The story of Indra and Vrtrasura, narrated in the 6th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is quite interesting. It describes the fight between a pure devotee and a demon. However, contrary to what one could think by looking at the painting, Vrtrasura is playing the part of the pure devotee, while Indra is playing the part of the demon! How it can be so?

When we speak about “demon” we may think about some creature with horns and tail, but actually, asura, or demon, in the context of the Vedas, means materialist. Many demons are very beautiful, materially pious, and learned in the scriptures, but despite these good qualities they are materialists who just use religion to achieve their materialistic goals. In the process, they don’t hesitate to fight and kill others.

A pure devotee on the other hand is someone who doesn’t want anything from this world. He just wanted to serve Krsna. A pure devotee still may execute his duties in society, according to his position in life, therefore his external actions are not always a reliable way to understand his position. The story of Vrtrasura is very revealing in this regard.

After disrespecting Brhaspati, his spiritual master, Indra lost his power and was thus defeated by the demons. He went with the other demigods to ask for advice from Lord Brahma and was advised to get the help of Viśvarūpa, who was a qualified Brahmana and could accept the role of the priest of the demigods. With the help of Viśvarūpa, Indra regained his powers and was able to defeat the demons in battle and recover his position.

However, he later noticed that Viśvarūpa was secretly offering oblations to the demons in the sacrifices he was doing in the name of the demigods. The reason was that Viśvarūpa was connected with the family of the demons on the part of the mother, and was secretly offering oblations to them out of affection. Fearing that these oblations could strengthen the demons and make him again lose his post, Indra became alarmed and killed Viśvarūpa on the spot. Because of this, he incurred the heavy sin of killing a Brahmana who was also playing the role of his spiritual master.

This action enraged Tvaṣṭā, the father of Viśvarūpa, who was pained for having his son killed in this way. Out of grief, Tvaṣṭā decided to make a great sacrifice to kill Indra, but because he mispronounced one of the mantras, instead of getting Indra killed, a gigantic black demon appeared from the fire.

This “demon”, Vrtrasura, was Citraketu in his past life. The reason he became a demon was that he made a joke with Lord Shiva, which was misunderstood by Parvati, who unnecessarily cursed him to become a demon.

Citraketu was a pure devotee, who was engaged in chanting the holy names continuously. The curse of Parvati was arranged by Krsna so he could come earlier back to Godhead, instead of having to wait until the end of a very long life in the celestial planets.

Being born out of Tvaṣṭā, Vrtrasura was considered his son and thus accepted the duty of fighting with Indra to avenge his brother. Internally however he was aloof, being engaged in remembering Krsna.

In the first fight with the demigods, Vrtrasura found a pacific way to defeat them by swallowing their weapons. The demigods, led by Indra went to Lord Vishnu for consultation, but instead of praying for being delivered from the clutches of illusion, Indra asked Lord Vishnu to come as an incarnation to kill this powerful demon who defeated them. Disappointed, Lord Vishnu told him to beg a great ascetic called Dadici for his bones, which could be used to make a powerful weapon that would be able to defeat Vrtrasura.

Armed with the bones of Dadici, fashioned into a powerful weapon that could produce thunderbolts, Indra went again to fight with Vrtrasura, who showed great valor by staying to fight with Indra even when all the other demons had run away.

Vrtrasura perfectly understood the plan of the Lord. He understood that Indra was armed with a weapon that would kill him, but he was not afraid of death, understanding that that was the arrangement of the Lord to deliver him from the material clutches.

Indra was at first hesitant about killing Vrtrasura, understanding that he was actually a Brahmana, but he reasoned with the other demigods thought he could kill him and later counteract the reaction by doing a sacrifice. Thus, he became also guilty of the offense of committing sins on the strength of chanting the holy names.

During the battle, Vrtrasura was preaching to Indra about religious principles, while Indra was concerned about maintaining his position as the king of the demigods. Indra was showing rather mundane emotions, like fear and hesitation, while Vrtrasura was completely fearless.

When Indra finally got the upper hand, Vrtrasura became absorbed in meditation and left his body by his own will, attaining the supreme destination. Indra on the other hand was busy with the arduous task of beheading the dead body of Vrtrasura.

The saint Vrtrasura went thus back to Godhead, attaining his eternal position as a servant of Krsna, while Indra remained in this material universe to deal with the reactions of killing a pure devotee for material gain.

This story illustrates the difference between materialistic devotees and pure devotees. Indra was also a devotee, but he was a materialistic devotee, while despite the terrifying appearance, Vrtrasura was actually a pure devotee. Anxious for material gains Indra fought with him and eventually killed him, and thus became involved in a terrible crime. Vrtrasura on the other hand saw everything as an arrangement of Krsna and was anxious to cooperate with it.

In the end, Vrtrasura was able to go back to Godhead as he wanted, and Indra was able to maintain his position in this material world as he wanted.