First God created heaven. Then he created angels to populate heaven. They were categorized into different orders: cherubim, virtues, powers, thrones etc. Lucifer (whose name means light bearer), a cherub, was God’s most beautiful angel. However, he was not content to play second fiddle to the Almighty, but wanted to be equal to Him. So one day, for a start, he tried to raise his throne to the level of God’s throne and all hell broke loose, so to speak. Then he recruited his own army of discontented angels and started waging a war against God. God was really mad and to lead his own troops, he appointed Archangel Michael as his field commander. As can be expected, Lucifer lost and was thrown along with his army into hell.
According to Pope John XXI, then Bishop of Tusculum, the number of angels who sided with Lucifer numbered 133306668 while those with God were 266613336! These figures were later confirmed by the 15th century scholar Alphonso de Spina. I am still to figure out how they came to those numbers. Once in hell, Lucifer was known as satan. The angels who fell with him became the demons.
The second great endeavor God undertook was to create earth and put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam was created first so as to give him a chance to say something. Again, God was quite thoughtful in creating man first since He didn’t want any advice! He formed the shape of a man out of clay and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life, and presto Adam came alive. After creating Adam, He stood back, looked at him carefully, and scratching His Head, He told Himself: “I think I can do better than that.” Then He created Eve. He put Adam to sleep, took one of his ribs and turned it into the woman.
After admiring his newly created children for a few minutes, He briefly addressed them: “Don’t.” Just like that. “Don’t what?” asked the two. “Do you see those two trees laden with fruit in the middle of the garden? The apple tree on the left is the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the other on the right is the tree of life. Do not eat the fruits of these two. You may eat all others.” “Why?” chorused Adam and Eve in unison. “Because I said so”, replied God, clearly irritated by audacity of the two. Calming down he explained: “You will die if you eat the fruits.” Leaving them to explore the garden He went back to His heavenly abode to reflect on the day’s creative activities.
Archangel Gabriel noticed that God was in an unusually pensive mood. There was something bothering Him. Neither the heavenly choirs nor the harp and flute players were able to calm His nerves with their soothing music. “What is the problem, my Lord?” gently prodded Gabriel. “Gabe, did I make a mistake in creating man? Maybe, just maybe, I should have stopped with the elephant. At least these animals don’t talk back, unlike these two”, replied God with an inaudible sigh. “I think we should not worry”, advised the Archangel. “In case they become cheeky, we will flood the earth and drown them all.”
Adam and Eve were happy to roam around discovering the delights of the garden. In course of time they settled into a kind of routine. Adam would tend to the animals and cultivate the fields, while Eve took care of the house. There was hardly any need to cook, since there were plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts available all round the year. So Eve spent most of the time in the fields looking for beauty herbs.
During one of her perambulations through the thick undergrowth, she heard a hissing sound coming from close to where she stood. Looking closely, she saw a big snake in the grass looking up at her. “Hi Cutie”, it addressed her. At first she was taken aback at hearing a snake talking to her. Soon however, she became quite puffed up by the fact that there was someone who appreciated her beauty. Lately, Adam had been neglecting her, having got used to her. Besides, there was no other female as a point of reference for comparison. Another thing that struck her was that it was speaking with a forked tongue. “Thanks”, replied Eve. “What can I do for you?”
The snake said: “I understand God has forbidden the two of you to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. That’s because He knows that when you eat the fruit of that tree, your eyes will be opened and you will be like Him. You will also have carnal knowledge.” “What is carnal knowledge?” asked Eve in her naivety. “It means you will know how to have fun. Anyway, you will understand what I am talking about after you eat the fruit”, replied the snake with a sleazy dart of its tongue. The serpent knew that God, for some reason, was slightly distracted when creating Eve and as a result forgot to fill a tiny part in her brain dealing mainly with judgment. So she fell for his charm and ate the apple.
It was Lucifer, now known as Satan, who appeared as a serpent and tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Though unwilling at first, Adam was incessantly nagged by his partner to partake of the apple, and he gave in to her immoral demand most reluctantly. This apple had a magical effect on them: they became aware that they were both naked! Adam, the gallant man that he was, quickly found two fig leaves and gave one to Eve. He wisely chose fig leaves since they are large in size compared to other leaves. However, his wife wouldn’t go for it. She looked around the garden for something more stylish and flashy. She considered mango leaves (too narrow), curry leaves (too small), banana leaves (too big) and a few more, ultimately settling for the fig leaf Adam had originally suggested. Now you know why, after detailed examination of umpteen sarees in the shop for three hours, your wife finally goes for the first one that you had suggested!! This is the clearest proof that we are all descendants of Adam and Eve.
In the evening when God came around for a stroll, he could not find the couple. So he called out to Adam and said, “Where are you?” Adam replied that he was afraid because he realized that he was naked and so had hid himself. Looking around, God could see the outline of two heads peeking from behind a jacaranda tree. “Come out you disobedient children; you have eaten the forbidden fruit, that is why you are ashamed of your nakedness”, God was really angry. “Why did you disobey my commandment?” demanded God. The blame game now started. “The woman you created for me gave me the fruit and I ate” said the man. “The serpent beguiled me and I ate” was the woman’s excuse. Since the serpent had none to fall back upon, he just lay there staring into the distance. This is the same vacant stare that the check-in clerk at the airport has perfected when faced with an angry passenger who is left stranded on the ground as the plane is overbooked!
God decided that suitable punishment should be meted out for this crime of disobedience. He cursed the serpent and told him: “You will crawl on your belly and live on dust for the rest of your life. I will put enmity between your children and the woman’s children; since you will be crawling hereafter, you will bite her children’s heels and they will smash your head into pulp.” One can see this often happening in God’s own country where snakes are out to bite people and people are determined to kill them.
To the woman He said: “You will bring forth children in extreme pain. However, in spite of this pain, your desire for your husband will increase so that you continue to bear children. Henceforth, your husband will be your absolute boss.” A cynic has observed that the eighth wonder in the world is the woman getting pregnant again after she has gone through a very painful childbirth!
Lastly, to Adam He said: “Since you listened to your wife and disobeyed me, your wife shall wear the pants in the house when no one is looking. You will eat by the sweat of your brow till you die and return to the ground from where I created you. You are dust and to dust you shall return.”
Then He chased them out of the garden. A Cherubim with a rotating flaming sword was placed as security guard at the entrance to the garden so that they don’t sneak back in to eat the fruit of the tree of life and live forever.
In course of time, earth began to be populated by humans. Satan and his legions, now condemned to everlasting torture in hell, and with nothing else better to do and to avenge themselves, found a new vocation, namely that of tempting and corrupting man and leading him to sin against God.
There is another story about the origin of demons that I came across recently while surfing the net. Once earth began to be populated by humans, God decided to appoint some angels to watch over them. They were called ‘watchers’. No touching, no meddling, no contact, just watching. Well, it was a bad decision on the part of God. When the watchers saw how beautiful the daughters of men were, they took them as wives and began to have children with them.
These children were called nephilim who were giant monsters. They began to eat humans and when humans were not available, each other. Fed up with all this, God summoned his commander-in-chief Archangel Michael and told him to throw them all into the eternal fires of hell. Demons are the evil spirits of the nephilim and they also form part of Lucifer’s army.
Derived from the idea of ‘watchers’ was the belief of an angel hovering over our right shoulder. He was known as the ‘guardian angel’. He is there to protect and guard us 24/7. As a counter, Lucifer also sends one of his devils to hang around our left shoulder, tempting us to do bad things and disobey God. We, as children, were taught to call upon our guardian angel when in doubt and need, and to thank him daily before we went to bed for protecting us from the vile Lucifer who wants us to offend God so that he can drag us into hell’s eternal fires.
[Published in the January issue of Snehasandesham]
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