tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407624264627208128.post7027021100668650284..comments2024-01-26T21:38:25.924-08:00Comments on Duane's PoeTree: Daipayan Nair writesDuanesPoeTreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17053093400086634552noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407624264627208128.post-77052529131692139002019-01-21T18:31:48.947-08:002019-01-21T18:31:48.947-08:00The Samhita texts are the oldest Vedic mantras, hy...The Samhita texts are the oldest Vedic mantras, hymns, prayers, litanies, and benedictions. In the oldest ones the Asuras were spiritual, divine beings, including those with good or bad intentions, and constructive or destructive inclinations ; in later ones they had evolved into evil spirits, demons, or opponents of the gods." They came to connote chaos-creating evil spirits in constant battle against the more benevolent Suras (Devas) led by Indra. The Asuras, proud and vain, had stopped performing sacrifices, visiting holy places, and cleansing themselves from sin, and they violated sacred laws, and became envious of the Devas. In Buddhist thought, Asuras are creatures who live in lower levels of the sacred 5-peaked Mt. Meru, obsessed with sensuous aspects of existence, living with jealousy, and endlessly engaged in wars against the gods (Devas). They have 3 heads with 3 faces on each head, and 4 or 6 arms, and they are addicted to passions such as anger, pride, envy, insincerity, falseness, boasting, and bellicosity. They inhabit the Jealous God domain (Kamadhatu), where they have been reincarnated due to actions in past lives based on egotistic jealousy, envy, insincerity, struggle, or rationalization of the world. They experience a more pleasurable life than humans but are plagued by their envy for the Devas, whom they can see just as animals can see humans. DuanesPoeTreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17053093400086634552noreply@blogger.com