“I get how you got permissions to enter the Earth system and access the Jewel. I get how you could impregnate a woman, especially since it’s an incarnation of your wife’s compassion, essentially a part or an aspect of your wife, so you had permission to give her a child. I can see how you created a synthetic karmic body for that being. But what is the soul? That wouldn’t have bothered me earlier, but now I know about the sparks of the Absolute that emerge in particularly holy circumstances and then the karmic body develops around them, and that manifested spark seeks to return to its origin, and it finds it only when it becomes a God, or becomes a part of one. So, honestly, I can’t figure out what you did, and I am begging you to explain it because my curiosity about it is torturing me”, Lord Buddha smiled at Krishna.
“He’s right, Father”, Kay was deep in thought. “One can easily create a karmic structure, and that structure will be a soul for all intents and purposes, but what you did here was essentially make a new God, and since it’s not an incarnation of any of us, and you can’t just make a God out of nothing, because that would defeat the purpose of Creation, I agree with Lord Buddha and I can’t understand what you did, either”, she voiced her confusion.
“Also, there was talk about an attack on Sanat Kumar, and since that sounds very interesting, I’m dying to hear about it”, smiled her husband and looked curiously at Lord Vishnu.
“I’m glad you guys are paying attention”, Krishna grinned. “With all the brain power in the room, there’s no hiding anything from you, and I wouldn’t even want to”, he bowed to them. “You are right, I couldn’t conceive a son, and hope some random soul latches on or fulfils that role. I couldn’t just take a random soul with its own karmic structure and force it into the role, for it would be a violation. I also couldn’t just create a new soul because I would be using my own spiritual substance, and it would reintegrate into myself after death, and I didn’t want that. I wanted to make a true new person of God, one that is also legitimately ancient in its own right, has origins deep in the roots of Creation itself and is a manifestation of the nature of the Absolute through the Relative, and also, one that is mine”, he smiled.
His wife froze in shock, and then smiled like the sun itself. “The Kaustubha jewel is gone, it’s no longer on your chest”, she pointed out. “You used the all-attractive manifestation of the inner bliss of the unmanifested God, wrapped it inside a synthetic karmic path and gave it a life on its own”.
“You are indeed as wise as you are beautiful, my beloved”, Krishna bowed to his wife. “Yes, that is exactly what I did. The Kaustubha jewel, the Light of the World, is now growing to be our son”, he confirmed.
“Mara is going to go absolutely crazy with desire, trying to corrupt it or make it his own”, Buddha nodded knowingly. “That thing is at least equal in power to the Jewel made by Shiva and Shakti, and that one is an independent Power of Creation. This one is Fulfilment and Light itself, that feels like looking at the very meaning of Life and the blissful nature of the Absolute as an external thing. You were wise to take it onto yourself and wear it, because your nature is so blissful in its own right, that the jewel is completely lost on it, looking like any other part of your own body. Since the only ones ever seeing the Kaustubha jewel are the ones who see your glorious person, it poses no danger to anyone, because that structure on its own would act like such a powerful attractor, it would distract souls from their own personal path, like some very powerful addictive drug they couldn’t pull themselves away from. And now, you took that drug and made it into an attractor that will draw souls toward it and cut a path towards transcendence, where they will continue looking for it when it is gone from the world. But Sanat Kumar will try to make it a part of his world, or integrate it with the Jewel he controls in some way”, Buddha was thinking out loud.
“Or absorb it into himself, and make himself a God, as he always wanted to be”, Lord Azazel continued this line of thought. “In any cases, it will be a bait he wouldn’t be able to resist, and it will drive him even more mad than he already is, which is quite something. And if you want to get him in a condition where he will make a mistake, that’s exactly how you would approach it”, he nodded appreciatively.
“How do you know Mara so well?”, Buddha was impressed. “This sounds exactly right, like you know his soul inside-out”.
“I do, in fact. He used to be a fellow demon, and I spent ages listening to him conspiring against the Gods, inventing his own weird philosophy that shifted between egalitarianism and self-aggrandisement, as in his madness he sought to rationalise a way out of his own insignificance and weakness, rather than making good choices that would change his condition”, Azazel nodded darkly. “I probably know more about him than he himself does, and at some point I looked at him, and looked at myself, and realised that he in his madness and evil is what I will become unless I do something radically different”, he smiled.
“Which, judging from your current state, you obviously did”, Buddha smiled back.
“Indeed”, Azazel nodded. “Sanat Kumar hated the Gods with incredible hatred, and wished to somehow either have their power and rise above them, or to make all power irrelevant so that he will not be inferior. He will resort to egalitarianism when victory doesn’t look possible; but put the Kaustubha jewel within his grasp, within his realm of power, and he will get absolutely insane from desire. And then, he is likely to make mistakes”, Zee nodded appreciatively. “Lord Vishnu is as wise as he is wonderful, which is why we all look up to him”, he bowed.
“What exactly is the vector of attack?”, wondered Lady Kay. “He will try to corrupt it by either seduction or threats. I assume that won’t work, because that Jewel will think about only two things – the source of his own light, and his beloved Lord Vishnu, in whose company he spent his entire exstence. At this point, I don’t even think he can tell the difference between the two, and I don’t blame him, for there indeed isn’t one, as Lord Vishnu is the Absolute, only manifested. There’s nothing Sanat Kumar can offer him that would entice him in any way. What can he offer him, to be the king in his world? That will sound as enticing as guarding some stable. So let’s go further; the Jewel rebuffs Satan’s advances. Satan grows angry in his frustration, and enters the ‘you will pay for this’ mode. He threatens with the stuff he threatened Athena with; he’ll throw all kinds of humiliation and suffering on him, but unlike Athena, this one isn’t arrogant and foolish. He doesn’t boast, threaten or invite Satan to do his worst. He simply shrugs and says it will be as his Lord commands, thinking of his actual Lord and Father. Sanat Kumar goes insane with frustration, and actually subjects him to worldly horrors uninvited”, she hypothesised.
“If he does that, it’s game over for him instantly”, Lord Shiva interjected. “The axe of karma falls, head goes plop. He has to know that, and that’s why he’s always being so careful not to get caught in any outright action. He makes their victims doom themselves, while he pretends to offer tests and trials of character and true spiritual choice, which is actually useful”, he nodded. “Which means his attack on your son will take form of some trial of faith – of the kind where he proves his faith and loyalty to God and dies, or he is saved from a terrible ordeal by choosing to belong to Sanat Kumar”, he looked at Vishnu as if asking for confirmation.
“That, indeed, was my plan”, Krishna bowed and smiled. “The best way to attack Sanat Kumar is to offer him something he desperately desires, and which will make him desperate enough to get himself into a situation where any realistic outcome is a loss”.
“You actually don’t expect him to get himself killed. You think he’ll see that and avoid the trap”, grinned Azazel. “But you think he will avoid the trap in such a way as to doom himself strategically in the long run, and he won’t see that one”, he looked at Vishnu appreciatively, as the Mind of God cuddled into him adoringly.
Lord Shiva grinned at him appreciatively and they fist-bumped. “I like the way you’re thinking”, he nodded. “But let me try to guess what the actual plan is. The option of the Kaustubha giving himself to Satan willingly is completely off the table. Only Satan is foolish enough to even try it. But then he will think that he can pressure him into it with terrible torture. That also won’t work since the Jewel will pray only to Lord Vishnu and surrender to his will. Sanat Kumar will either have to blink, or let him die. Will he blink and spare him in the last moment?”
“No. His vanity will be hurt and he will be the woman scorned, so to speak. He will gloat at Kaustubha’s suffering and will enjoy his death. However, then he’ll be in a pickle. He’ll have to present this as some kind of a trial of faith, but in this case it would be a very thin explanation. He was too obviously involved, and the ‘test’ excuse is too thin here”, Azazel scratched his chin. “I don’t get this part, there must be something more”.
“He will have to permanently cede some part of his authority”, Shiva guessed. “I don’t know how or what”.
“All who accept and follow my son will have a way to eternal life”, Vishnu smiled. “His suffering and death will buy this, because Sanat Kumar will have to allow it in order to evade punishment. It will be the only way to appear justified. He cooperated all along, and made the conditions so that the Son of God could prove his glory, so that all the faithful and true can follow him to heaven”, he grinned. “He’s truly such a good and misunderstood character”.
“He’ll allow it because he thinks he can bury it all under a pile of false teachings, alternative similar-sounding false teachers and all the other stuff he always did”, Buddha mused. “But there was talk about an undeniable proof, and of resurrection?”, he looked at Vishnu.
“Yes, both. My son will die, spend a few days dead, then come back to his resurrected body, interact with numerous witnesses and then finally ascend to Heaven. I had enough access to arrange it. Also, Sanat Kumar won’t be able to either prevent it or work on completely covering it up, because remember, he needs to present himself on actually enabling the full glory of God to be shown so that the righteous believers will be saved. He presents himself not as the enemy of God and righteousness, but as a righteous person who hates fakes and hypocrites and works to unmask them and ferret them out. If he shows that he’s actually the enemy of all that is good and works on its destruction and failure, the axe falls and he dies”, Vishnu nodded.
“But he will of course invent lots of reasons to doubt, as if to test faith, and he will present all kinds of alternative narratives about your son later on”, Buddha added. “It’s just what he does”.
“Indeed”, nodded Azazel.
“But while we are at this, I have a question”, Kay interjected. “What are we actually trying to do here?”, asked the Mind of God.
“What do you mean?”, asked her husband.
“It’s simple. The Jewel was created to solve a problem. The problem is stagnation of the souls, and lack of proper motivation. The fact that Sanat Kumar got hold of it was the worst case scenario, apparently, but everything was seemingly designed to accommodate for that possibility. He’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing – his worst. The results are apparently following prediction; some souls are doomed by their arrogance, some have snapped from their stupor, some are moved towards enlightenment. It’s working. So, may someone please explain why we are fighting?”, the girl asked, truly puzzled.
Vishnu nodded and smiled. “The place he made has multiple functions. The first, most fundamental is that it is the alternative to the Kingdom of God. It is a place where beings like Anthea can go after they expressed their desire to belong to the Kingdom of Satan, rather than the Kingdom of God. They can have him as their god there, for whatever it’s worth. Were it the only role that place is playing, we would be unconcerned, and wouldn’t interfere; for a time, of course, because their choice is that of ultimate doom. However, there is another function that place is serving, and that is a playground of obligatory choice for the undecided. Most souls entering didn’t do so the way Anthea did – after having made a clear choice for the satanic and against the divine. Most go there either because they are stupid, ignorant, naive, arrogant, or undecided. And so, the reason we interfere is, essentially, Zina. She is the ultimate reason why Lord Shiva grew angry and cracked that place. She is the reason why I sent my son there to be born, to teach, to show, and to be tortured, to die and rise from the dead showing them perspective and hope. I knew why Zina almost died there, without hope, thinking that place was all there is, and that isn’t a fair thing to do to souls who went in foolish or undecided, but ended up being as wonderful and loving people as she did. So, I’m giving them hope and perspective, and if some want to reject it and choose the fate of Anthea, they are certainly free to do so. However, if they choose the life of love and kindness, they will now also be free to have hope, faith and perspective”, he concluded.