Slokam 2

The curse of Durvasa was so powerful that Indira is transformed into an old and feeble being and all his devas became powerless.

Extract from Wikipedia

Indra immediately begged Durvasa's forgiveness, but the sage refused to retract or even soften his curse and went on his way. Because of the curse, Indra and the devas were diminished in strength and shorn of their lustre. Seizing this opportunity, the asuras led by Bali waged war against the gods. ^[8]

The gods were routed and turned to Brahma for help. Brahma directed them to seek refuge with Vishnu. Vishnu in turn, advised them to call a truce with the asuras and work together with them to churn the ocean of milk and obtain the Amrita (nectar of immortality), on the pretext of sharing it with them. Vishnu promised that he would ensure only the devas drank the Nectar and reobtain their former power so they could once again defeat the asuras. The devas took Vishnu's advice and called their truce with the asuras and thus did the gods and demons begin planning their great enterprise.

All of us experience setbacks, falls from good situations into trouble. All of us attribute these downslides to the powers above us. All of us also attribute at least a part of the blame on other people and finally, just place a little bit of the blame on themselves.

Life is a series of challenges.  There is a requirement that is defined in the scriptures.  We are given the means to rise up to meet these requirements. Life is a series of administered tests to verify that we have in fact made progress. The tests get progressively more difficult,  until internal purity of intent and thought are attained. The situations in life cause us to make mistakes.  There are no exceptions. The challenge is to overcome them and move forward on the path of progress.

The tests that life makes us take,  are beautifully designed to bring out our deficiencies.

Why did Indira give away the garland to Airvata,  right in front of the sage?  The only conclusion is that he did not understand the value of the sage’s  blessing.  The fact that Airvata trampled it was incidental (how would an elephant know the significance of the garland)?  Indira did not even affix the garland firmly on Airvata.  The sage construes it as an insult and curses Indira. 

Now let us apply the sequence of events to ourselves. We are given the wonderful endowments of consciousness and perception by the supreme architect of life.  We throw it away on worldly attractions, which like, Airvata, does not realize its value, and tramples on it. 

The curse makes Indira lose his youth, wealth, power. Likewise,  once we allow the supreme endowments to be dominated and trampled by worldly desires,  we will surely be reduced to misery by the very world in which we sought base comfort. 

All of the characterizations and events portrayed in the Ithihasas and Puranas are to be interpreted by superimposing it on our “own” lives and experiences.

The message that the Ithihasas, Puranas and scriptures deliver with absolute clarity is that setbacks in our lives are designed to make us turn inward,  relate the setback to the deficiency and then work towards setting it right.  

We can, at no cost, allow ourselves to be trapped in an unending circle of misery, failure and inaction.  Once we are in the path of acceptance of our faults as the primary

With the devas being routed and the asuras being in dominance,  the progress of the three worlds on the path of Dharma,  was put on hold and degeneration started to set in.  This called for intervention from an alarmed Brahma and Siva Perumal.

If we internalize the characterizations and the events,  we realize the message of the narrative and its significance in understanding the attributes of the component parts from which we are made.  

The divine garland, loaded with the highest qualities is handed to us as the gift of life by supreme beings.  We often take these for granted and cast them away with disregard.  The consequences of doing so are terrible.  We all go through the same experience that Indira did.  We appeal to the gods and to the Paramathma,  and probably get a reprieve.  But the events of life once again makes us discard the garland of divinity and get it trampled under the footprint of everyday, wordly life. 

This process is repeated until we learn to appreciate the value of the supreme qualities that we are endowed with.

In our scriptures,  when calamities happen, it is always associated with the deed of an asura or  it is associated with the curse of a Rishi. We also associate good deeds always with the blessings of gods.   Our daily prayer rituals are meant to respect our rishis and munis, both ancient and modern,   who lived selflessly  for the welfare of mankind.  The invocation of Rishis and munis has the intent of invocation of their blessings,  and most importantly,  assimilate their  It is also meant to invoke the gods to shower the good (usually health and material prosperity),  on our families.

Both these intents of prayer are also meant to ward off the predatory asuras,  who  are waiting to destroy our constructive efforts. 

The occurrence of the good and bad events in our lives is the direct result of the cause and effect relationships which is referred to as our karma.

Let us internalize asuras and devas as well as our gods.  Our gods are usually multiple deities with each assigned a particular aspect of power such as learning,  health, wealth etc.  This is a fundamental recognition that we are composed of different aspects,  all of which have to be aligned to work well and efficiently, so that we may sustain our existence and stay on the path of growth and well being.  As the Paramathma says in the Bhagavath Gita and Srimad Bhagavatham,  all the different deities are but manifestations of Himself.  He is the one that takes on the different forms and answers the specific prayers of His Bhaktas,  although they may not realize that they are praying to the Paramathma. 

The asuras are described as being destructive and as having the capability to manifest in different physical and ethereal forms to trap and destroy us. They are said to possesses immense physical strength.  Being killed by physical violence of asuras is a major fear and insecurity.  Physical violence, by external forces is one aspect.  This may be both human and natural.  Asuras described in Srimad Bhagavatham are said to have assumed the natural form of a typhoon,  a huge snake,  an enchanting female temptress,  a donkey,  camouflaged as an “ordinary cow”,  a demonic being with metallic body manifestations etc. 

The most recent dramatic manifestation of the asura is in the viral covid form,  that has destroyed many families and large segments of the global economy. 

While we are very much subject to the threat of physical violence and terrorism in our “modern lives”  we are also subject to innumerable temptations that make asuras out of us.  So we are either destroyed or we are converted into asuras. 

Indira s cursed by the sage and becomes old and feeble.  He is then easily conquered and his material kingdom is taken over by the asuras.  He is now old, physically powerless and with no wealth.  The devas are now completely under subjugation.  The asura within us now becomes dominant.

When this happens,  the only recourse to set right the situation and restore parity of position and power between the opposite forces.  That is only possible with the intervention of the Paramathma.

May we have the resolve to invoke the Paramathma’s guidance and abide by them at all times, regardless of our situation or position in life.