Devas: Human or Divine?
We have heard a lot of such statements made about the Devas since our childhood.
- The Devas are the luminaries of the Vedas.
- The Devas are the heroes of the puranas.
- They live in Amaravathi (Click for location).
- They are the children of Aditi and Kasyapa.
- They can perform magic and miracles.
- Sri Vishnu is always on their side.
- They are elements of nature. To understand who the Devas were, we are going to look at Vedas, the Valmiki Ramayanam and at the Srimad Bhagavatham.
- The Devas are indriyas or senses : Sankara’s commentary in Isa Upanishad 4th mantram.
- Deva Dwelling Places Along the Spine : Where the Gods dwell : Tantra Kundalini Yoga
- Popular cinema conception of Devakanyas : Manasasarovar : (Movie Simulation) : When a hero wins the daughter of the king of Gods: Song : Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari (1990)
- Devas : Divine Eyes
See Also : Chandra Deva, Atri’s son and Indra’s Uncle, Indra : Deva or Rshi?
1. Were the Devas, human?
We know from science, that a group of organisms belong to the same species if they are capable of interbreeding to produce fertile offspring. Below I give you a few examples of the fertile offspring that were produced when the devas interbred with other jathis and I conclude that the Devas were one of the jathis that existed in Ancient India, and may still be around us today, in our blood streams. (What Happened to the Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us? | Human Origins | DISCOVER Magazine)
- Vali, the son of Indra Deva, and a Vanara lady, married a Vanara lady called Tara and they had a son called Angada. Since Vali was fertile, Devas and Vanaras must be of the same species.
- Arjuna अर्जुन, the son of Indra Deva and Kunthi, a manava (human), had a son called Abhimanyu. Since Arjuna was fertile, Devas and Manavas are of the same species.
- So Devas, Vanaras and Manavas are of the same species.
- Visravas a brahman, married Idvida, a Yakshini, and they had a son called Kubera.
- Visravas also married a Rakshasi-Gandharava called Kaikasi, and they had 3 boys and a girl. The most famous of these was the mighty Ravana रावण. And Ravana had many sons, the most famous of which was Indrajit or Meghanad, who defeated Indra in a battle. So, by our definition, Yakshas and Rakshasas are also of the same species as manavas.
- The Sun God, Surya too, had one son by a Vanara, called Sugriva and one son by a human called Karna. So by this count we know that the Devas, Asuras, Rakshasas, Yakshas, Gandharvas… and all the rest of our legendary herores, were humans. They were Ancient Indians.
- In the Mahabharata, Adi Parva, Durvasa said that Indra had become haughty because of the praise of munis such as Gauthama and Vasishtha. This makes him sound more like a hero more than like an astronomical Vishu Bindu.
2. Were the Devas stars, planets and other forces of nature?
To understand this, we have to understand two words called, identification and personification.
- Ancient Indians and many modern Indians too, believe, that the rivers, stars, planets, light, knowledge, books and everything else have a spirit and that, this spirit can take a human form (or any other form) at will. This is called personification.
- Ancient Indians and many modern Indians too, also, identify human beings with forces of nature. If someone is brilliant and brave and handsome and generous, they would say, he is verily, the sun himself! This is identification. So a human could be identified with the Sun and called Surya Deva.
- The Surya Deva who gave the Syamantaka Mani to Satrajit, could have been the Sun personified, or could have been a human identified with or named after the Sun.
- Every day we walk on Bhu Devi, Mother Earth. Traditional Indian dancers, bow to mother earth and pray for her forgiveness for the pain to her by their feet.
The following is a line from the puruSa sUktam, Rg Veda. (RV 10.90 : Purusha Suktham : Narayana Rshih)
RV_10.090.13.1{19} candramā manaso jātaścakṣoḥ sūryo ajāyata
The moon (candrama) was born from His mind and the sun (sUrya) from His eye.
RV_10.090.13.2{19} mukhādindraścāgniśca prāṇād vāyurajāyata
From His face were born Indra and Agni and from his breath (inward breath), vAyu was born.
Indra, Agni, Vayu, Surya and Chandra are all Devas. Of these Indra and Surya are aditionally Adityas.
In this Suktam, the meaning can be easily interpreted as “naturalistic”.. eg the wind is born of breath of God as the Sun is born from His eye and the moon from his mind. The seasons are part of His Vedic Yajna. If we take one step away from the literal, then we see the grandeur of the Purusha who is everything and is of the scale of the universe.
3. Were the Devas, spiritual or abstract concepts or symbols?
Agni is Energy, Lakshmi is Light, Saraswathi is Learning, Siva is goodness, Vishnu is that which is present everywhere, Surya is the soul, Chandra is the mind, Sakthi is the Competence, Energy and Power and Purusha is man and Amba is Mother. Gandhiji said that the Devas and Asuras were all thoughts in our mind having a battle between having fun all the time and doing the right thing. See The Vedas are monotheistic.
4. Were the Devas divine?
A real question is: Could the Devas, do magic and grant wishes? Does Indra rule in a heaven called Swarga? Will he let us go there if we are good and honest people? Will he be angry if we do not offer prayer? Will he take our side in battles and worldly affairs? Will he be angry if we violate social rules? Does the burning mass of hydrogen – helium in the sky have a soul and a consciousness similar to the warm carbon earth based life forms? We know that life forms capture energy in the form of food, but the stars burn their own selves out and cool down. If we can have an ‘I’ can they?
- If the Devas were human heroes of the past then, we can love and respect and admire them. If the Devas are elements and forces of nature, then again, we can love and take care of them, by keeping our environment clean and our ecology balanced. If we keep our air and water (Vayu and Varuna) pure, then they will grant us long and healthy life.
- Sri Aurobindo was an Indian Rishi or a saint who lived in the 19th and 20th centuries. He was a freedom fighter and had been imprisoned by the British. At that time he did a lot of reading and meditating.
- He said that people were reading the Vedas wrong. People were guessing the meanings based on comparative language studies. This method has many limitations. Let us take an example. In Kannada gobra means manure while cobri means coconut. And in English Cobra means snake. ‘Avasaram’ is a Sanksrit word which means ‘haste’ when you use it in Kannada and which means ‘need’ when used in Telugu.
- Sri Aurobindo then has given us the correct or original way of reading the Vedas. The right way is to chant the Vedic Mantra and meditate. That is what the original rishis did. Devas : Cosmic Forces with High Level of Consciousness : R.L. Kashyap
- (If you would like to try a mantra for yourself, then you can try the Gayatri Mantram, that we have already learnt in the Viswamitra story. If you are afraid of saying it wrong, you can try the Rama mantram. Just sit down or stand up comfortably. Try not to fidget. Then close your eyes and repeat the mantra. You can also try the Aum or Om sound as your mantra. Meditation as a way to God)
- Divinity is something that you cannot understand with pure logic. The only way to understand divinity is to look into your heart and not with an echo cardiogram, but with your feelings.
5. Were the devas holograms of terrestrial or extra-terrestrial superior technology?
- When Sita Devi सीता देवी asked him to prove that he was a Deva so that she could trust him. Then Indra showed her that his feet did not touch the ground, his eyes did not blink, his clothes didn’t get dirty and his garland did not wilt.
- This is also the way that Damayanthi differentiates between Nala and Indra.
6. Conclusion: All the above views are correct. When we read the scriptures or anything else we HAVE to look at the context.
- I believe that the Devas were human with divine qualities, like Rama श्री राम and Sri Krishna and others. They were human in that they could marry humans and have children and grandchildren. They were divine in that they could grant wishes and could do magic and miracles, in response to prayer. They were definitely the heroes of our Puranas.
- They were also identified with different aspects of nature as well as abstract concepts. For eg., Saraswathi Devi, who was the goddess of learning, was also identified with the Saraswathi River. Even today Indian children in schools pray to Goddess Saraswathi for success in learning.
- When Chandra the Moon God is said to be overly fond of his wife Rohini, more than the other 26 constellations (nakshatras) then we may understand that the Moon is to be found more often near Rohini. (Rohini is the brightest of the 27 Stars used for Bharateeya Nakshatra system of names, with a brightness of 0.85. Rohini, Aldebaran, is identified as birth star of Sri Krishna. )
The Devas of the Veda
Deva – A divine being, luminary, worthy of worship derived from the root Div meaning – to illuminate, light etc. Diva means day. Divya means divine and so on.
Veda – means knowledge, that which is to be known, derived from the root Vid to know. Vidya – knowledge, Vidwan – knowledgeable person. Brahma-Vid – One who knows Brahman and so on
One of Yaska’s rules of etymyology is about reversal – eg pasyaka (seer) becomes kasyapa, himsa – violence, becomes simha – lion, arasu (king) becomes asura (mighty). Soham =Sah+Aham => hamsa (swan)
and
Deva becomes Veda and vice versa. Given that all the Vedas are about Devas.
Knowledge is about the luminaries and to illuminate, or throw light on something is to increase our knowledge about it.
In the article Devas: Human or Divine?, I have presented many ways of looking at the Devas, as heroes, as elements of nature, as luminaries, as imaginary and so on. There are as many ways of understanding the Devas as there are of interpreting the puranas.
The more we know, the more layers we understand. As a little example. Sukracharya’s wife is Usha. But Sukracharya is Venus and Usha is dawn and Venus is seen at dawn and dusk. So at one level we know of Sukracharya, the grandfather of Yadu as an ancestor of Sri Krishna and at the same time, we see him as the graha, that can be observed at dawn and dusk.
When it comes to the Veda Mantras, they have also been interpreted variously, from a fire, nature, ocean point of view to a spiritual perspective and an energy, light sun perspective.
But think of Veda and Deva as One not as just about each other but as the same thing. And see where that thought takes you.
Devas can be summoned by Veda Mantras.
Density Variations in Divine Presence
Observations :
- I felt a great sense of inner security in Udipi
- I felt Siva’s powerful presence at Rishikesh
- I felt a frightening divine presence in DevaPrayag
- I don’t feel so much in Bangalore
- I felt absolutely no divine presence in USA
Question for my Veda Guru:
- Since Vishnu means Omnipresent, and God is everywhere, is it possible that some places are more divine than others or is this a delusion?
Answer :
- Insensitive people do not notice variations of divine presence.
- Sensitive Beginners (Sadhaks) do notice geographical variations in divine presence as well as in people.
- Siddhas condition their environment any place they stay or have stayed becomes divine.
- Moolasthanas (eg Tirupathi for Sri Venkateswara Swamy) have a stronger divine presence than minor pratishthas.
- Any place where many people are engaged in spiritual sadhana shines brighter with divine presence. Any place where the Agama Sastras are practiced shine brighter with divine presence.
- There are density variations in divine presence., but any place can be made more divine.
Beings with Higher levels of consciousness and Advaita
Adi Sankaracharya in his Tat Tvam Asi, teaches us that there IS only one consciousness and that is the Jeevatma, and the Paramatma.
In the Aurobindo/Kashyap school of thought the Devas are unmanifest beings with a higher level of consciousness than us.
My thoughts : Maybe, each of us has a varying level of consciousness from,
Zero = unconscious TO
Infinity = Aham Brahmasmi Consciousness;
Perhaps the Deva – level of consciousness – wrought into us by the Veda Mantras as per Aurobindo/Kashyap is intermediary to this? And that is why the Devas take birth within us when we invoke the mantras.
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Ram Ram.
I agree, Deva;s and Humans share a common background. All religions state the Gods intermarried with man. The reason man can live both in high and low consciousness is his relationship with the Deva’s. As long as he preserves this relationship he will be able to move up. It is the Deva’s that lift consciousness.
Living in the netherworld we have a tendency to see the fixed, the material as most real. We are looking up, but consciousness is still down to earth. Once our consciousness rises we see it they other way round. The fixed and material becomes an illusion. The ever changing subtle energies become more real, and the material world only an illusion they create.
As Deva’s are not fixed as we to material bodies, they are more subtle beings. We were like them until we let our consciousness be bound by what is binding. The essence of material nature is that it binds us. It binds us trough our senses and through our mind. As we are starting to live in fixed ideas, we become ignorant of our higher state. The Deva’s become aliens. If we sink even lower, we start to fear the Deva’s.
If Deva’s still descend in this world, it is to rescue their loved ones, who are shipwrecked in this world. The connection, the lifeline, is still there. If the heart reaches out to the Deva’s they cannot but help us, they give us whatever help we ask. But if conscience is low our hearts desire is for what binds more not less.
We can not understand the Deva’s in modern thinking as it became so oversimplifying, so down to earth, it reject anything it can not firmly grasp. As we are bound we lose our purity, the purity that remains in the Deva’s. That is why the Deva’s can purify us again and let us rise. And as we rise we can one shake of the shackles and resume our place among the Deva’s.
But we can also fall deeper as we become intoxicated in the illusions of this world. illusions of personal grandeur, power, material wealth. As we procreate in this world, we even invite others to our state. We want to defend our possessions as we unconsciously know we will be reborn in the same bloodlines. Death becomes as fear as it breaks our ties. We leave the world wanting and return wanting even if all ties are severed.
Living in low consciousness death is feared, living in high consciousness rebirth is feared.
The higher the Deva’s the purer their qualities. The Deva’s are considered the lighter Gods. The radiant, but also the Gods who’s qualities least bind. For the binding is also caused by Gods, Gods that have a different effect. It has to be so, otherwise there is no universe. The most binding God is the one that brings order. Order is what breeds control, control breeds repression, repression breeds fear. The power seeking Gods are the natural opponents of the Deva’s. Their influence is felt as a struggle both in the heart, the mind and the world. Deva’s lift our heart, free up our mind, make us creative in the world.
To say there is one reality is true and false. There is one reality at the time. In every state of consciousness there is another face to reality, so different that to say they are one is meaningless to the mind. What all those realities have in common is Nothing. Nothing means no-thing. In the Divine there are no things. Everything is an illusion of the lower consciousness that see All as the collection of things. things are the illusions of form.
Deva’s too not consistent in form, only in quality. For instance beauty can take any shape. It is not the thing that contains beauty as it may seem in lower consciousness, it is beauty that takes shape. Like ones we took shape in a body. From the body point of view it contains qualities, but from a higher point of view the qualities take shape in a body. As the body acts consistent to higher qualities it purifies itself. At some point the body becomes a immaterial, unimportant. We do no longer want to port, carry it. We join the ones we see in the sky. For fallen stars is what we are.
Jai Ganesha!
Magalaan
January 19, 2012 at 12:45 pm
may be aliens ,visited earth(india) during those times they ruled us and we call as GOD. THE technology so delvoped so that even exist atom bomb ,airplanes .why it is disconnected ? why it is not continued till today
vinu
June 18, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Ram Ram,
The skeptic seeks a material explanation for the non-material. This is logical as one will not accept an explanation one can not relate to. That is the base for science-fiction. Science fiction is fiction bound to science.. And science binds itself to the measurable.
When two people experience the same event, the experience will be different for both and so will the explanations be. One will say to the other, can’t you see the colors, you must be colorblind. The other will say, what colors, you must be delusional..
What is the alien you describe? It is something the same but with more technology. Both are material beings, but the difference in technology explains the difference in power. In the lower consciousness order and power are dominant qualities. So a Deva is seen as being of power that brings his order.
In the lowest consciousness man wants to be God by exercising that power himself. Man wants to become a God in his own turf. That is why we see man fighting each other for dominance. The ego wants to rule as a God.
But the Deva’s are not like that, they are far more subtle.It is this subtleness that makes them superior over other beings. They see what lower beings cannot see. We see that in their fights with demons with immeasurable power. It is like playing chess, One has more pieces, but they other sees the moves ahead. The outcome is inevitable every time.
Deva’s do not like to descend in the lower realms, but even if they would do that for a bhakt, that would not convince a person of low conscience, rather it would convince him that Deva’s are material beings after all. It they do not materialize it would convince him they do not exist. There is nothing that could convince a skeptic.except that a Deva’s would breach natural laws. But the Deva is part of nature as well, it does not break natural laws but follows laws them in more subtle ways.
There is nothing in the universe that can not be explained, but that does not mean the explanation is reality itself. It something to cover reality with. It makes reality manageable. Cultures developed many different explanations and they all worked fine. You only have to accept them and education takes care of that.
The Deva can descend, but to truly become a higher being we have to ascend. By opening our consciousness to new subtle experiences we enter a new world with more freedom, joy and less restricted by thought. It can not be taught, it has to be longed for. No one is going to develop this by accident.
When one visits another country one may find it impossible to understand people. But at some point one will begin to learn to understand them. Why? Because one knows they are communicating even if it escapes us. We want to understand this other language and so we learn to understand it.
Few people understand the language of birds or trees or even dogs or horses. Why? Because they do not believe animals are communicating in more than the most primitive ways. There is nothing to learn, they reason, so why try? The same attitude they take to the Deva’s. They are not there, otherwise I would notice them, so why try? I make a fool of myself. I rather make a fool of the ones that do.
To say Deva’s are space traveling aliens is to restrict movement in the three dimensions of space. If it is not us, it is from somewhere else. Some might allow for time travel but that is where it stops in science fiction. A travel in the dimension of higher consciousness is not possible in this thinking, because it is not imaginable in this thinking. Science claims: Nothing exists that can not be measured. But what is registered is beyond what the finest instruments can measure.
Stories of Deva’s tell us not of the world as we know it, but play in different realm of which this is only the final expression. Even on our level we know that invisible subtle interaction in the air can develop in hurricanes. We never notice it until it hits us. Only then it becomes real to us, because it translated into an experience we can relate to a cause. Like water washes on the shore, in real life we are constantly feeling the effect of more subtle roams, but if we can not enter there, we will shrug it off.
These differences can not be overcome by explanations. Like when you would give something out of your heart to a truly selfish person. He will want to know what you want in return. If if you were to proof nothing comes in return, but it makes you feel good, he will claim you do it for a good feeling and you are still an egoist like him. On every level there is an explanation that suits consciousness.
We will always understand reality on the level we allow ourselves to be in. But we have the possibility to develop a higher consciousness if we so desire. Desire brought us where we are and brings us where we want to be..
Jai Ganesha.
Magalaan
January 19, 2012 at 7:01 pm