Some purposes of those Krishna stories are to recognize glories of Krishna, also to gain religious benefit by reading/listening/discussing/sharing about pastimes (leelas) of Krishna. So yes they are to be read as incidents which really happened. This is what ISKCON also does. Having no moral/wisdom lessons means those stories weren't artificially created to teach morals/wisdom.

[AshaKantaSharma]

When you want something so deeply all the universal energies will/can help to reach the same.

Law of attraction.