View source for One who does not care to understand this philosophy, they are called asura. And one who understands this philosophy of life, they are called sura or devata, god, demigods

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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG167TokyoJanuary271975_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="389" link="Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975" link_text="Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975">
<div class="heading">In each and every scripture there is rules and regulation to follow to become more and more aware of the topmost principle, the original cause of all causes. That is, means, religion. So one who does not care to understand this philosophy, they are called asura. And one who understands this philosophy of life, they are called sura or devatā, god, demigods, they are called.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975|Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">In the human form of life there are two classes of men. First of all living being. Amongst the living being there are some living being which can move or can walk from one place to another. And there are certain other living beings which cannot move, just like the trees, plants. They are also living being, but they are standing in one place for many thousands of years. They have no independence to move. Now, in the moving living beings there are so many. The flies, the insects, the reptiles, the birds, the beast. In this way, by evolutionary process, one after another, one comes to the form of human being. This human being is therefore very, very rare. After going through 8,400,000 species of life, one comes to this human form of life.</p>
<p>So here is the chance of getting freedom from this evolutionary process. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante ([[Vanisource:BG 7.19|BG 7.19]]). After many, many births, we have got. Why? Now, to become civilized. What is civilization? Civilization... The Aryans are called civilized. Why? Aryan means going forward. And what is the destination of going forward? The destination is to understand the original cause of creation, God. Janmādy asya yataḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 1.1.1|SB 1.1.1]]). That is the Vedānta philosophy. Janmādy asya yataḥ. The original cause from where everything is coming into being, by whose management everything is maintained, and after annihilation everything will enter into Him—that is the original person. So human form of life is meant for understanding the original cause of all causes. That is human form of life. Inquisitiveness. And others, less than human being, just like lower animals, cats and dogs, not to speak of the trees and plants... They are standing in one place, and other living beings, even the insects, birds, beasts, they haven't got sufficient intelligence. (aside:) No, this water, drinking. Sufficient intelligence to understand "What I am? Why I am suffering?" Everyone is suffering. That's a fact. The whole struggle for existence is going on.</p>
<p>Just like just now two big directors of this Dai Nippon Company came to see me. We have got business with them. So they are meeting so many problems for printing work. They are maintaining about 200,000 people to carry on their business, huge establishment, huge responsibility. But there are problems also. So this material world is full of problem. One who understands, he is called sura, or civilized man. And one who does not understand, he is called asura. Asura, not sura. Aryan, non-Aryan. So amongst the suras, those who can understand the problems of life, there is a system which is called religion. And what is the purpose of religion? Religion is to understand what is God. That is religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam ([[Vanisource:SB 6.3.19|SB 6.3.19]]).</p>
<p>So all over the world the civilized man has got some religion. It may be professing the Vedic religion, somebody the Buddhic scriptures. Just in your country, most of you, you are Buddhists. There are similarly Mohammedan scriptures, Christian scriptures. But in each and every scripture there is rules and regulation to follow to become more and more aware of the topmost principle, the original cause of all causes. That is, means, religion. So one who does not care to understand this philosophy, they are called asura. And one who understands this philosophy of life, they are called sura or devatā, god, demigods, they are called.</p>
<p>Dvau bhūta-sargau loke daiva āsura eva ca ([[Vanisource:BG 16.6|BG 16.6]]). There are two kinds of men throughout the whole universe. There are men in other planets also, they are very highly elevated. They are therefore called devas, or demigods. The moon planet, the sun planet... There are many other heavenly planets. There is sun-god. In the Bhagavad-gītā you will find the name of the sun-god, or the predominating deity of the sun planet, Vivasvān. His name is Vivasvān. Everything you will find in the śāstra. So there are two divisions: asura and sura, or asura or deva. Devāsura. Deva means those who are conscious of the responsibility of life. They are called deva. So for the devas, Kṛṣṇa has explained so many things. Now He is explaining about the asuras. What are the symptoms of asura? He says first of all, pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca janā na vidur āsurāḥ. Pravṛttiṁ nivṛttim ([[Vanisource:BG 16.7|BG 16.7]]).</p>
<p>Now, as soon as we have got this human form of life, we have got different desires or we accept something as very nice. We reject something as not very good. This discriminating power is there. Even in animals there is this discriminating power. Just like a pig. A pig, if you give him halavā and if you give him stool, he would like to eat stool than the halavā. You will find it, natural. He has got natural inclination to eat stool. And a human being will be naturally inclined to take halavā. So this is called pravṛtti and nivṛtti. So the member of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness society, if you offer him tea, he will not take it. And others, if you offer tea, he will very gladly accept it. This is called pravṛtti and nivṛtti. So the pravṛtti and nivṛtti... Why a person is not accepting tea or smoking or something else, and why other person accepting the same thing? Amongst the animal also, you give something to animal. He will reject and another thing he will accept. These two things are there in every living being: accepting something and rejecting something. This is called pravṛtti and nivṛtti. So far the human form of life is concerned, there must be some pravṛtti and nivṛtti. There is that inclination, pravṛtti and nivṛtti, but they should be synchronized, systematized, what things we should accept and what things we should reject. That we must learn. Therefore we have got so many books, literature, education, what things we should accept and which things we should reject. But what is the basic principle? Why I shall accept something and reject something?</p>
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