Judge of Karma, Angel of Death; Azrael; crystal of vajra, male, was feeling much happier lately. It’s not that his job was easier, nor that it had caused him much discomfort earlier, other than that terrible instance of encountering the corrupted angel Uriel. The reason for improvement in his otherwise calm and collected disposition was that he was joined in his duties by the newborn angel, Zina, who was such a fountain of constant calm joy, that he couldn’t but be affected by it.
She was also extremely impressive. Not only did she attain crystallisation so soon after her almost fatal traumatic experience and subsequent miraculous recovery by the hands of two Goddesses, but she, due to being an old and rather large demon, crystallised to a more mature angelic form than is usual for the newborns, very much like Lord Azazel. And immediately afterwards, she continued growing exponentially in devotion to her Divine Mother, Goddess Shakti, and was now a large crystal of a profoundly deep blue colour, with large parts of her being violet to ultraviolet. Essentially, she was very close to the very summit of beings that could be found in Heaven, and if he had to bet on who will become the seventh God, his money would be on her. And, quite unexpectedly, she was so much fun to be around. Azrael smiled with profound contentment.
An expected shimmer in space occurred, and a being appeared before them, one of the souls who died on Earth and returned back to the astral plane, confused, traumatised, injured and for all intents and purposes insane. Only, Azrael understood that this expectation didn’t match the reality of what he was seeing, because the being in front of him, although obviously post-human, with typical signs of being stuck in a limited existence of a human body, was different than anything he had ever seen.
It was a clear, striking blue crystal of vajra, with pure, deep thoughts, analytical, deeply observant, deeply empathetic. “Zina, tell me I’m seeing this right”, he half-turned his attention to his partner.
“I know what you mean, but let’s talk to him rather than jump to conclusions, ok?”, she suggested, and he nodded in assent.
“Greetings, Sir. I am Azrael, Judge of Karma. I am here to assist you in your transition from Earth to the spiritual planes. However, since your nature and appearance are something I have never encountered before, I would ask you to introduce yourself and tell us about yourself. I must apologise in advance, because usually the deceased humans are in a state of shock, while I am calm and collected, but in your case the roles might be slightly reversed”, the Angel of Death smiled at the man.
“It is understandable”, the man smiled back. “I just experienced a painful death, but that is to be expected in that place, and is of little concern. As for who I am, it’s hard to say. I used to be asleep for so long, but then I awoke. I removed impurities on the four elements and extinguished them by transcending into the fifth. I used to be the Jewel in the Lotus, but now the Lotus is apparently gone, and I remain the Jewel. I used to be a prince, then an ascetic hermit, and then I gave even that up in enlightenment. I am the Awakened One, and I am not anything, for Emptiness is. I used to be called Shakyamuni, and they also called me Siddhartha Gautama. You can call me Buddha, the Awakened One, for my state and my name might as well be one.”
The two angels stood there in shock, their mouths open, and they looked at each other, and then back at him.
“You managed to attain all that down there? In Sanat Kumara’s hellhole?”, Azrael managed to collect himself enough to stutter.
“Ah, so that’s his name. I called him Mara, and I understood him to be the demon of illusion who owns and controls that place”, Buddha nodded. “I had serious difficulties with him there, because he uses every energetic projection and investment to power both your bondage and that place itself. The complexity of his traps is great, and he also adapts, so it’s not always the same. I am quite unsure whether this vision I’m having is one of his yet unseen traps, or it is a manifestation of my expectations and desires that I need to let go of, and transcend”, he mused.
“Oh, this place is quite real”, Azrael nodded. “I mean, it’s a construct made of astral substance, created by Goddess Karuna to accommodate the needs of deceased humans, and furnished by Lord Vishnu. We are actual beings, and not manifestations of your psyche, as you seem to think. We, however, are also confused and in a state of shock, which is why we will now invite the Gods to join us, because you are something none of us have ever seen, and this far exceeds the parameters of our job here”, Azrael smiled to Buddha and nodded to Zina, whose eyes turned inwards as she prayed to her Mother.
“Hello, my daughter”, Shakti smiled after the shimmer in space manifested both herself and three other Gods, who just happened to have coffee with her as the call came. “Ah, so this is the cause of your excitement, my dear”, she put her arm around the smiling woman’s shoulder, and looked at the man himself. “A perfect crystal of blue vajra, excellent analytical mind, almost perfect theoretical understanding of spiritual theory… and you developed it all yourself, in the deepest illusion created by the worst of demons? I am not merely impressed, Lord Buddha; I salute you”, she curtsied respectfully. “I am Lady Shakti, wife of Lord Shiva. It is an honour to meet you”.
Buddha looked into the Lady’s eyes with deep insight and discernment, and his mouth opened in shock. “Wow. I would bow back, my Lady, but I am not sure if such a gesture is respectful enough, and worthy of what I just felt. In my experience on Earth, the gods seemed like irrelevant, self-serving beings that feed off sacrifices and provide worldly benefits in order to promote more sacrifices, all of it being irrelevant for one’s liberation. I am used to pointing my mind at something, and it dissolves into components, showing itself to be illusory. In my presumption, I took the liberty of touching you with my mind, expecting you to dissolve as an illusion, showing the underlying calm of blissful emptiness. However, my mind touched you and broke, the way a stone breaks hitting a harder stone. It’s as if vajra, the fifth element, the jewel of my awareness, is like mere air compared to what I touched, but it is not at all what I expected. You are not cold emptiness of a higher order. You are not a deeper state of nirvana. You are kind, compassionate, playful, powerful, but that’s not the right word. You are powerful in such extreme ways, it blows my mind when I try to wrap it around that. You are a God in a sense where everything one would think of as a God feels like a laughing stock in comparison. My Lady, I apologise for my presumption, and my only explanation is that you are to a Buddha what Buddha is to a dormant soul in deep illusion”, he bowed deeply to the smiling Goddess.
“I like him, Mother”, Zina turned to Lady Shakti and smiled.
“We all do, kid”, the Goddess rubbed her daughter’s shoulder. “He’s so far the most impressive being that emerged from all of this, and I expect we’ll have lots to talk about, as his understanding of spiritual mechanics, formed in that place, might in fact contain improvements on our knowledge”, she nodded, as Buddha bowed back even more deeply in return.
“I would be honoured to be of service, Goddess. And, after I think about everything more deeply, and gain better understanding about the rest of Reality, now that my mind is unconstrained by flesh, I will certainly have questions”.
“And we will be glad to answer them, Lord Buddha”, Goddess smiled at him, and other Gods nodded. “But for now, I will be leaving you with my daughter Zina, because she looks like she wants to talk to you”, she grinned.
Lady Lakshmi nodded a greeting to Buddha smilingly, and turned to Zee and Kay. “He used to be one of those dormant souls we usually call the sheep, and then he awoke. Now, he is one of the most impressive beings I have seen so far”. She looked at Lord Azazel in particular. “You were right to say that good things might come out of this horror after all, and that souls need a proper shakeup”, she curtsied.
“And you, Mother, were fully justified in warning us not to mock the sheep, nor to speak casually of the dangers and horrors”, he bowed back.
“I am glad we are all in agreement”, smiled Lady Shakti, and shimmered away, as the other Gods nodded a farewell and followed suit.
…
“I must again apologise for my presumption, Lady Zina”, Buddha mused. “Before, long before, I can vaguely remember existing, without any aim or purpose. I was, and that was enough for happiness. I was hardly anything, and it didn’t bother me in the slightest. In my earthly life, everything was ignorance and darkness. I encountered ignorant and often cruel kings and noblemen, pompous and utterly ignorant priests, ignorant people conducting their worldly affairs in darkness, all suffering terribly as poverty, old age, sickness and death ruled the world”.
“After my awakening and transformation, I saw that I am seemingly the only truly enlightened one, and started teaching. Fools challenged me; the wise listened. The only wise people I encountered were those wise enough to become my disciples and learn dharma.”
“And then, I saw you and your friend Azrael. He is much like myself, made of vajra, a buddha in his own right. I’ve seen his mind – it is calm, settled, hard as diamond and lightning. He is also old, incredibly old, and has other jewels on him, of darker colour, signifying his great achievements. I instantly liked him and felt great compassion for his sincerity, humility and kindness to the suffering souls he assists daily”.
“You, my Lady, are even stronger, more powerful, harder. The colour and hardness of vajra that makes your karmic body is greater than his, or mine, and yet you are so humble, kind and lovely, with no attempt to project authority or distance. How did you attain such admirable qualities of spirit?”, he asked the daughter of Shakti.
“You told me how your spiritual path went, Lord Buddha, so it’s quite appropriate that I tell you about mine. You see, I used to be a demoness, for untold millennia, or eons even. They used to call me Vipera, the venomous bitch. In my endless boredom, I entertained myself by molesting other souls, and inventing cruel pranks for them, so that I and other demons would have a laugh”.
Buddha raised an eyebrow. “I find this hard to believe, my Lady, as there is nothing of the sort that I can identify in you, but I guess that is how true spiritual transformation works”, he nodded.
“Yes. At one point, I naively and thoughtlessly chose to test out Sanat Kumar’s new world, Earth. I was born there and all my memories were inhibited. I didn’t know that I was supposed to be a demoness, and I knew nothing about cruelty and malice, as my family loved me and treated me with great kindness. I was soon married, and my husband also treated me lovingly and with kindness. As this became the norm of my life, it also became my true self of choice, something I wanted to be, and defend against all threats. I also experienced terrible suffering in life, but that had nothing to do with my choices; it was merely a threat, an evil that happened against my will”, she explained.
“But how did you deal with suffering? Surely it must have been an issue for you?”, Buddha enquired.
“It was, indeed. Four of my seven children died early. I grieved and cried for them, and those were dark times. Also, my life ended in a terrible way, when bandits came, killed my husband and two sons in the fields, entered our house and bound me, and forced me to watch and listen as they took turns raping my daughter, my youngest child. I tore myself away and tried to fight them off, but they killed me”, she finished darkly.
“How did you deal with this horrible experience?”, Buddha whispered compassionately.
“I didn’t. My soul broke completely. I locked myself into a memory of rocking my baby daughter to sleep, forever, and that is how I would have died, if not for Lady Shakti. The last thing I remember as darkness started to take me was her holy presence all around me, saying “no you don’t”, as she flooded my soul with incredible bliss and light that comforted me, faded out the trauma and the loss, and brought back my memories of life before Earth, so that I could remember and integrate myself. She also showed me the blissful nature or Reality, showed me how I chose to partake in it with my choices of love and kindness in my human life, and how I chose to stand against it in my cruel and harsh life as a demoness. Her love and compassion literally stitched my soul together as I was breaking apart, and I held on to her light and gained new life”, she finished, glowing brightly.
“You are right to put accent on the issue of suffering, Lord Buddha”, she continued. “Suffering is a terrible problem, and the trauma would have ended my existence as a soul, if not for my Mother’s compassion and immense skill in spiritual healing. However, in hindsight, the love and kindness that I experienced are what informed my choice, for them and against everything that threatens them. They are both the reason why I suffered so much when everything was taken from me, and also why I am the person you see before you, because I embraced my Mother and loved her with all my heart”.
“This goes significantly against my beliefs and experience, which both say that attachment is the door to suffering, and in order to avoid suffering, one needs to let go”, Buddha thought out loud.
“But you also taught compassion, if I am not mistaken?”, she argued. “How can one do both? How can one care enough to feel compassion, and let go enough to not feel suffering if the ones you care for are hurt?”
“And also, the Gods do not share your outlook on suffering. They don’t think removal of suffering is a worthy goal, in itself. I’ve seen Gods in tears, and as we speak, my Mother’s holy husband is suffering in solitude and silence, transforming evil karma of a terrible being that had to be destroyed; by choice, not by accident. Gods are not transcendence of suffering; rather, they are transcendence of indifference”, she argued strongly.
“You want to say that I’m throwing out the baby together with the dirty bath water, my Lady?”, Buddha smiled.
“Yes, and I’m glad that we can both understand the analogy, having both been human”, she smiled at him. “I think the point is to embody and manifest the qualities of the unmanifested Absolute, brahman that is sat-cit-ananda. As you become sat-cit-anandamaya, made of qualities of sat-cit-ananda, you are truly living your purpose, which is to be of God”, argued the deeply violet lady Buddha, daughter of Light. “Of all things that are sat-cit-ananda, the devotion and worship of That, which is worshipful and worthy of highest devotion, is what manifests God the most, so that the unmanifested God can say “yes, I am That, and That is what I want to be as a person”, and that is how Gods are born”, she argued as her nature transformed, and the wellspring in her heart opened in fullness, as she remembered her Mother in all of her glory and kindness.
The Buddha was powerfully shaken by the forcefulness and conviction of the enlightened Lady beside him, because this wasn’t some ignorant person telling him the usual nonsense. This was an almost-Goddess, a Buddha herself, a crystal of spiritual light deeper and stronger than his own soul, and her words resonated with such reality that he stood there in sheer awe of her, feeling what she conveyed and the reasons behind it, and he also remembered Lady Shakti, and what he felt when he did his usual “test for reality”, and found something Reality itself is based upon, that shook him to his core like nothing else. Those were not ignorant, attached people spouting nonsense that needs to be released so that nirvana can be. The lovely Lady Buddha across him had thoughts and emotions that were nirvana, emptiness of illusion and attachment, and yet fullness of blissful, delectable joy and clarity of vast, enormous consciousness and understanding of things he was only starting to consider, and his own heart opened in worship and admiration of her, bowing deeply to her lively yet profound spirit, and even more to her Mother, the Goddess whose smile haunted him, as it contained such depths of transcendence and power combined, that his carefully cultivated aloofness crumbled into dust, like a dam that released a flood in his soul, as he worshipped the greatness that was such, that his own greatness never dared to even dream of its existence.
“Lady Buddha, I bow to you, again and again. Please teach me and guide me”, he whispered to the almost-Goddess who choked in ecstasy, and touched her forehead to his own.
“God is the endless delight, endless wonder, reality beneath everything that is real, goodness beneath all the good things. He is the love behind suffering, and bliss, truth and wonder in love. See how I drink it”, she invited him, whispering as her consciousness blended with the deeper reality of God, and God loved being Zina so much, that they could no longer be apart, and was no longer the formless brahman, but Zina the Goddess, touching heads with Buddha in his second enlightenment, as nirvana, the ultimate fullness empty of all that is worthless and superficial, desired to be the wise person who worshipped Goddess Zina.
And so, the Gods were eight.