Often we are faced with a dilemma in choosing between what is right and wrong. Our instinct tells us one thing, whereas our conscience tells us something else. Which are the good qualities that must be developed, and which are the undesirable ones that are to be abandoned? Lord Krishna addresses this problem in Chapter 16 of the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Krishna explains that there are two basic types of inherently opposite dispositions in people - the daivik or divine and the asura or demonic or evil. Daivik qualities are the cause of liberation (moksha), and asura qualities, the cause of bondage. Lord Krishna lists 26 qualities as divine, which are self-explanatory.
Fearlessness tops the list as the prime virtue. It is all-encompassing. Complete fearlessness is possible only if all 26 divine qualities have been cultivated, the state of total detachment and desirelessness has been reached and most importantly, one has full faith in and is entirely surrendered to God. Without fearlessness, there can be no peace. The asuras are described as worldly, anti-spiritual and anti-God; they cannot differentiate between truth and untruth, pure and impure, and righteous and unrighteous. Asura persons, deluded by ignorance, engage all their energies in sense gratification under the illusion that alone is happiness, and thus they remain entangled in the perpetual cycle of birth and death (samsara). Lord Krishna says the asuras are bereft of atma-jnana and are personifications of inauspiciousness.
