Revelations

Tryon Edwards was the guy who originally said common sense was most uncommon, and since then people have been saying it over and over again. To hell with them, thought Vishnu. The phrase had a very inappropriate idea associated with it. Just because some understanding follows after easy logic does not mean that such an understanding was easily obtained. That is why Vishnu was proud of his revelation. Although the implications weren’t all that pleasant, the revelation itself was oddly satisfying. And it was an obvious revelation. So obvious that it was almost common sense.
The revelation came about because of the particular atmosphere of the 7:38 Thane local. Vishnu was returning home after a long day at a friend’s house. Social obligations drained too much energy from someone who desperately wanted to be a loner, and still have friends on call whenever he felt like it. Strangely enough, he was very comfortable in the crowded Mumbai local, with more people pressed up against him than he could count. The smell of the sweat combined with the heat was too much to bear and he had moved to the edge of the bogie, and was hanging out of the door. The wind was in his face, and it was comfortable, but the stench and the heat still assaulted one side of his body. These, and the gently rocking motion of the train had sent him into somewhat of a stupor, and he was feeling generally angry against the rest of the world, and was as usual in more or less a bad mood, and was thinking that his life was basically hell when the revelation hit him.
And it was almost funny: Life for everybody was hell. Life on earth was hell. What else could it be? What could a further hell be? He thought we were all sent to earth to learn and become wiser because of some sins we had committed in some other, purer realm. This life was a punishment. This life was a condemnation. Hell was damnation, and this was it. He thought he had discovered nature of existence. This was both frustrating and satisfying in a way. In a very weird way. Life was just about to become much more of a hell…
He lost balance, and fell. He was dead as soon as he sensed that he was going to fall. He didn’t feel much except a huge wrenching feeling in the head, like his soul was torn apart from the head, which was more or less exactly what had happened. He then, ironically, got the biggest shock of his life. Because he still felt alive, in fact, more alive than he had been. He could sense the world around him all at once in more ways than one. He had, of course, become a ghost because of his untimely death, but he had only half-believed in such things, even though he had a spiritual inclination when he was alive. But he had only been religious because it helped him maintain a faith in life, and deal with the stress, not that he truly believed in the existence of anything beyond a purely biological-chemical world. Everything else, including the “revelation” had all been just passive contemplation of what could have been there. It was a surprise for all his beliefs and dreams to be suddenly made into a reality.
And Vishnu, was now a ghost. A ghost who didn’t need his body to feel the world. A ghost whose mind was no longer constrained by a brain. And then the sadness hit him. A ghost, an astral being of the pure dimensions, does not possess the gift of endorphine. No natural anti-depressants to soothe or console him. No tear-glands to cry. And Vishnu, felt sadness like he had never known it before. Whole new dimensions opened up in his brain, as he rapidly understood all the possible consequences of his death, and the potential sadness to so many people.
For the first time in his life, or to be more accurate, afterlife, Vishnu wished he was more of a loner.
And the sadness ballooned out of proportion in his mind, and there was no way to control it, except to accept it. And he drifted aimlessly away from the track, just as people began to gather around his body. With the strength of his soul alone, he was able to control the sadness, to put it away into a corner of his vast memory. And this worked; already his life was feeling like a dream. Like he had just woken up…
It was late evening, the sun had set, but Vishnu perceived light in all her wavelengths, which is an amazing thing to watch. The world around him was brighter than he had ever seen it before. He wondered if he could walk through walls, which he succeeded in doing a few seconds later. As soon as he touched the wall, he suddenly became the wall, and he could feel the vibrations of many trains thundering around him along the long tracks. He could feel the intermittent holes in him. It was a scary feeling, and when he hurried out, again his soul was wrenched from the body. He just realized that he had possessed the wall. And then, suddenly, he realized that he needed to constrain himself somehow. Because he had to possess something to exist, and he had to exist in this realm. He automatically possessed the air, and he was all over the place. In a few seconds, he was looking at the whole of Mumbai from above, below and all around. He WAS the air surrounding it. His mind couldn’t handle that much information, in unprotected channels… It was so scary that he chose one dog at random and immediately constrained himself to it.
And he found out that the dog had a soul of its own. Obviously, only it was incapable of expressing itself because of the constraints of its body. He was able to chat with the soul inside the dog. But it was confused; it wasn’t an enlightened soul. It knew only the information provided to it by the dull brains of the dog. And the soul simply went mad, when Vishnu entered it. Things were getting out of control.
He felt the wrench again.
He was surrounded by white mists, and a shadow of a bald man.
The bald man said “sorry, but things were getting out of control”
Vishnu knew and understood, because he was a free soul. He was talking with the entity he was most supposed to fear. So he was right. Earth was hell after all. Vishnu was hanging between realms and dimensions, standing in front of the Shaitan himself. Archangel of the underworld. Overlord of hell… guarding over… earth. So he had been right after all. Earth was hell. Vishnu was finding the right words, but Satan spoke first…
“You have a choice now… to go to hell or ascend to heaven. Which do you prefer?”
Vishnu always thought that the choice wasn’t his to make…
“I need a few questions to be answered, and won’t my sins be weighed to see if I am fit for heaven?”
The shadow which was Satan was an utter blackness, but Vishnu could sense the aura of a smile…
“When your questions are answered, you will ask if heaven is fit for you, and as for the weighing of sins, the process occurs, but is indirect. Your choice alone will qualify you, and your choice itself will evaluate you”
Vishnu smiled at himself. So trick questions existed in the afterlife too. So as long as a complicated mind existed, it wouldn’t be free from complications…
Satan continued “…and your questions?”
“Is earth hell?”
The scene suddenly shook. The shadow of Satan shook, whispered, flickered and vanished. The smoke vanished and a few people rushed at him. They were all plainly dressed in while robes, and were tall people. They were all not exactly fair, but every single one radiated light from himself, or herself. They were hurrying towards him, and they all looked extremely harassed.
The first angel who got to him, said “why did you have to do that?” Vishnu didn’t understand. All of this had shaken him up. The mist cleared somewhat and he could see a vast expanse that looked like a very complicated factory floor, complete with cranes, machines, crates, and robotic arms. The same kind of beings were busy at work everywhere, and there were many glass orbs hanging in mid air that were filled with flickering pictures of different people, presumably on earth. Vishnu was lead to a small enclosure, full of crates. The crates were marked with a date, a sign of some zodiac he didn’t recognize, and a serial number. He ignored them for now, and sat on one of them, following the lead of the angel. “Hello, my name is Chitraratha”
But Vishnu wasn’t hearing, he could hear the sound of laughter coming from outside. “Some idiot found a new way to do it, now we have to program Satan for a new question. Poor soul, asked if earth was hell!” And a few people laughed again.
Chitraratha answered before Vishnu could ask “Oh, don’t worry about that, its just that we normally don’t speak to souls unless they want to go into hell. And hardly anyone takes that choice. Who would, everyone wants to go to heaven. Everyone come here fearing that they will be sent to hell for their sins, but as most are given the choice, they are all sent to heaven. In fact, for all the millennium we have been working, only four people have asked to go to hell, and every time, the permission has been denied. Normally, the whole procedure of giving the choice (which is just a formality). Some people have many questions, but Satan usually has all the answers by heart, and now, you asked a new question, which is, I admit, an extremely amusing one, and since didn’t know the answer to that question, he was destroyed.”
Vishnu wondered “Who is Satan anyway?”
“Satan, Shaitan, The Devil, Lucifer…. They are all different names of the same idea. An idea that has no physical reality even in this realm. It does not have an existence that is not virtual in any realm. Satan… was just a virtual being who conducted the choice. There are many, since so may die, to handle the influx souls into this realm. Satan is just an artificial intelligence… analogous to a computer program if you will. It just crashed because you asked it to do something that it couldn’t”
“So what happens next”
“Nothing much… you still have the choice, I will answer any of your questions, and you will of course, go into hell, after you have been wiped of any memories. That part is automatic, and takes place as you enter heaven itself. I assure you, you will have the time of your life. A time for the only real type of life as you know it… you will be granted another lifetime“
“Ok, are you real and not a virtual being?” Vishnu asked.
Chitraratha replied “Real enough for you.”
“Is earth hell?”
Chitraratha laughed. Haven’t you learnt anything? You souls are useless. What more do you want? Earth is not hell. It is the farthest thing from it. Earth is heaven. Earth is where you really live… over and over again. If you souls choose to make heaven into a hell… it is your fault alone. You live in paradise… and you choose to lose it. You are all sinners, and yet you are sent into heaven. Why don’t you cease to sin then? If you want I can help you remember only this general idea when you return to earth-heaven. You are allowed to enter with a select few ideas to live in heaven anyway… not specific memories but ideas. Maybe if you know that you shouldn’t sin and that Earth is heaven, it’ll help you lead a happier life…”
“No Thanks” Vishnu said. “And we souls sin probably because we know at some level that both the fruits of virtue and the punishments of sin don’t exist. We enter anyway. I am sure we souls remember this idea, and as well sin, having the contorted and selfish idea of enjoyment that we have developed and savor.
A frown slowly appeared on Chitraratha’s face. “You souls will never change. Now, I guess its time for you to go back.”
“Who said I want to go back… I want to know… What is all this? Whom do you work for?“
Chitraratha’s frown intensified. “Normally, you wouldn’t even see this, so the question never arises. I am only allowed to tell you this much. We work for God. He is real, and not an abstract idea.” Chitraratha became hesitant, almost anticipating further difficulties, very slowly, he asked “Anything else? Or are you ready?”
“Just one more question. If earth is not hell, then what is?”
Chitraratha’s frown turned into a look of perplexity. “You do ask a lot of difficult questions don’t you? I don’t rightly know… actually…” and his voice echoed away into the distance, as once again, an entire illusion disintegrated around him. Chitraratha and the entire foggy realm flickered, and disappeared suddenly, Vishnu was sitting on a comfortable chair in front of one entity that he instantly understood as God. God looked more or less like a man, whose outlines were made of fluctuating light, and therefore the features were not entirely visible. But the dark, hollow eyes stood out from the head, and stared into Vishnu. Vishnu’s soul conversed with the entity that was God in a manner which he couldn’t exactly place… almost like he was contemplating contrasting ideas in his own brain.
“So you wanted to know what is hell?” God asked.
“Yes… And what is real for sure. Everything seems to be disintegrating around me” Vishnu muttered. Almost to himself.
“Both questions have the same answer… this is hell. This is hell, because I am the only reality that is real.”
And Vishnu felt the illusion of himself merging with that of God, and now God felt, in his brain, his dreams shattering, the earth, the universe, which he played around with for enjoyment, and realms in between, the other universes… everything disintegrated. But God himself did not. He did not because he managed to keep himself sane by immersing himself in his dreams… and becoming a part of it. His dreams were shattered, he would have to start all over again… this time he would make sure that And inconsequential fragments of his dreams wouldn’t find it fit to complain…
The irony of it all hit God… God, God himself lived in hell… what other torment could there be other than an unexplained absolute singularity?
That is why he had to immerse himself in dreams. He had to start over again…
Someone shook Vishnu up “don’t doze off, or you will fall off.” God’s ability to dream was so good, that Vishnu got off the train, went home and leapt directly into bed. When he got up the next morning, he had almost forgotten everything.
-Aditya MJ