Has anyone seen the Gates of Heaven? Are there people who can claim that they have crossed to the Other Side and can re-tell their experiences? And still there will be men who will be driven to the extreme to do all the needful things to reach this El Dorado. Acts, labor, dedication - to achieve the gate pass to the utopia on the Other Side. What after that? Eternal bliss? Salvation?
At least not 'salvation' as I know of. There are imagined greater comforts and pleasures to be attained on the Other Side. A true salvation would rob an opportunity to enjoy all that. So if my thought process is still sane - there are men who have been told that there is a place called Heaven, which has unparalleled happiness and comfort but nobody has seen or come back to re-tell (who would leave the Heaven and come back to tell the lesser mortals the great pleasures so as to entice them to work hard to get in the Heaven and increase pressure on resources) but they still work hard to achieve an entrance ticket to this unknown place.
"And the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to make people believe that he does not exist" . Kevin Spacey delivers this wisdom in what can be interpreted as persona of 'Keyser Soze'. The devil never had to show himself to make his mark. Probably its his invisibility which make him more threatening and menancing. Add to it that Man has from time immemorial been drawn to what is unknown. Who says that curiosity only kills the cats? So, is Heaven a notion setup by the Devil himself to have fun at the cost of people observing austerity and going through pains to live a sin-free life? Blasphemy! I am conjuring up a trick here!
Suppose there exists such a place. At least in physical sense. But nobody knows what promises are kept once you enter it. One would wonder how long the enigma continue if there are no proofs of the goodies on the other side. Well, the Devil, like the architect of Matrix, would think how to sustain this process. So the Devil does two things.
First
He makes the entry to this place really, really tough. Like say, 1 in 300 gets to go inside those Gates. No matter how hard everybody tries, only exclusive few get the pass-through. The 299 left behind, though bruised and sad, look up to those high walls and ivy decorated gate and think that they will work harder the next time. Or some just give up hope of ever getting through but never lose the awe of the gates they could not enter. In all the wisdom that these men have been bestowed, they equate the high odds of gaining entry as a proxy for the great value of what lies inside those gates. Any flaws in this reasoning?
Second
The Devil keeps telling those who got inside of what the 299 fellas think of them and the place they got into. He describes to them in great detail the awe which the people inside inspire in the people outside. Field trips are organized for these "lucky ones" where they see for themselves how the rest of their lot swoon on their sight. And the Devil poses them a question -"Whatever is inside those gates is unknown to the outside world. The promises were kept or not, only you know. But.... But, will you speak in any way to destroy your own self esteem and respect which you keep hearing from the outside world? Is the absolute truth more valuable to you or the perceived truth?" What do those "lucky ones", the keepers of the secret, the Children of Promised Land do?
The Devil smiles.
And so, the legend of The Gates of Heaven runs through eons of time. Nobody questions what became of the few who crossed to the other side. Occasionally, a light streak is seen in the skies of the Forbidden Country. Outside the high walls, these sights are referred and discussed endlessly. As might perhaps this blog entry.
The Devil still smiles.
At least not 'salvation' as I know of. There are imagined greater comforts and pleasures to be attained on the Other Side. A true salvation would rob an opportunity to enjoy all that. So if my thought process is still sane - there are men who have been told that there is a place called Heaven, which has unparalleled happiness and comfort but nobody has seen or come back to re-tell (who would leave the Heaven and come back to tell the lesser mortals the great pleasures so as to entice them to work hard to get in the Heaven and increase pressure on resources) but they still work hard to achieve an entrance ticket to this unknown place.
"And the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to make people believe that he does not exist" . Kevin Spacey delivers this wisdom in what can be interpreted as persona of 'Keyser Soze'. The devil never had to show himself to make his mark. Probably its his invisibility which make him more threatening and menancing. Add to it that Man has from time immemorial been drawn to what is unknown. Who says that curiosity only kills the cats? So, is Heaven a notion setup by the Devil himself to have fun at the cost of people observing austerity and going through pains to live a sin-free life? Blasphemy! I am conjuring up a trick here!
Suppose there exists such a place. At least in physical sense. But nobody knows what promises are kept once you enter it. One would wonder how long the enigma continue if there are no proofs of the goodies on the other side. Well, the Devil, like the architect of Matrix, would think how to sustain this process. So the Devil does two things.
First
He makes the entry to this place really, really tough. Like say, 1 in 300 gets to go inside those Gates. No matter how hard everybody tries, only exclusive few get the pass-through. The 299 left behind, though bruised and sad, look up to those high walls and ivy decorated gate and think that they will work harder the next time. Or some just give up hope of ever getting through but never lose the awe of the gates they could not enter. In all the wisdom that these men have been bestowed, they equate the high odds of gaining entry as a proxy for the great value of what lies inside those gates. Any flaws in this reasoning?
Second
The Devil keeps telling those who got inside of what the 299 fellas think of them and the place they got into. He describes to them in great detail the awe which the people inside inspire in the people outside. Field trips are organized for these "lucky ones" where they see for themselves how the rest of their lot swoon on their sight. And the Devil poses them a question -"Whatever is inside those gates is unknown to the outside world. The promises were kept or not, only you know. But.... But, will you speak in any way to destroy your own self esteem and respect which you keep hearing from the outside world? Is the absolute truth more valuable to you or the perceived truth?" What do those "lucky ones", the keepers of the secret, the Children of Promised Land do?
The Devil smiles.
And so, the legend of The Gates of Heaven runs through eons of time. Nobody questions what became of the few who crossed to the other side. Occasionally, a light streak is seen in the skies of the Forbidden Country. Outside the high walls, these sights are referred and discussed endlessly. As might perhaps this blog entry.
The Devil still smiles.
11 comments:
amazing post dude ...
it seems you have discovered your true language ... trust me it was the best thing I read in some time ... btw, was I imagining the use of the main theme as a metaphor
keep writing :)
Nice post DUDE! The thing u have written reminds me of a few words that Ghalib
wrote long before
"hamako maaluum hai jannat kii haqiiqat lekin
dil ke Khush rakhane ko Ghalib ye Khayaal achchha hai "
And guess what it is a perfect description of the place I am in..diff ppl have diff interpretations ..
I do not understand that why we still exist in the MATRIX while knowing it is one...
>All in all good words...something really really ,I won't call it philoshphy
..but thought provoking that I read in a long time!
sometimes the hell is just in the mind - the devil is only playing mindgames...
besides, who's to say that hell is not our natural habitat?
stimulating stuff dude!! makes for good food for thought... u've captured well the utopianness of the concept called heaven... yet another controversial question to be added to the list :-
was jesus black??
was st. peter gay??
is God a SHE??
(*blasphemy disclaimers)
well there's only one way for each of us to find out the truth ;-))
There is one more contradiction.
We all assume god and devil exist and god is good and all powerful and devil is bad.
This implies:
1. Either God created devil or God did not create everything.
2. Either God wants devil to exist or God is powerless to defeat devil.
My belief: God and Devil are two sides of the same coin. Irrespective of who you follow, they lead to the same thing i.e. destruction. They are both equally evil.
I personally do not agree with the above logic. Its the personal opinion of the reader. In any case, the blog was not dealing with 'God'.
>>the devil smiles
wicked wicked you!!! :)
I wanna hear more about this, but maybe in person :)
"He makes the entry to this place really, really tough" ( a 1500 SAT score). Like say, 1 in 300 ( 1 in 1000 applicants) gets to go inside those Gates"
This is like getting into the Ivy League College in the US!
I loved this one!
absolutely gr88 dude......
If I m getting somthing and the threads attached to it ..the streaks of light were also seen in 203 on the fateful nite of dec28'06
Devil you... :)
its a wicked post... but an outstanding one... guess you have experienced it twice now :)
I don't know how you do it. But this was the most realistic thinking i have read in a long time.
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