A CHAT WITH THE DEVIL
AS IT is in heaven so shall it be here on earth. As a man thinketh so shall he be. As above, so below. The reality within you, is the reality outside of you.
An amiable face. He had perfect teeth, teeth meant for selling Colgate. He smiled the perfect smile, his eyes carrying the required warmth. I liked him immediately.
I was having coffee. I was his host. I offered him a cup. Told him it was Jacobs’ Kronung, among the finest.
‘Anything you say.’ He said, reaching for his cup. ‘Coffee is coffee.’
‘Smell it first,’ I advised. It tastes better that way, my impeccable knowledge of biology guiding me.
Smell, you see, is a vital component for appreciating the flavour of things. The tongue alone is not enough. For instance, did you know, dear reader, that when you close your nose, apples and tomatoes taste the same? It is a fact.
‘You know that I cannot do anything without your permission,’ he locked his eyes with mine, a disarming smile on his face. ‘You are my boss.’
‘Really?’ How could I be the Devil’s boss? All along I had thought that he was far more aware and powerful than me.
‘Yeah. That is just the way it is. All I do has first to be initiated by you. Without your volition I am powerless,’ his sincerity was powerful, the meaning behind his words both frightening and shocking. I fidgeted in my seat.
Truth be told, all along, all of my life, I had firmly believed that the Devil had power to cause things, to possess people and make them do all sorts of vile things.
People feared the Devil. His mere mention was said to bring bad luck.
The Devil, taking a sip: ‘So without your offering me this cup of coffee, I wasn’t going to take it. I am obedient.’
Me, eyes wide like coins: ‘Meaning you first take instruction for you to do anything?’
‘Exactly. Take you, for instance.
Your life is a lie. All your degrees are a product of forgery. Why? Why did you have to cheat to get the job that you now have?’
There was an unmissable and disconcerting tone to the Devil’s voice. He sounded like a law enforcement officer from the Qualifications Authority.
Me, a tad surprised: ‘You know all that? How do you know?’
The Devil: ‘I know what you know.
See now, because you lack the competences and skills which ought to reflect the acquisition of your certificates, you are a misfit in your company. Your company isn’t doing as well as it should because of you.
You are the weakest link, the flaw in the chain.
You cannot perform as expected, as you ought to. That then is the definition of corruption.
Corruption is departure from the intended path, the set order of nature. One corrupt entity harms the whole. One rotten nut destroys the barrel.
Departure from the original creates what is fake. You are fake. And anything that is not original, which is fake, cannot perform its intended purpose.
Such departure is disobedience. Was it me that caused you to do what you did? To forge your degrees?’
‘Perhaps you influenced my decision. Unbidden, you took control of my mind,’ lamely, I said, shame in my eyes. I needed to studiously defend myself.
‘You should have followed the set path. Learn and acquire the competences and skills. There is priceless value in that.
There is no alternative to knowing. Knowledge of truth aligns you with the Universe. It makes you one with your Maker.
Do not be lazy. Being slothful is departure from expected exertion. It is a sin. Do not avoid the tortuous, arduous and narrow road. Love disciplines.
You should follow the teaching that “bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change, He faithful will remain. Be still my soul thy best, thy heavenly friend. Through thorny ways, leads to a joyful end.
Pain is the backdrop for gain.’
My mouth fell. Here was the Devil educating me about sins. The master of sins himself preaching. He was teaching me uprightness. Indeed, wonders will never cease.
‘I do no such things. I do not possess minds. If I had such power, I would have destroyed the world. But I haven’t.
I cannot act unilaterally. I do not influence the decisions individuals make,’ the Devil went on, his gaze solid and confident.
His voice was measured and low. Baritone. He spoke slowly with well-placed pauses for emphasis. It was the voice of someone who knew things. It was the voice of authority.
Me again, shirking: ‘Many are the times that I want to do the right thing but I fail. I get tempted and I give in.
Isn’t it you that interferes with my thought processes, that pulls me away from right?’
The Devil: ‘The other day you took money which wasn’t yours. Yes, granted, you were broke and had been for a while.
Aren’t you aware that you were broke for a reason? Pain comes your way to trigger required action. Suffering is direction.
If you had avoided stealing, eventually, your own mind would have come up with a morally upright and sustainable way of generating income, the required way. Something exemplary.
You see, the purpose of suffering is refinement. You suffer so that you learn how to thrive. Ubucushi ulapa mano, isn’t that what you say?
Ill-gotten wealth is a cancer. It destroys your own growth. It is an impermanent mask that fools only you.
Besides it being a source of conflict, it also never lasts. It cripples originality. You shouldn’t have done that.
You failed life’s test. You chose the easy way out. In the process, you avoided learning and creating, and stifled your own growth and development as the law of existence dictates.
Your own thoughts misled you. You tempt yourself. I wasn’t involved.’
My curiosity had now been piqued: ‘So you do not lead us astray? It is not you that causes us, me to sin?’
Smiling, the Devil: ‘How could I? No. Not at all. Are you not aware that you are the temple of God? That you are God incarnate?
You, yourself embody His spirit.
God resides within you. You carry Him within you. His kingdom is within you.
He is a composite of two forces – good and evil. You are God, His manifestation. His image. A reflection of His imagination, a facet of Him.
So take full control of your self. Do not shift blame.
It is only when you push Him away that you get lost. And no one else pushes Him away other than yourself. When you foolishly claim that He doesn’t exist.
The instruction is clear. At any time of your life, your existence, choose one of these two energy forms.
In reality, it is a false choice. This is so because one path leads to life and the other death. Choice, you see, is only an illusion.
Your freedom has limits.
For your purpose to be served, Supreme Intention decrees that you live in a certain, circumscribed way. And obedience is the Way.
The existential framework of life is self-correcting. Using its immutable laws, it firmly shepherds persons towards survival till their purpose is served.
This framework of non-written, invisible but discernible laws, is the Invisible Guide for all life.’
As if my eyes could get any wider, but then wonder made them widen even more. I must have looked owl-like.
‘You are aware of God?’
‘Yes. God is everything. Even I cannot exist without Him. He made me too. His spirit is my spirit.
I am a part of Him. I am only His other side. I am His wrath. I am His whip.
Being His temple, He exist as a whole in you. What this means is that His complete spirit resides in you. The spirit of both good and evil.
You are the spiritual reflection of God. As I said, His kingdom is within you.
So when you deny His existence as you commonly do, you only exhibit folly. It is then that you bring me into being. You create confusion within your self.
For how can you deny the existence of your own self. All you are is His intention become manifest.
And the framework within which you exist is a shepherd in itself. Evil is a deterrent. And good is the incentive.
Just as good is always rewarded, evil is also always punished. This immutable construct is the sacred guide for human life.
God is spirit. The spirit of life. The spirit exists as life’s potential. It is the spirit which support life. It is life itself. It is neither good nor evil. It is just power. It is the power for creation. It is the evidence of existence. It doesn’t act without your intention. What gives this spirit character is you.
Your utilisation of this spirit, your employment of this spirit defines it. And the authority for its use is entirely with you.
It is intention which gives the energy character. Your intention defines the spirit and manifests it.
Trouble with you is that you divided the indivisible. You divided the Source, which is one indivisible being. You divided it into good and evil, God and me.
You created God in your own image. Took Him to the sky, and gave Him a throne to sit on and the like. Do you really think that God needs a chair to sit on? He is the chair itself, upon which your life is anchored and rests. He is in all things. These all things then are His throne.
But, trust me, before utility, before your employment of this spirit within you, the two – good and evil – don’t exist. You create either of them through both action and inaction. The starting point is your mind.
It is only when The Law is either followed or broken that good or evil becomes manifest. Both good and evil are merely resources for divine Order.’
Me, somewhat digressing: ‘I was curious. Why do I sometimes feel good at the misfortune of others?’
‘Oh, that! It is your own awareness of your own inadequacies that is the basis of that feeling. It illustrates the lie that you are.
Their failure or misfortune identifies with your own mediocrity. Since their excellence exposes your fakeness you dislike excellence in them.
Excellence in others offends you because it exposes your own limitations, your own lack. You find solace in the misfortune of others because it comforts the fake character that you are.
All people are designed to exhibit excellence. It is only when that happens that the whole, the community, excels.
Schadenfreude is evil. It is a reflection of negative energy. It destroys its practitioner. ‘
‘So you are part of God?’
I felt scared saying that.
‘Yes, I am an integral part of Him. I am His Wrath, in reserve. More like the duality of the singular phenomenon referred to as joy and pain, hot and cold, war and peace.
Fact is good cannot exist on its own. What gives it meaning is evil.
The Source is a more accurate title than God. Infinite Power. Its title though, doesn’t change its character.
Truth be told, I really don’t exist. I am a figment of your imagination. You create me with your mind.
You created me. You needed a custodian of negative energy so you created me and called me the Devil.
I am inert within you. I only come into being by your own thoughts.’
I squirmed with discomfort: ‘All this is not only confusing but it is also disturbing. How can God be evil?’
‘I didn’t say that. I see your confusion. God is One. God is Infinite Power. The Source.
What makes this power manifest is your attitude. What occasions reality is your intention. At any given time.
And this entertainment of God-energy is governed by laws. The intention you harbour creates your reality. And it always has consequences.
In the end, it is obedience to these laws that qualifies as success. Your life, from birth to death, is both an expression of and search for meaning.
The Universe guides you towards full expression of your purpose, which purpose ought to be of value to others and the whole.
Your relevance to the whole is what keeps you from being pruned from the vine.’
Me, my brow knitted with concentration: ‘So you don’t kill?’
‘No. I don’t. I have never killed anyone. You kill yourselves.
Instead of collaborating, you compete. You create unnecessary conflict.
Ignorance is your biggest danger. You really must eat from the Tree of Knowledge so that you become enlightened. Awareness will save you.
I have no poison. I have no bombs or guns. I have no nuclear weapons. How can I kill? I even have no ill-will.
I am incapable of killing anyone. All I am is potential energy within you, for your own use. So take responsibility.
You really must stop shifting blame.
The capacity to kill is an integral part of your being. It is ability afforded to you by design.
Nonetheless, when your intention to kill another human being is inspired by malice or motivated by selfishness, it is wrong. That then gives birth to Satanism.
Satanism then is a practice created by yourselves, by people. It is founded on ill-intention.
People harness energy from the Source, from within themselves, and give this energy the character to harm others through their will.
Satanism means the deliberate exploitation of energy for harm. It is a manifestation of disobedience.
Satanism is a term you yourselves coined to represent the wilful causation of harm to another for nothing else other than personal gain.’
I refilled his cup. The aroma of Jacobs’ wafting everywhere, perfuming the atmosphere.
‘So it is your considered view that I am the author of my reality?’ That I control everything?’
The Devil: ‘Of course, as a bio-transceiver, you are responsible for your overall conduct. No, you don’t control everything about you or in your body.
As part of your design, you possess a number of subconscious urges without which you would not survive. Instincts.
Take hunger, for instance. You don’t decide when to be hungry, do you? It just comes. You just sense it when it is there. It is a natural instinct that is part of your makeup as a being.
Look at that woman, for example.’
Here the Devil pointed at a morbidly obese woman who happened to be walking by. You could not tell whether she was walking backwards or not because she was so fat that it seemed her buttocks had migrated to the front. Don’t laugh, dear reader. A look at her face is what gave her movement orientation.
‘That’s a glutton there. Is it me that forces her to eat?
Look, her walking is laboured and if you cared to talk with her, her self-esteem has vanished. Further, she repeatedly complains about breathlessness, a fast heart beat and painful joints.
In the night, chances are, she snores and has insomnia. She could even suddenly die from apnoea in her sleep.
Clearly, her life being at variance with The Law, is now in danger. She is literally killing herself.’
‘One could say her life is sinful?’ That was me, an attempt at sounding attentive. ‘She is sin become manifest.’
‘Take you now. You sleep with other men’s women, don’t you?’
That was a low blow. It landed hard. I dropped my face, a sheepish smile on my face. I became shame itself.
The Devil went on: ‘You do it because you want to. No one forces you, isn’t that so?
Any mature man, a man of reproductive age, who never develops the urge to mate with a woman is handicapped. That is a sign of disease. It is a condition not in keeping with the design of a human being.
It is okay to get horny. It is healthy to have an urge to mate, to desire sexual intercourse. But what matters is your response to the desire. How you handle that subconscious command is everything.
You can choose to sleep with your own sibling. To commit incest. You can choose to use force and rape a woman. You can also choose to amiably approach a woman, get her consent and address your urge.
Each action you take has consequences.
Self-control, commonly referred to as discipline, is vital for survival.
Do not be envious. Never covet that which isn’t yours. You are guilty of both lust and envy.
Despite your having your own wives, your sleeping with married women destroys societal harmony. It tears apart the fabric that keeps communities peaceful, together and united.
Besides, it drains you of your life’s essence. Your vital force. Because of your immoderation, you become empty, dull, unfocused and useless.’
Caught at it, quietly acknowledging that I was indeed pathologically lustful, I opted to say nothing. I was guilty as charged.
‘You say that you are Christian, right?’
After the exposè on adultery, my response sounded lame. Unconvincingly, I said: ‘Yes, I follow Christ.’
I wanted to add by saying that I try to follow him, but I didn’t.
The Devil, his eyes piercing, quietly stared at me. He took a long sip of the coffee. Then he said: ‘Then you should read James 1: 14-15 from your own Holy Book.
Carefully study the entries in these verses. The guidance about sin is very clear there.
For instance, it “states that a person is tempted by their own desire, and when that desire is fully conceived and matures into a full-grown sin, it brings forth negative consequences.” I am not mentioned there.
All sin originates from your own thinking.
And all human beings are responsible for acting on their own thoughts. It isn’t me who is responsible. The Devil is your own creation.
You wanted to have the custodian of all that is evil, is all. So you created an entity that embodies all wrongs, your own wrongs, and called him the Devil. I exist only because of you.’
The longer the conversation went on, the more the Devil began to look like me. I wanted to vocalise this observation but, afraid that I might sound as if I had lost my mind, I kept quiet.
The resemblance was striking. His tone of voice, his visage, his body language – they were all me.
It was as if I was looking at a clone of me. He had become me, and I had become he. The Devil was now my reflection. We were one.
Eyes wide, the Devil: ‘Are you okay?’
He startled me. For a while, I was lost in my own thoughts. Clearly, I wasn’t okay.
‘Yeah, yeah, I am okay,’ I blurted out.
The Devil, a disapproving look on his face: ‘You lie. Why do you lie? A lie is an intentional false statement.
It is a reflection of lack of congruence between what really is, the truthful condition of things/the speaker, and his utterance.
It is because of this incongruence that every liar is troubled. A lie robs its utterer peace. It is a source of disease. You shouldn’t lie.
Lies might appear beneficial in the immediate term. Lies destroy. Nature abhors liars. It eliminates them.
I can see that you are not okay. See? Your palms are sweaty, as if your blood pressure has risen. My host, what is causing these observable and physical signs of discomfort within you?
Are you not aware that your thoughts alone can both cause dis-ease and heal?’
Me: ‘The thought that you and me are one. The realisation that before I take action, evil doesn’t exist. That through acting on my thoughts I bring evil into being. That I am devilish. That I am you.’
The Devil: ‘Be still. Be not troubled for the authority to control your actions is squarely with you.
The power to act or not act on your thoughts is firmly in your hands.
Your destiny is in your hands. You are in charge. So stop the blame game.’
Uneasily, I smiled.
‘Do you want more coffee,’ politely I inquired.
The Devil: ‘No, thanks. Remember, everything in moderation. Extremes of anything are injurious. Aim for balance always. Harmony. God is harmony. Let’s end here for today. You know where to find me.’
I smiled.
‘Yes. Within you,’ the Devil vocalised my thought.
‘Here is my final piece of advice to you. Never be proud. Always teat others with respect.
All other people are only a part of you. Listen to them. Serve them. Play your part. Collaborate.
By yourself, you are useless.
It is other people that give you meaning and relevance. By serving them, you serve yourself. The hand that gives is the one that receives.
Obedience expresses your purpose.
Never wish anyone ill-will. Because by doing so, you would only be wishing your own self ill-will. You are integral to the fabric of a larger whole. You are part of a larger bio-network.
Always affirm your faith through prayer.
And always guard your intention. Intention creates reality.’
There was genuine love in his eyes. I felt his vibration. I felt his energy. Somehow, we clicked.
As an act of courtesy, I rose to hug him goodbye. But he vanished. Just like that, he was gone. I was alone.
Pensive, head facing down, eyes sightless but looking inside, I repeatedly caressed my beard for a long while, a stupid smile on my face.
Control your desires, dear reader.
Guard your thoughts. Download only the required ones from the thought-cloud.
Your thoughts become actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your character.
And character is everything. It determines your altitude in life.
We are guided that ‘a good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.’
Evil and good are only two facets of One Thing. Spirit.
Godspeed!
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