Overview of Some Hindu Demons
Demons in Hindu mythology
Sanatana Dharma's view of "demons" is a petite if not too different from the opinion of Christians. Christianity associates the fate of awful souls with Satan, but if you ask why Lucifer then harms souls that served Satan all their lives (why are they not contented in Hell then? ), Christians have difficulties to retort this properly. Yama as a Vedic god is only a believe of the deceased without any connotations that he might back the tainted one (Satan) .
The Christian notion is to denote anything that differs from the "prescribed" monolithic explanation of the Bible as something "satanic". In this sense, tantra (as sexual spirituality) is purely seen as demonic devotion from a Christian's point of view; however, I said that Sanatana Dharma's belief differs a dinky from the Christian one because I consider that the Absolute befriend for this planet and people is principally seen equally by both concepts.
The word "demon" or "daemon" was not thusly one-sided in veteran past as it is today. Plato, too, writes about "demons" without grand association to them as being something terrible. Demons are known in Islam, too. The term "jinn" originally meant anything that could be "hidden", which was "secret", "remote", or "invisible". In Islam, unpleasant "jinns" are called shaya-ti-n and Iblis (Satan) is their leader.
Virabhadra
Virabhadra is a patron of occult practices. He has temples, too. One of such temples is, for example, in Mylapore (South India, region of Tamil Nadu) . Shiva created him for war with Daksha. As he has temples, it would be controversial to say that he is a demon. Opinions differ in this direction.
Andhaka
Andhaka was the third son of Shiva and Shiva killed him. Andhaka was born of Shiva's promenade, but Andhaka angered Shiva with his (sexual) lust to Parvati (Shiva's consort) .
Kali
1) some "demons" are only a name for God's mood and Kali represents one such disposition of God - a earn of the Goddess Shakti (Shiva's consort) . Here a statement that Kali is a demon would be controversial; for some She is a demon, for some only a very indignant accomplish of God.
2) Kali is a homonym (Kali: Goddess; Kali: a proper demon), thus"Kali" is also the demon of Kali Yuga.
Koka and Vikoka
These twins are Kali's (the Goddess Kali has nothing to do with these twins) generals who instigate wars and immoral things.
Vinayakas
Vinayakas are a group of four troublesome demons who beget obstacles, but we can easily cope with them.
In the Puranic literature of a worthy later period the group of four Vinayakas was merged into one positive deity named Vinayaka whom Rudra appointed as the "Leader of the Ganas".
Panis
Panis represents a class of demons.
Vetala
This demon is a kind of a vampire. "Vetala" are spirits that live in monotonous bodies.
Pishacha
These are carnivorous demons; their origin is not sure.
Bhuta
This is a homonym, too; on the one hand, it means five elements: Akasha (ether), Vayu (wind), Agni (fire), Prithvi (earth), Ap (water) .
On the other hand, Bhuta is a kind of terrible soul of a human being who died tragically, either by suicide or by execution.
Conclusion
In the Hindu mythology, there are many demons. People governed by such dismal entities are demons too, or even people who diverted from the worthy order in spite of being born in a Brahmin family. We can also mention rakshasas and asuras. The point is that some Westerners (but also Hindus) tend to stare everything in a black-end-white color and other cultures have thus a jam to differentiate between the honorable and the horrible. The Hindu Goddess Kali is a manifestation of God's wrath. It is the same thing as YHWH (Biblical God) when He became aroused with His people who committed idolatry, when they built a calf image from gold.
Some Christians have a spot to realize that the Biblical commandment: "You will have no other gods before Me" (Genesis, 20:3) can also mean money, wealth, social set, which most of these people bag as their daily bread.
I remember one epileptic guy who was seized by an epileptic attack and people walking by called him a drunkard. All our universe is assembled of a mosaic of secrets - one day the wind may pass like a wakening bugle call between the pines and we may realize that what had been presented to us as capable was atrocious, and what had been presented to us as foul was actually suitable...
