Page:Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists.djvu/473

 also human beings obtain the reward of good deeds in the intervals between one birth and another. The devas do not perform tapas (asceticism) or sacrifice themselves for the world, nor do they incarnate as avatars. Human beings, by tapas or ritual sacrifices, and generally by good deeds, may attain a place in swarga, and even the status of a deva; but this does not preclude the necessity of rebirth on earth, nor is it to be regarded in any sense as salvation (mukti, moksha) or as equivalent to the attainment of nirvana. Nirvana is a state, swarga a place.

Amongst the devas is Kamadeva and his wife Ratl (desire). Associated with the devas in swarga are the rishis (including, e.g. Narada, Vishvamitra, Vashishtha, &c.) and the prajdpatis (including Daksha); the former are the priests, the latter the worshippers, of the devas. Swarga also is the home of a variety of mythical beings, the apsaras, gandharvas, kinnaras, and the special animals who are vehicles of the gods, such as Vishnu s Garuda and Ganesha s rat. The apsaras are the dancing girls of Indra s court; the gandharvas and kinnaras the musicians, and these last have forms which are only partly human, some being partly animal, others partly bird in nature. The apsaras, gandharvas, and kinnaras do not enter into the cycle of human incarnation and evolution, but, like the fairies of Western mythology, may in rare cases make alliances with human beings.

Yama, though one of the devas, is the Lord of Hades, where the bad deeds of human beings are expiated in the intervals between one birth and another. It should be understood that a part of the interval between births is spent in Hades, a part in Heaven, according to the proportion of merit and demerit earned by the individual in question.

The demons (asuras, daityas, rakshasas) are constantly at