“He who, setting aside the scriptures, acts under the impulse of his own desire, he attains not to perfection nor happiness nor the gold supreme.”
Who is an āsura? An āsura is one who keeps the scriptures aside, detests them, ignores them, even derides them, and says, “What I know is right.” That is the relation of the demon with the spiritual scriptures. It disregards spiritual scriptures, even hates them. Instead of listening to the scriptures, they want to act under the impulse of their own desire.
The moment you come across someone who says, “Do that which makes you happy,” remember Shri Krishna. He’s saying this approach is an āsurī approach. Shri Krishna is saying, the defining characteristic of āsura is that he will not listen to the scriptures; he will just not want to read the scriptures.
