Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit; G.P. Malasekera
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| Time-travel bells (stupas over Buddha statues), Borobudur pyramid Buddhist temple |
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| Sakka versus Vepacitti (Vemacitrin) as St. Michael vs. Lucifer (Satan) the dragon (wiki) |
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The Deva-Asura War
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| Sakka (St. Michael) defeats a dragon (wiki) |
The
Asuras ("Titans") formerly lived in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three (Pali
Tavatimsa, Sanskrit
Trāyastriṃśa), the world on the peak of Mt. Sumeru with the other Shining Ones of that world.
When
Sakka, King of the
Devas (Śakra, Indra, analogous to
Archangel Michael) became the ruler of that world, the Titans celebrated by drinking a lot of
gandapāna wine, a celestial alcohol so strong that Sakka forbade the other Shining Ones from drinking it.
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| Asura in Kōfuku-ji, Nara, 734, Japan |
Weakened by their drunkenness, the Titans could not resist when Sakka had the whole lot of them thrown over the edge of the World of the Thirty-Three into what would become the Titan-world at the base of the mythical mountain
Mt. Sumeru.
A tree grows there called
cittapātali. When the Titans saw it blossom, they realized that it was different from the
pāricchattaka (Sanskrit
pāriyātra) tree which had grown in their old home, and they knew that they were dispossessed.
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| Asuras (Greek "Titans") find themselves tossed out of heaven, wake on earth (wiki). |
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| Layout of heavenly Borobudur Buddhist temple representing Three Spheres or dhatus. |
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They now contemplated war. In armor and weapons, they climbed up the steep slopes of Mt. Sumeru "like ants." Sakka set out to meet them, but he was forced to retreat because of their numbers.
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| Garuda/Avian, Delhi (wiki) |
Passing through the forest where the Avians (
Garuḍas) live on his flying chariot [UFO, spaceship,
vimana], Sakka saw that his passage was destroying the nests of the Avians and ordered his charioteer Mātali to turn back.
When the pursuing Titans saw Sakka turn around, they felt certain that he must be coming back with an even larger army. So they fled, ceding all the ground they had gained (Robert Chalmers, 1895, "No. 31,
Kulāvaka-Jātaka,"
The Jataka [
Rebirth Tales]
Volume I).
Despite their many wars, there was eventually a partial concord between the Shining Ones of the World of the Thirty-Three and the dispossessed Titans.
This came about because Sakka fell in love with
Shachi (aka Sujā), daughter of a Titan chieftain named Vepacitti (Sanskrit,
Vemacitrin).
Vepacitti had given Sujā the right to choose her own husband at an assembly of the Titans, and she chose Sakka, who had attended disguised as an aged Titan. Vepacitti therefore became Sakka's father-in-law.
Sakka as St. Michael
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| Sakka (St. Michael) and Vepacitta |
Before he was reborn as Sakka, King of the
Devas, due to his unusually good karma (keeping seven vows), he was a human named
Magha of Macala (Western "
Michael"). He is also called
Maghava. He is the ruler of two celestial worlds above this earth (
bhumi) among Buddhist cosmology's
31 Planes of Existence. He rules the "World of the Thirty-Three" with 33 other "lords," and he is the king of four regents one world down, the "
Realm of the Four Great Regent-Kings" of the four cardinal directions in space. His nemesis is the
Asura-Titan chief
Vepacitta, now his father-in-law. Sakka is not a unique figure but a station like the presidency because every "world-system" (
cakkavala) has one.
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