Who are Asuras?

  

Asuras, popularly known as the opposites of Gods or the Suras, are often misunderstood for a power-seeking class and tend to be evil. As per some Indian texts, Daksha, son of Bramha, married his daughters, Diti and Aditi to sage Kashyap. To keep the life cycle running, Aditi asked Kashyapa for children and was blessed. Hence the children were called Adityas. Jealous by these, Diti asked Kashyapa for the same blessing and was blessed and borns were known as Daityas. As Diti had the emotions of Greed, Lust, and Jealousy in her mind while the wish was granted, the children were born with the same traits and hence brought those emotions in the world. In the Brahmanda Purana, it is stated the term 'Asura' was used for the Daityas due to their rejection of Varuni (Goddess of Wine) after she emerged from the Ocean of Milk. So, all we know here is the devas and asuras are blood relatives fighting for the peace of lands. 

A British Sanskrit professor, Monier-Williams, tracks the etymological roots of Asura to Asu, which means a life of the spiritual world or the departed spirits. Later it was described as the Asuras are any spiritual, divine beings including those with good or bad intentions, and constructive or destructive inclinations or nature. 

The stories we heard, have not always classified good and bad based on physical growth, rather focused on their actions. While the greatest of the kings and sometimes gods themselves have been associated with greed for power and the strength that has wronged them, the cruelest of the demons many times have also been portrayed as the hero of the story because of their little acts of kindness. 

We have been cautioned that all that shines is not gold, but were left to realize for ourselves that 'all that is dark isn’t just coal'. It still has the brilliance of a diamond. 

Some texts describe that even the gods have lost everything to lust and greed, even the greatest sages were attracted to the beautiful Apsaras (the Vedic angels), so if it was in the heredity of Aditi, the gods and ages who claims to be brahmins should have not possessed these qualities but they still do. Hence, we can conclude that the texts have been altered to make one side seem good, and as the law of society, if someone wants to be a hero, there must be a villain. In every property-related fight, the uneven distribution of property brings the greed, envy, and aggression in the sanest humans, and we need not have to explain how some humans proved themselves greater than god. So Suras, Asuras, and Humans are not so different when they are taken away from the things they deserved. So the only question we can ask the Gyanis or the intellectuals is what if we gave an equal chance to rule and praise equally to Asuras as well. For all, we know that they will surely handle it well than the current governments where free will is just a joke.