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" Suka replied:—Void of Gunas, without beginning, without man- ifestation, beyond Prakriti, Bhagavan pervades and permeates the Gunas of His Maya. Hence His seeming relations. Satva, Rajas and Tamas are not His Gunas, but they are the Gunas of Prakriti. These attributes or tendencies of Prakriti do not all prevail at one and the same period; but they have got their periods of increase and decrease. (That is, since the beginning of the universe, the general tendency which guides all beings is different at different times. Thus at the very outset there was inertia, Tamas. This inertia was got over by Rajas, Purnendu Narayana Sinha, M. A., B. L. 163 which predominated in the Prajapatis, and the life-forms appeared on the globes. There was Tamas again in the mineral kingdom, which had to be conquered by Rajasic activity. And Rajas was in full swing till humanity reached a certain stage. Then Satva manifested itself for the evolution of men. The spiritual regeneration will be brought about by the ever increasing prevalence of Satva). When Satva prevails, Bhagavan favours the Devas and Rishis. When Rajas prevails, He favours the Asuras. When Tamas prevails, He favors the Yakshas and Rakshasas. He follows in fact the periodic tendency. It is Kala (Periodicity) that now brings up Satva. So the Lord seems to favour the hosts of Devas, in whom Satva prevails. He also seems to put down the hosts of Asuras, who are opposed to the Devas being full of Rajas and Tamas. It is also to favour the Asuras that He kills them. For we have seen above, how the gate-keepers of Vishnu became Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu by the curse of the Kumara brothers. They had to become Asuras for three successive births. In the second birth, they became Ravana and Kumbhakarna, when they were killed by Rama. In their last birth, they became Shishupala and Danta-vakra, when they were killed by Sri Krishna. Then they became finally liberated and restored to their place in Vaikuntha. (The Spiritual ascent commenced finally on the appearance of Sri Krishna. It was to prevail for the remaining life period of the uni- verse. The Asuras had done their work by this time, and therefore they finally returned to Vaikuntha). THOUGHTS ON THE ABOVE. The Daityas and the Danavas are both called Asuras. But there is a radical difference between the two classes. The Daityas are opposed to the A-dityas. The root verb dé means to cut to pieces, to separate. Diti is that which separates. Aditi is that which does not separate. Jivatma is the same in all beings. One life principle animates all the forms of creation. The idea of separate- ness did not exist from before. The elementals that began life in this Kalpa from the spiritual plane, have hardly any idea of separate exis- 164 A Study of the Bhagavata Purana tence. The Devas and Pitris are described as classes (ganas), and not as individuals. In the Mineral Kingdom, again, there is no individual existence. Individuality has to be worked out, and the sons of Diti bring about this great work in the evolution of life forms. When we have the sense of separate existence strong in us, we become capable of further evolution. By our individual experiences, we know what is right and what is wrong, what is pleasurable and what is painful. Things that give joy give pain as well. It is the mea- sure of pleasure or pain that teaches us what to covet and what to shun. Then we have the fact that by our very existence we have du- ties to perform. The teachings of other ages that are revealed to the Rishis and proclaimed by them, give us a better idea of things, and they tell us more than we can know of by our own experience. The Asuras lead us on and on, till we reach the highest point that, with a sense of individuality, we may attain. When the individual soul gathers all experience that may be ac- quired by the idea of separateness, it traces back its way to that spir- itual home whence it came. In the return journey, it is helped by the Adityas, who gradually efface the idea of separateness, by an ever in- creasing infusion of Satva: Vishnu himself became Aditya and taught men the unity of all souls. The Adityas who guided the early elementals had to be crushed, so that separateness might grow. Pushan and Bhaga were therefore overpowered by the attendants of Siva at the sacrifice of Daksha. The Adityas who guide humanity in their return to spirituality are themselves high spiritual energies, the highest Devas of our Triloki. Our evolution is thus two-fold—individual and non-individual. When we work as individuals, we are under the influence of Daityas. When we want to cast off separateness, we are under the influence of the Adityas. In both cases, however, it is the bliss element in us that is worked on by the Daityas and A-dityas. This bliss element is our eternal her- itage from Ishvara, and it is this element that saves us in our contact with manifold matter. The measure of bliss, (ananda), enables us to judge what matter to accept and what not. Individuality developed under Hiranyakasipu, and all sorts of blissful experiences were acquired. The sons of Hiranyakasipu were Purnendu Narayana Sinha, M. A., B. L. 165 all called Bliss (Hrada), but the perfection of Bliss (Pra-Hrada) was in Prahlada, He found out that the worldly joys were unreal, and that the real joy could be had only from Him above, who was joy itself. But Prahlada did not realise that there was one life underlying all beings, and that all beings were essentially one and the same. He was separate in his devotion, though unselfish to the extreme. He knew that men had separate existences, and while he attained perfection, others did not. It was therefore his duty to raise others to his level. With all unselfishness and devotion, Prahlada was an Asura, because he worked from the stand point of individual life. The foster-father of Sri Krishna was Nanda, the word meaning also bliss. But the bliss of Gopas and Gopis consisted in forgetting self altogether. The bliss that was then evolved will draw humanity to the highest level of spir- ituality in our Kalpa. The reign of the Daityas may be divided into three periods:— I. —The period of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu. Il. —The period of Ravana and Kumbhakarna. Ill. —The period of Shishupala and Dantavakra. I. Hiranyaéksha and Hiranyakasipu. Jaya and Vijaya are the outer aspects of Vishnu. Vishnu preserves the universe, and He preserves all beings. Existence, consciousness and bliss all proceed from Vishnu, and it is these essential attributes that bring about the involution and evolution of all beings. In miner- als, there is existence, but it is Tamasic. Consciousness and bliss are completely eclipsed by the Tamasic opacity of gross matter. In the vegetables, there is existence and something more—the bare dawning of perceptive consciousness. There is predominating Tamas in the vegetables also. But Rajas also tries to manifest itself. In the animals, Rajas asserts itself by increasing activity, and by the action of the senses. The animals exist, they are conscious and they have blissful experiences. In men, Rajas plays the most important part. Through the ever increasing activities of mind and the development of consciousness, 166 A Study of the Bhagavata Purana man runs after all sorts of experience, pleasurable and painful, till at last the idea of lasting and real bliss settles down in him, and he knows more of bliss than any other being in the universe. The future evolution of man lies in the permanence of spiritual bliss, which is purely Satvic in its character. Vishnu preserves all beings in their Tamasic, Rajasic and Satvic stages. For preservation means the maintenance as well as the im- provement of beings. Therefore preservation is Satvic, and Vishnu is the Preserver. We live and move onwards in all stages of our being. But in Rajasic and Tamasic stages, it is the attendants of Vishnu, the door-keepers, that preserve us, and the Daityas are the lower mani- festations of Jaya and Vijaya. One is Tamasic and the other RAjasic. Hiranyaksha is Tamasic. He represents the original inertia of matter, its primary resistance to the onward process of evolution. There was existence after Pralayic sleep But it was homogeneous ex- istence, with little or no phenomenal change. Varaha got over this homogeneal tenacity by the killing of Hiranyaksha, and he set going the process of planetary and individual life. Hiranyakasipu came next. He was the favoured son of Brahma. He helped the evolution of individual life. Minerals became vegeta- bles. Vegetables became animals, and animals became men. The in- tellectual power of men rapidly increased, and there was material and moral progress. The limit of moral progress was reached by Prahlada. But the ideal of Prahlada was based upon the conception of differences and of individualities. It is for this reason that Varna and Ashrama Dharma, or the separate duties of life for separate classes of men, is dealt with in the discourses with Prahlada. But though Prahlada was a son of Hiranyakasipu, he was an ex- ception to the general run of material evolution which was fostered by Hiranyakasipu. Hiranyakasipu hated the development of Satvic virtues, he hated Hari, the embodiment of Satva. Nrisinha killed the great Daitya, and Satva made its appearance in men. Hiranya means gold. Hiranyaksha is gold-eyed. Hiranyakasipu is gold bedded. Purnendu Narayana Sinha, M. A., B. L. 167 Il. Ravana and Kumbhakarna. Hiranyakasipu represented the gradual development of material and intellectual evolution, till the highest point was reached. Then there was a period of intellectual abuse.