The Heaven's Currency

Inside The Gates of Heaven, the Devil had been successful in implementing a law of "collateral damage" to keep things going smooth. Well, things were not like that always. But, the population outside Heaven kept growing and the Heaven kept assuming more majestic stature.

The Heaven has a life of its own. The ecology now encompasses many rules of evolution. It might be surprising, but Heaven also has a "mortality rate". Mortality rate in Heaven, what does that mean? The easiest analogy (and in fact quite fitting) to explain the anomaly will come from the Biblical Eden. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of knowledge and were “expelled” by the God for their indiscipline. The Devil gloated there. But in this Heaven, Devil shares the same plight of the Biblical God. Occasionally, a denizen of the Heaven will be “enlightened” to true knowledge (euphemism for disillusionment). The Devil will then have to find ways to either again jack the subject back into the Heavenly Matrix or a “fatality” occurs. Or going back to the Biblical analogy, a “Fallen Angel” is born.

Just like the mortals do not know about the fate of angels inside the Gates of Heaven, the angels inside the Gates of Heaven do not about the fate of the fallen angels. Yeah, the information gets only a one-way ticket in these channels! The second channel is either too congested, too indecipherable or just simply does not exist.

So, the Devil is able to keep most of the other angels in the Heaven in control. How? Certainly, not by force. To the credit of the angels, they are good fighters against any rules or oppression, when they become aware of it. The Devil has another tool in His assets to achieve the ends. It’s the Heavenly Economy.

Like the economy of mortals, the Heaven follows a simple principle of demand and supply. The medium of transaction is a special currency which we shall call as “Points” for lack of any better word. Each angel, when he enters the Gates of Heaven, brings with him/her some prior collection of Points. The Point is quite a powerful and stable currency even in the mortal world outside the Gates of Heaven. However, there the Point is used to buy only exclusive and costly goods and services. Its exchange value is too high for most of the normal transactions in the mortal world. But, inside the Gates of Heaven, Point rocks!

The Points brought by the angels from their mortal world are verified by the Heavenly authorities for check against counterfeit. Some angels find it difficult to prove the validity and date of coinage of their Points. Others simply forget where they stored their Points in the mortal world because they never got to use them in that world. May all the mortals planning to gain entry into the Gates of Heaven henceforth dust off their Points and keep an irrefutable record of the same!

Thus, all angels don’t start their Heavenly stay with same quantity of Points. However, they don’t mind it as it never affected their lives earlier. The first few days into the Heaven are a sort of induction program into their new powers, responsibilities and helplessness. The older denizens bring them to speed with the Heaven’s Economy. Within a week, each angel realizes how poor or rich is s/he with comparison to others by virtue of their initial stock of Points.

The Heaven’s Economy has close ties with the Heaven’s Bureaucracy. No surprises here, too, when compared to the mortal world. The bastions of power in the Bureaucracy are achieved by the balance figure in any angel’s Point account. The angels have a past history from the mortal world to learn from. They know how important it is to be a holder of a bastion of power in any bureaucracy. Hence, they lose no time in earning more Points to increase their bargaining power.

The Economy now flourishes once these basic objectives have been set into the minds of the new angels. Many angels came into the Heaven to do, well, what angels do. But the peer-pressure of Point driven Economy forces the angels to take up any jobs to earn the Points. The poorer angels work even harder towards this goal. All sorts of unexplainable division of labor come into play due to this. Angels well versed in one craft/art/skill start pursuing other skills because those pay more Points.

Each single Point is fought for. The Angelical Brotherhood of the Heaven goes through turmoil whenever there are clashes for the possession of Points. Points become the life and soul of the angels. Some angels, when drinking the chilled beer under the setting sun (like the rooftop scene of “Shawshank Redemption”) after a day’s hard toil for earning Points, take a stock of what they are doing and then start veering dangerously close to the mental state which would qualify them as a “Fallen Angel”. Thankfully, the Devil’s Heaven has a bustling Economy and such moments pass-off too soon for the angels to have a permanent damage. Soon, some other opportunity presents itself to earn more Points and another Gold Rush in that direction begins.

The Economy was always not like this. There was a time when peaceful agrarian society prevailed in the Heavens. All that got changed when Trader Ships loaded with enormous quantities of Gold docked into the Heaven’s harbors. They requested free trade between their world and the Heaven’s. The Heavenly Authorities felt that it’s a good opportunity and even gave them preferential status against the previously well-respected inland Marketeers/Advisors. The Ships came all the way from the Lands of Lady with the Torch, Lands of the Great Clock, Lands of the Merlion, the Kowloon Island and the Capital City of Honshu Islands. The angels, not far removed from their mortal past, were gullible to the Gold offered by these Traders. The agrarian economy didn’t need many Points to thrive but now only few angels till the lands while most, if possible, want to board these Ships. The Ships have their special rules for awarding “Crewman-ship”. The Points form a crucial role in gaining those favors. Sometimes, even having lots of Points does not work if an angel has spent too much time in the mortal world as compared to other angels.

The angels, thus, want Points and the jobs inside Heaven are constructed to deliver what the denizens want. Demand and Supply. Cause and Effect.

Some of the angels in every era, and this era too, get perturbed by the effect Point Economy is having on the “free will” of the angels. After all, the angels are worshipped by the mortals. What would come to pass if the mortals realized that the angels are bound to the chains of Economy just like them? The Council of such Elders (and even Newer) angels proposes to abolish the Point Economy. They haven’t yet offered an alternative economic model. The Heaven has become so much dependent on the Ships that they can’t be just told to leave the shores. And till the time they are docked, Points Economy will rule.

The angels wait for the Second Renaissance. And all this while, The Devil still smiles.