6 November 2013 - QA 5

Gurudev, in the Iranian or Parsi tradition, Gods are called Ahura and demons Daiva, whereas in the Indian tradition, it’s exactly the opposite. Could you talk on this.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Daitya is also in the Indian tradition. The Asuras are also called Daityas, and Devtas are also called Adityas (means those born out of Aditi).
Devas and Asuras share the same father, their mothers were Aditi and Diti. The father was Rishi Kashyap. So from Aditi came all the Suras or Adityas, and from Diti came all the Daityas or Asuras. So there are lots of similarities in the names of Gods and Goddesses in the Indian and the Parsi tradition.

If you really go into the details, originally the Vedic tradition has only fire ceremonies. They didn’t have idols of deities in temples.
Without fire nothing will move. The first mantra of the oldest scripture known today to mankind, in the Rig Veda is Agni, the sacred fire. Not a day passed without worshipping Agni. Trikaala Agni-kaarya means morning, afternoon, evening they had to worship the fire.

Fire and life are synonymous, both survive on oxygen. If you put a glass case on top of you, you will live only as long as there is oxygen in the case, and same goes for the fire. So fire is the closest visible symbol for life; of atman.
So to reach the Gods, you must go through fire. Fire is the doorway to the Divinity.