Man is free to act and control over action can be done only by intelligence. Due to the karma of rebirth, everyone’s intelligence is not the same. Therefore, since ancient times, there have been two types of humans – divine and demonic. This has nothing to do with the existence or non-existence of Vedic period. Religion is related to the sanskars and education of the previous birth. Knowing the language of the Vedas and understanding the meaning of the Vedas correctly has nothing to do with good conduct. Conduct is governed by sanskars.
According to Vedic belief, man is free to perform his duties, but other living beings are not free to perform their duties. They have to live their lives somehow. They cannot think of any change in it. For this reason, they are considered to be under the controlling power of Yama, that is, God. Man gets the knowledge of Vedas from the divine law to guide him. This knowledge is not like a cowherd tying a rope around the neck of a cow and taking it somewhere. It is only in the form of inspiration. It is in man’s right to accept it or not, but he enjoys the fruits of his deeds done freely.
According to Shrimadbhagwadgita 3/5, a man cannot live without doing karma even for a moment. He does karma under the compulsion of the qualities of nature (with which he is united). Vedic Mimansa also says the same. Along with this, according to Shrimadbhagwadgita 2/49, karma done with the help of intellect is very far from (normal) karma. Therefore, take refuge in intellect because karma done with the motivation of result is very inferior. The meaning is that no one can live without doing karma. Therefore, one should do karma after thinking. The karma done with the motivation of result i.e. objects has very inferior result.
Prahlad got the knowledge of birth and death, the analysis of the results of karma under the influence of the sanskars of his previous birth. After Hiranyakashipu’s death, he also became a king, but he could not bring the source of inspiration, that is, the scholars of Vedas, to his country. The priest of the demons was called Shukracharya. Shukracharya is the name of a position, it is not the name of a person. One who knows the glory of karma, but cannot use the intellect to differentiate between karma and akarma or ignores the inspiration of God and His knowledge, such an Acharya only shows false path. Such was Shukracharya, the Acharya of the demons. God has given him intellect to guide man. Therefore, if any book telling about karma or karma is always tested with the intellect, then man may go astray, but in the end he finds the true path.
For this reason Vedic scholars have said that the meaning of Vedas must be proved by logic. One who always tests the meanings on the touchstone of logic, even if he makes a mistake, always keeps the way open to correct his mistake. Prahlad did rebel against his father but kept Shukracharya, who was falsely inspiring his father, as his priest. The result was that Prahlad’s son Virochana again became an atheist. Virochana’s son was Bali. Bali’s son was Baan. Baan was a great demon. According to Mahabharata Adi Parva 65-20, Baan was a great demon. – Baleshcha prathih putro bano naam mahasurah.
The reason for this was their upbringing. The Kashyap-Diti clan got Shukracharya as their Guru. Shukracharya was a materialist, he believed that everything was born from nature, naturally. Hiranyakashipu was Shukracharya’s disciple, who was an atheist as well as a person of evil nature. Atheists or those theists who believe in God only for show, only they can be evil by nature. Still it is not necessary that an atheist is one who does wrong. Although when those who do not accept God become wealthy, they forget the difference between duty and non-duty, the reason is that there is no purpose left in performing duty. As long as a man is lowly and miserable, till then he behaves righteously with others who are afraid of worldly beings stronger than him, but when he himself becomes powerful by being endowed with worldly wealth, then his being an atheist succeeds in taking him on the wrong path.
This is exactly what happened with Hiranyakashipu. When he became the master of immense power after being endowed with power, then there was no one to make him understand his duties and non-duties. If there is no God, then there is no Vedas, if there are no Vedas, then there is no good behaviour described in them. When one is powerful, only the thoughts of God, the results of karma and rebirth can keep a man on the right path, that is, theism (belief) helps powerful people to stay on the path of righteousness. This is exactly what happened with Prahlad’s children. Prahlad became a strong believer in God due to the results of his karma of his previous life and the teachings of Narad Muni that he heard from his mother during pregnancy. Prahlad’s children Virochana and Bali continued to walk on the right path, but Bana again became an atheist. Virochana attacked Indra, the king of the Adityas. Indra did not even allow Virochana to enter his palace.
The reason for Virochana’s attack was that the daughter of demons Lakshmi had left the country of demons and gone to the Adityas. There she got married to Vishnu. Irritated by this, Virochana attacked the Adityas. When Virochana was defeated, Shukracharya advised Virochana and his son Bali to accumulate power. Bali accumulated power and attacked Devlok. By then the Adityas had become weak due to laziness and negligence. Due to this, Indra and other Adityas had to leave their country and run away due to Bali’s attack on Devlok. It is said that Bali established his kingdom in all the three worlds and started exploiting those people. This means that in the society, only Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas do productive work and Bali had taken control over these three parts of the society.
He used to donate all the money earned by them in yagnas. Among the Adityas, there was a very energetic and clever son – Vaman. He made a plan to take back the kingdom of Adityas from Bali and reached Bali’s yagna. Seeing his energetic form, Bali was very impressed. When Bali started giving dakshina to Vaman in the yagna, Vaman said that he did not want to take wealth, silver, gold etc. These things are of no use to him. He asks for three steps of land. When Bali agreed to give donation in the yagna, Vaman asked for the liberation of all the three castes (Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya). This is called three steps of land in the Puranas. Just as land is the origin of all wealth, similarly the entire wealth of the society is the product of these three castes. Bali started hesitating in giving this donation, but he kept his word and all the three castes of the world became independent and started enjoying the fruits of their actions themselves.
This is the history written in Indian tradition and in the language of today’s history, this is the story of the early Vedic period. The reason is that Kashyap and others were creatures of asexual creation and Bali was born in the fourth generation of Kashyap. By that time, only about two hundred years must have passed since the creation. Therefore, the Vedic period was going on at that time. Still, not everyone accepted the Vedic ideas. Vamana also used cleverness in asking for donations. In common language, this can be called deception.
Thus it is clear that even in the Vedic period, there were people who rejected the Vedic education. This is because man is free to do his work and control over work can be done only by intelligence. Due to the karma of rebirth, everyone’s intelligence is not the same. Therefore, from the beginning of time, people of two types of tendencies have come – divine and demonic. This has nothing to do with the existence or non-existence of the Vedic period. Religion is related to the sanskars and education of the previous birth. Knowing the language of the Vedas and understanding the meaning of the Vedas correctly has nothing to do with good conduct. Conduct is governed by the sanskars.