Sarve ca pashavah santi talavad bhútale naráh;
Teśáḿ jiṋána prakásháya viirabhávah prakáshitah.
Viirabhávaḿ sadá prápya krameńa devatá bhavet.

–Rudrayámala Tantra

[In the beginning everyone is a pashu, an animal. But when spiritual thirst develops, these people become viira, heroic. And when they are firmly established in viirabháva, they become devatás.]

As a created being, everybody in the universe by birth is a pashu, an animal. But the standard of beings is to be exalted towards divinity, towards godliness. A pashu, that is, an animal, becomes man, man becomes god. This process, the process of exaltation, the process of upliftment, from animality to godliness, is your sádhaná.

In Sanskrit it is also said that

Janmaná jáyate shúdra saḿskárát dvija ucyate;
Vedapát́he bhavet vipra Brahma jánáti Bráhmańah.

“By birth, everybody is a shúdra.” (Shúdra means “having all the wonts of animality”.) “And when one gets initiation, that is, Vaedikii diikśá – that is, when one learns how to pray, how to express one’s desire to become human – the person is known as a dvija.” (Dvija means “second birth”. That is, the person is no longer an animal.) “And then after going through scriptures, acquiring proper spiritual knowledge, the person is known as a vipra. And after getting Tántrikii diikśá, that is, psycho-spiritual initiation, initiation in the realm of psycho-spirituality, the person becomes a Bráhmańa.”

Now the question is, have these pashus, these animals, these brutes, no future? Certainly they have. Because the Supreme Progenitor is with everybody, and He is with these animals-in-human-form also. And a pashu whose object of adoration, that is, whose goal of life, is that very Parama Puruśa, will address Him as – what? As “Pashupati” [“Lord of Animals”]. “O Lord, O Parama Puruśa, we are pashus, we are animals, and Thou art Lord of the animals, Thou art ‘Pashupati.’”

So one of the names of Parama Puruśa is Pashupati. For sleeping humanity, the Supreme Consciousness, Supreme Entity, is Pashupati.

Teśáḿ jiṋána prakásháya viirabháva prakáshitah – “And when they feel, when they realize, when they understand, what to do and what not to do, what are the dos of life and what are the don’ts of life, then they become bold.” Why bold? They are to fight against all sorts of adversities, all sorts of troubles, all sorts of inimical attitudes. So they are certainly heroes; and a hero in Sanskrit is called a viira. So at that stage of humanity when this viirabháva develops, when a person becomes ready to fight against all opposite forces, he is a viira. In Tantra this is called viirabháva, and for him, the Supreme Entity is “Viireshvara”. The man becomes viira, and his Lord becomes Viireshvara – no longer Pashupati, but Viireshvara. One of the names of Parama Puruśa is Viireshvara.

When the person is fully established in viirabháva – that is, he is never to be frightened, never to be defeated, never to accept any defeat (you girls should remember that here “he” means “she” also) – then he is established in viirabhava. And that bháva is called divyabháva. And that man is no longer known as viira. He is a deva, or devatá. Krameńa devatá bhavet. “He becomes devatá, he becomes deva in human structure, deva in human framework.” That stage is divyabháva. Then that person’s goal, his object of adoration, becomes “Mahádeva”, not Viireshvara but Mahádeva.

In the first phase the Lord was Pashupati, in the second phase Viireshvara, and in the final phase Mahádeva. So the same Lord, according to one’s own psycho-spiritual stratum, is to be addressed sometimes as Pashupati, sometimes as Viireshvara, and sometimes as Mahádeva. Now, I have said that a person has three types of expression: One expression is thinking, the thinking faculty, and the second one is speaking… In the first the function is within the nerve cells, and in the second, the function is – where? With the lips. And the third action is action with the physical body, corporal action.

Now in the case of pashus, that is, animals in human structure, the thought-waves move like this… and the lips speak like this… and the actions are like that! There is no adjustment amongst these three expressions. The person is a pashu, the person is in the stage of pashu, in the stage of animality, although the structure is like that of a human. In the society these people are in the majority, and others are in a hopeless minority; and I want you boys and you girls to try your best to decrease the number of these pashus.

And in the second phase, that is, in the viira stage, the thought-waves move like that… but the words and the actions are one. That is, there are some differences between thoughts on the one hand, and words and actions on the other hand, but the words and the actions are the same. What these people say, they do. In society, these people, these people of viirabháva, are respected as great men, as Mahápuruśas, as leaders of society, as leaders of the country. But there is a defect in them also, because their thoughts and their actions are not the same. Their actions and words are the same, but their thoughts are not the same. Do you follow? They are [in] viirabháva, they are viira; their Lord is Viireshvara.

And in the final stage, that is, when one attains the stage of devatá, then what one thinks, one says; and what one says, one does. There is no difference amongst thinking, saying, and doing. And that is the best stage of human structure or human existence.

You should all try to be like this, and I want the number of such persons, who have attained the stratum of devatá, to increase. And you have become workers, or wholetimers, just to increase the number of these devatás in human society.