“I can’t for the life of me get your names right”, Kay was massaging her brow. “Can we please call you something simple, like Paddy, Mandy and Jess?”, she smiled mischievously at the Buddhists.

The three looked at each other and broke into laughter. “Anything that makes you comfortable, sweetheart”, Mandy replied, and the other two nodded.

“Wait until one of the Sufi mystics attains apotheosis”, Zee grinned. “See how Abi Sa’id al-Hasan ibn Yasar al-Basri would roll off the tongue”.

“He’d become Harry in a hurry”, his wife giggled.

…

“So, you’re saying that Mara actually exists as a person; it’s not a metaphor for the worldly illusion, like Goddess Maya or something?”, Jess asked.

“Yup. One of his names is Sanat Kumara, although the rest of us demons called him ‘Satan Cucumber’, or just Dickwad”, Azazel grinned.

“The rest…”

“Yes, I used to be a demon. I know him from those times, when the material world existed merely as his fantasy about opposing the Gods and making all the souls less so that he could be equal or better. I know what inside of his head looks like. So much so, that I was disgusted to the point of seeking out Lord Shiva and asking him to teach me, and you can pretty much guess the rest of it”, he smiled.

“And the Gods just happened to give that demon the artefact of Creation? To the demon that was so evil and twisted that he motivated a fellow demon to seek enlightenment?”, Paddy scratched his head in wonder.

“Well, not directly; they understood that there’s a problem with souls not doing anything, Heaven being completely static, demons and idiots overcrowding the astral nursery because everybody normal ascended quickly and they tended to stick around, and so on. They made an artefact that encapsulates the powers of your parents, and gave it to some pompous ass in the astral plane to give access only to legitimate claimants; the idea was, some demon will create a world that will be interesting enough and challenging enough for them to remove themselves from the astral nursery and do something constructive there. Unfortunately, the Sentinel, being an ass, gave it to the worst person in the entire Creation, despite my Father urging him to reconsider because the consequences might be terrible. And, of course, Dickwad went on to create the worst of all possible worlds, with a chain of permissions originating all the way to the Will of God. Which is why they didn’t just kill him and terminate that world, and they instead keep extinguishing the fires he keeps making”, Zee shrugged.

“So, basically, as bad as that world is, its existence solves the problem that was worse?”, asked Mandy.

“Something like that. God’s will is to manifest as persons in the Relative. That simply wasn’t happening, because of multiple reasons. One of them is that it is hard, and in order to do hard things you need to be motivated, and you’re kind of not motivated if things are good. There were lots of vajra beings, the angels, but they weren’t doing the necessary steps required to be chosen by the unmanifested Absolute as his own persons in the Relative, and that, apparently, is the only way to be promoted. You can’t just decide to do it; you need to be worthy in the eyes of God. So, my wife and I were the first, after the four Ancients, and we ultimately have Sanat Kumar to thank for it”, he smiled.

“You can’t argue with results”, Paddy nodded. “Initially there were the four Gods, and now we are fifteen. However, is all the suffering, apostasy and death of souls worth it?”, he wondered.

“I don’t think the Absolute cares”, Karuna shrugged. “The point of Creation wasn’t to make a green field where all the sheep of God will graze happily forever. The point was for Me to manifest Myself in the Relative, in a diversity of persons and forms; to be Myself on the other side of the veil”, she switched to the First Person. “The kind and pleasant way was tried first, and it didn’t work. Now, the Evil One is doing everything opposite to what the Gods would have done, and combined with our efforts to help, the results are obviously much better. As for the fact that some of the formerly undecided have switched to evil, you can’t really see this as a fall and a disaster. They existed in a state of a limbo, in which a thing in the dark that you think to be a snake exists until you bring in a torch. Once there is light, you can obviously see whether it’s a snake or a piece of rope. You can’t say that light created a snake out of a rope, or vice versa. This means that the fall of the souls that decided to choose evil is a good thing. They were forced to make a choice and exit the limbo. Yes, there is suffering, but there are worse things than suffering”, concluded Kay, now quite serious.

“Such as…?”, Mandy asked.

“Such as everybody who is now undecided being summarily wiped out because they were serving no purpose”, the response came. “Such as all the souls that are now Gods, to never have been so”.

“But still, surely you must concede that there could have been a kinder, less cruel way of forcing souls to decide”, pressed Jess.

“Maybe. This, however, works. The gentler, kinder way that existed before didn’t”, Kay shrugged. “Sure, some middle ground might be preferable. Indeed, we are currently threading the middle ground, as this is no longer a world of Mara’s original design; both Shiva and Vishnu have intervened and wrought their power to make it more permeable to transcendence, and the souls now have much more to work with if they want to choose God. The option to choose the alternative is obviously useful, as it collapses the undecided souls into either snake or rope; essentially, forcing them to make the choice they themselves were unwilling to make, which means that making a world that is too good is ultimately self-defeating”, Kay managed a smile.

“But Mara is actively pressuring the souls to choose evil”, Paddy noted. “Often, someone with a sword will come and present you with a choice of submitting to evil or being killed. It’s not really a free choice”.

“No, it isn’t. But the souls had free, unforced choice before, and they chose to do nothing. Now, someone with a sword forces you to make the choice, and if you’re weak, you will submit. If you have principles and adhere to transcendence, you will die. Or you will pretend to submit and then proceed to doing good later on. What you won’t be able to do, is sit on a green meadow forever and graze”, she smiled in earnest.

“You say this as if suffering is a complete non-issue”, Paddy protested.

“Oh, it’s certainly not, and your existence is a testament to that, since you were born from the tears the Gods cried when the first broken souls came from that hell”, she denied strongly. “I myself was almost comatose from shock. It was and still is the worst day of my life, and I’m significantly older than Earth. However, it’s one thing to feel compassion for the suffering and do something about it, and quite another to stand in the way of the Will of God. And suffering, as much as we personally suffer watching it, in our own compassion, still seems to be a part of how the Will of God is manifesting itself in the Relative”, the Mind of God nodded gravely.

“Can something at least be done to mitigate the harm that lunatic is wreaking down there?”, Jess looked upset. “I mean, we can always keep some version of that world for evolutionary purposes, but eliminate that one person that always finds a way to make things worse. For instance, the West is now in ruins, thanks to his intervention. Had it stayed in its original form, where it produced new Gods on a pretty regular basis, surely it would have been more aligned with the Will of God than it is now”, she wondered.

“Maybe. I certainly don’t think his perpetual existence and evil are the Will of God. His time will come”, Goddess of Wisdom nodded.

“It all makes me think about what a terrible outcome this was of putting a powerful spiritual artefact into evil hands”, Mandy mused. “It’s as if power of that kind attracts and creates corruption”.

“We have evidence to the contrary in front of us”, Paddy smiled at Lady Kay. “Have you ever been tempted to use that jewel of yours to fix this? Kill Sanat Kumar, destroy the Jewel he is controlling, make things right?”, he asked.

“I could certainly do it”, Karuna nodded. “I am by far more powerful than he is, and killing him wouldn’t even be a challenge. Also, my jewel is much more powerful than his. I could kill it with a single command, and the material world would end. All the souls in there, however, would likely be destroyed with it. And had I done it when I first could, I never would have met you, for you would not have been. I could do it now; go back in time and flip the switch. Tell Lord Shiva and Lady Shakti not to create it at all. Not cry those tears. Save her husband from pain. Retroactively murder most of my family, because then you wouldn’t have been. Zina wouldn’t have been. Buddha wouldn’t have been. Christ and his blessed wife wouldn’t have been. Hypatia wouldn’t have been. I can certainly do it”, Kay nodded gravely, as they all shivered. “However, I will not. I know that it is not the Will of God, and I Am God, so I would know”, she smiled with the smile of Absolute showing its teeth. “Technically, I could do all sorts of things I will never do, because unlike Sanat Kumar, I am neither evil, or an idiot, or a spiritual midget. I would never use my jewel against the will of Lady Shakti, who created it and gave it to me. I love her and I will always obey her. I also love my husband and obey him, and I would never do anything that would make him think less of me. What good is power, if the only thing it can do is take my happiness and love away?”, she glowed. “So, I use my power only when I’m ordered to by the elders, or to do minor adjustments to the Creation, along the guidelines they previously approved, because I’m being a good girl”, she smiled. “Also, my power is only a glimpse of Lady Shakti’s power, so whatever I can do, she can as well, and easier. And since she didn’t, it means she knew what pain she would have gone through, and did it anyways; for what mother would will her children not to be, only to spare herself the pain of giving birth?”

“That jewel of yours is in good hands”, Paddy nodded gravely, “For you are indeed as wise as you are powerful, and you are terrifyingly powerful”, he smiled.

“Also, killing Sanat Kumar or the Jewel now would incur karmic retribution, so it would likely kill me, and create an even greater mess than we have now”, Kay nodded. “So, I’ll definitely be a good girl and obey my elders in all things”.

“It’s interesting how Mara didn’t directly oppose us in our sadhana; at least, nothing above the usual worldly stuff”, noted Jess. “It’s as if he didn’t mind what we were doing”.

“Or wanted us to be out of there as soon as possible”, mused Mandy.

“Both are possibly true”, nodded Azazel. “He had to know what you are, and he decided it would be a waste of power to try to oppose you, as it would likely fail, use up too much of his resources, and he probably counts on using Islam to wipe out everything soon enough, so there would be no lasting positive consequences of your teaching”.

“I’m afraid the last one is most likely to be true. Why waste energy on opposing you, when he can let you go, get rid of you and thus remove three great hostile powers from his system, and later wipe everything clean, the way he wiped Europe and the Middle East”, Kay nodded. “But for a while, India will be flourishing, and what you did matters. In any case, the most precious artefact of your work are you, yourselves”, Kay pointed out.