Lord Krishna focused inwards, and made a hand movement. “Done. She is now firmly in a womb, and we can proceed to the next point, which is analysis of what’s actually going on here, and figuring out steps we should take in order to stay ahead of it”, he smiled at his family.

“I think we should count our blessings first”, his wife smiled back. “There are great things that came from this ordeal. The first was Zina, the loving and lovable, cute, gracious and dignified, whom we all love and adore”, she smiled at the woman, whose complexion was starting to turn towards crimson. “The second is her wise, good and immensely brilliant husband, Lord Buddha, whose wisdom, experience and virtue are great comfort and inspiration to all of us in these challenging times”, she nodded at the man, who looked deeply into her eyes, and bowed with deep respect and worship.

“Let us not forget Lord Azazel, my worshipped husband, who was so disgusted by Sanat Kumar and his plans even before they were put in motion, that he sought out Lord Shiva, attained enlightenment, and whose great discernment, wisdom and devotion pulled both of us towards godhood”, smiled her daughter, the Goddess of Wisdom.

“Hear, hear”, clapped Lord Vishnu. “We have two new blessedly Divine couples in our family, and all four of you are heartbreakingly wonderful, in four different and amazing ways for God to be a person”, he bowed, as everybody’s mood was already uplifted greatly.

“Obviously, we had losses. Angel Uriel was irretrievably lost and had to be destroyed, and if not for Lord Shiva’s sacrifice, that would have been a much greater disaster for all of us than it ended up being, for which I bow before him with great gratitude and even greater respect”, she nodded to Shankar, who smiled and nodded back. “Also, we lost Athena the angel, who now belongs to her new chosen Master, and has been removed from under the Throne of God”, she continued in a grim tone. “However, I feel there is more, and I would ask our honoured Judges of Karma for a report about the returning souls and their condition, so that we can have more of an informed opinion on the overall state of things”, she concluded, nodding towards Azrael, Buddha and Zina.

Buddha and his wife nodded to Azrael to take the first word. “We had multiple criminals that had to be put in the astral prison in order to await your further judgment, worshipped Ladies and Lords, and so that they would not interfere with the lives of normal souls. Interestingly, it turned out that very few demons did what one would expect – joined Sanat Kumar in his rebellion, conspired against the Gods or tortured other souls. In fact, it looks as if they relish in the opportunity to finally do something useful and get new ideas about the future course of their lives, and they usually throw themselves into family life, useful crafts, sciences and so on. For instance, there are a few very intelligent Greeks who developed philosophy and science, while being good husbands to their wives and fathers to their children. Their actions were virtuous and praiseworthy. Some, unfortunately, turned to mischief and committed terrible acts, but overall, it was a minority, while the majority conducted themselves with honour and virtue, and I have nothing but praise for them. The most notable example of this is of course Goddess Zina, who was so virtuous that she literally loved so much that she almost died, and had to be saved by her mother and Lady Fortune, but she is not as much of an outlier as one would have thought. Baal and Mephisto, for instance, were honourable family men who showered their wives and children with love and care, and beside minding their own affairs, one was an excellent blacksmith and very much respected in his community, while the other one excelled in construction work, building houses, roads and bridges”, he nodded approvingly.

“The sheep, if I may use this term for the stagnant, dormant souls that did nothing for eons, were a different story”, he continued. “For the most part, they were the easiest to corrupt into evil. Put one of them in a body that has any propensity for evil, as most human bodies do, and it all rolls downhill to a bad ending. If they are women, they tend to just indulge in promiscuous sex, following their shallow urges, becoming harlots and sluts. If they are mothers, they abuse their children because they are bored and lack the entertainment they think they deserve. If they are men in power, they usually abuse their positions and become terrible leaders. If they are subordinates, they slack off, steal, or perform their duties poorly. If they are husbands, they tend to be drunkards and no good, and their wives and children suffer the consequences. All in all, they are a terrible mess, but this actually tends to snap them out of being sheep and into being demons, which in their case is an upgrade, and since we’ve seen that demons tend to surprise us positively, I think there is hope for the future”, he nodded. “There is, of course, a rare example of Lord Buddha, who was born a prince, and seemed to be destined for a life of automatism and inertia, when he suddenly woke up, and surprised everybody by being the most energetic, decisive, strong willed and virtuous person one could possibly imagine, and I bow before his holiness again and again”, he bowed to Buddha, who smiled and bowed back.

“Some sheep, unfortunately, continue to do absolutely nothing of consequence. They live their lives as in a dream, make no important decisions, go with the flow, die and continue sleeping in the astral plane. That is unfortunate, but not unexpected”, Azrael shrugged, and nodded to Lady Zina to take over.

“The normal souls are actually a minority, because unlike the demons, who hurled themselves into the abyss without much consideration, and sheep, who got herded alongside them and just followed the crowd, the normal souls were actually thinking with awakened minds and for the most part decided to stay in the astral plane and continue with a normal evolutionary path, which in their case is actually both safest and the most rewarding option”, she smiled. “However, those of them who did choose the human path, usually got incredibly confused by the human experience, and lack of transcendental feeling they were used to. They would get lost and suffer terribly there, but when Lord Shiva broke the ceiling of spiritual darkness in that place, and cracks of transcendence started to appear, they started noticing the inner light and grew strongly towards it, becoming mystics, yogis, artists, mages or philosophers. Some of them in fact achieved great progress in their spiritual evolution, and their human experience gave them an additional depth and flavour, and I can hardly wait what will happen as they crystallise, since we haven’t seen this spiritual type before”, she smiled in appreciation. “As family people, they vary. Some are excellent – they tell their children inspiring tales with a spiritual message, they are loving, caring and wonderful. Some, unfortunately, are so concentrated on the otherworldly matters that they neglect their families and cause suffering”, she frowned. “It is what it is, unfortunately, and we’ll see how this develops. It would be helpful if they could be taught balance”, she nodded to her husband to take over.

“As for the angelic beings of crystallised vajra, they turned out to be a mixed bag. You’ve all seen Uriel and Athena, so I won’t waste words on them. However, there are some who turned out quite well, if in unexpected ways. One would expect them to regularly outperform others, since they are so spiritually powerful, but that is sometimes the reason for their very poor adjustment to the world of extreme limitations. They struggle with the basics, and keep trying to meditate when that doesn’t work or actually harms them, sometimes becoming autistic, which ends poorly as society discards them. Sometimes they follow paths of personal power, treating other people with complete contempt and disregard, and become reclusive hermits who practice religion, dark magic, austerity and similar activities. Some study sciences, some create art, and some get into religion, but very often in nasty ways, as they are often self-serving, arrogant and lack compassion. All in all, the surprising news is that they become almost exactly what one would expect demons to be – self-serving arrogant assholes who pursue power and treat others as if they were grass under their feet. Uriel is the most notable example of this, in his incarnation of Ashurnasirpal, who seems to be the worst person to have existed in the history of that world so far. Others in their arrogance challenged Sanat Kumar openly, of which Athena is the worst example, but there are others, who fortunately woke up and smelled the coffee in time, and changed enough of their attitude as to evade the worst outcomes”, he grinned.

“All in all, it’s a mixed bag, and the results were for the most part wildly unexpected. For the most part, we get souls with various degrees of traumatic injury, but once that has been handled, some of them tend to gravitate towards Earth and seek the next incarnation, spending time on astral Earth planning what they would want to be next. Some meditate and think about the lessons of their experience, advancing quickly. Some are dumb as rocks. Some, unfortunately, are evil and incredibly nasty, and we’ll probably have to shovel them back to Earth like we did with Athena/Anthea, because the only other alternatives would be either letting them ferment in prison with their own ilk, where they’ll likely grow even worse, or to outright kill them, but I think it’s too early for that since there are other options to be explored first. So, that would conclude our report”, he bowed to the Gods and Goddesses.

“What are the differences between male and female souls, and male and female incarnations?”, Lady Kay asked.

“There are of course significant differences between the sexes on Earth, but honestly, it all amounts to being the same”, shrugged Azrael. “Their lives are usually hard, and they suffer and die. Men usually die in wars and fields, and women die in childbirth or violent crimes. Women are raped more often, and men are castrated and otherwise maimed or brutally executed more often. Both frequently starve to death. Women work at home, men work outside, and they both have equal chances of being either good people or villains. If they are free, their lives are usually hard, and if they are slaves, their lives are usually terrible. All in all, you can argue that their lives are either as good or as bad as each other. When they love and help each other, their lives approximate heaven. Spiritually speaking, I think Lady Zina and Lord Budha are a good illustration of the best outcomes. She was loving, compassionate and nurturing, and he was wise, compassionate, intellectual and sharp, and they are now both exceedingly wonderful, and my life is so much better since they have been around, as they are so inspiring, fun and insightful. We had many long discussions, where I always felt greatly uplifted and enlightened. So, any talk about men or women having it better or being better is nonsense. Uriel and Athena show that both men and women can become terrible abominations, and Buddha and Zina show that they can both become beautiful, inspiring and worshipful persons of God”, he bowed to both of his friends, who smiled back widely, as other Gods giggled.

“I think we must consider the issue of intellectual content that is spiritually uplifting”, Lord Vishnu noticed. “That matters a lot there, since there is little ability to establish spiritual truths personally, and people have to rely on what they were taught, and if they are taught good moral and spiritual principles, this will help them a lot. Conversely, if they are taught wrong and bad things, this will be spiritually detrimental”, he mused. “Lord Buddha’s teachings were a brilliant positive example, and I salute him. However, they seem to be geographically limited, and there is room for introduction of similarly valuable teachings elsewhere. I do notice, however, that Sanat Kumar actively works on muddying the waters, so whenever someone like Lord Buddha introduces a truth, twenty stupid dumbasses who serve Satan start talking similar but harmful and deceptive things, thus greatly confusing people and making the teaching inaccessible”, his face darkened.

“Do you have any suggestions as to how we should improve this situation, my Lord and brother?”, asked Lady Shakti.

“Some. Our tears are there, as well as the cracks, thanks to your glorious husband, my Lady. Let me think about this some more, ok?”, he smiled at his sister, who grinned and nodded back.

“So, if we’re done here, how about coffee?”, Shiva rubbed his hands and smiled mischievously.