“I think we actually managed to get to an aspect of the problem that we previously missed. We understood that the heavenly plane has a problem with stagnation, and we understood that the reason for this seemed to be something intrinsic to the beings there and the way they evolve; for instance, the fact that they grew in a pressureless environment, which makes them look like tall, straight, perfect trees that tumble at the first wind. I even mentioned Lord Shiva and his holy wife as the opposite example, of someone who struggles under a heavy burden and knows how hard things can be, doesn’t take things for granted and is thus always respectful of the problems, as well as other beings. However, it now seems there’s an additional layer to the problem”, mused Lord Vishnu. “It seems that this perfect, pressureless environment, as well as the abundance of possible forms of safe and fulfilling activities there, creates an environment where nothing really motivates the souls to invest huge amounts of effort so that they would possibly ascend to godhood”, he finished, and Lady Lakshmi used the opportunity to pour him another cup.

“I wondered if that’s all there is”, Lady Kay started. “My divine husband was angered by the complacency and indolence of the angelic beings, who have all the means of apotheosis at their disposal, and yet do not use them. You, Lord Vishnu, noticed how their environment is too comfortable and fulfilling to motivate great feats of spiritual exertion, as they see no flaws in their condition that would require such strong remedies. All those observations seem perfectly true to me, and yet, I have a feeling we are missing something important, and I’m starting to understand it in very general terms”.

“Please, continue, my Lady”, bowed Lord Vishnu. “For we are at our wit’s end, the issue is very important, and your clarity and power of mind, as well as a new perspective, would be invaluable”.

“Thank you, Sri Bhagavan”, she blushed and smiled. “I think we are missing an aspect of the problem I haven’t seen addressed so far. You see, nobody asks whether the unmanifested Absolute actually wants to become those people”, she looked at the assembled Gods. “It is obvious why the impersonal God would want to be the person of Lord Shiva, Lady Shakti, Lord Narayan or Lady Sri. They are each fiercely individual, different and special. It is obvious to me why brahman would want my husband to be his new person, as he is sharp, brave, wise, and of endless power of discrimination, that always renders excellent insights and wonderful new ideas and perspectives. And while I was in the process of my own apotheosis, I felt something I hadn’t expected”, she sighed, blushed and took a breath to calm herself. “You see, I always thought of myself as unbalanced, as someone who is probably too slanted to the feminine side of things and could probably use some masculine energy to put things straight. However, I liked myself as I was; I liked being girly and feminine, the same way I liked being smart and able to quickly understand complex ideas. It was a part of my identity, and it was obviously not a flaw in the lower four elements, as it persisted through my crystallisation into vajra. As I met my husband, we clicked immediately, and I think one of the reasons for it is exactly because I am so strongly feminine, and it served as a perfect counterpart to his strong, powerful masculinity”, she blushed and a shiver went through her body, as she smiled and continued. “But some doubts and uncertainties remained in me, when we approached apotheosis. First of all, I understood that I am becoming stronger, and at first I didn’t want to be stronger – I loved the fact that Zee is stronger than me, and I loved feeling smaller and weaker but loved and protected. I did understand that it had nothing to do with actual strength and spiritual magnitude, and that was not a problem anymore; I understood that I could be endlessly powerful, and still be his little girl, and I loved it. And then, as the veil between the Relative and the Absolute within my heart broke in earnest, I understood something that completely swept away all my worries. I understood that the unmanifested brahman loves being me. It was a feeling that exploded in my heart first, and swept through the entirety of my soul, as I completely accepted myself, knowing that God loves being my feminine girly self, and it, now she, loves how it allows her to manifest in the Relative, and since Zee and I were so interconnected at that point, I felt how God loves being Zee – he loves being sharp and penetrating, and he loves being in love with me, the way being me gave the impersonal God, that was now the person of Kay, the wonderful feeling of belonging to Zee and following him everywhere. So it’s not just that we chose to be Gods; the unmanifested God in fact chose to be us.”

“Which brings us to the point I was trying to make. Does God actually want to be any of those people in the heavenly world? What are they doing and choosing that is so delectable to God, that he would explode outwards in their hearts and desire to be that?”, she finished, and noticed how all the Gods and Goddesses looked at her with mouths agape.

“You are indeed the Goddess of Wisdom”, Shiva finally managed to say, while others nodded in assent. “I used to think you’re very smart, but now I have to revise my opinion. You are wisdom itself, taken form, and I bow to Your Holiness again and again”, he bowed deeply, as Kay blushed stronger than ever, seeing how her Mother and Zee were so proud of her, they could burst in a fountain of happiness, as new Titles and Jewels manifested upon her person.

“You are indeed the self-realisation and self-revelation of the Absolute”, Krishna nodded. “The addition of you two to our family is an incredible blessing, as you truly give new faces, names and persons to God”.

Lady Shakti bowed to her, closed her eyes and manifested a tiara with a single jewel of golden light, something that was so powerful, it made Kay feel as if lightning passed through her entire body; Shakti approached her, put the tiara on her head and knelt before her. “Most revered and worshipped Lady, please accept this gift from your mom no.2”, she smiled mischievously. “It also contains a blessing of Lord Shiva. You will see what it is later”, she winked, and Kay fell into her embrace, crying tears of happiness, as Lady Lakshmi smiled her blessings upon them both.

“Lady Shakti”, Kay sobbed, “What is that thing you gave me? When I feel it, it feels like The Mind of God”, she shivered powerfully.

“No”, Lady Parvati corrected her. “You are the Mind of God”, and all the Gods and Goddesses present felt shivers of higher truth and all bowed deeply, as a flurry of newborn souls exploded from the space between them.

“I saw you a few days ago, you know, when you were talking to that other demon, Santa Claus or whatever his name was. I told my husband that you are both worthless as rocks and bricks if not worse, and as disgusting as that karmic sludge he’s transforming. And look at you now. I’m astonished at your progress, if you can even call it that, and not a nuclear blast.”, Shakti smiled at Azazel.

“I’m honoured to finally meet you, Mother”, he smiled back. “And as for that conversation, I actually share your opinion on its nature, as well as its participants; in fact, it was that very conversation that motivated my radical change of course, as I became disgusted with myself to the point where I would rather risk getting impaled on Lord Shiva’s trident, than look at myself as I was”, he frowned.

“I see angels in Heaven frozen in shock from the sight of your transformation”, Shiva sipped his coffee and smiled at Lord Zee and Lady Kay. “They are completely unable to understand what happened”.

“Which makes me wonder, really; it’s not like we did something that was out of the realm of possibility for those others. We talked to you and Lady Lakshmi. We paid attention. We thought about it and what it meant. We observed your persons and actions. We adored and admired you, and we loved each other. We did literally nothing else”, he scratched his chin. “So how the fuck is what we did exceptional in any way?”

“That’s the trick, Zee”, Lord Vishnu joined the conversation. “You did nothing else”.

“What do you mean, my Lord?”, asked Lady Karuna.

“I mean it in a very literal sense. It’s a large world with billions of beings. You know what literally all of them do? They get to know each other. Then they talk, compare experiences, meet more people, talk to them, and after you’ve done it with a billion people, a billion years passed”, he grinned. “They talk about philosophy, they practice making artefacts, they make music, they explore complex relationships, they try out all sorts of energies. Some even meditate or worship the Gods… among other things. But you two, you did literally nothing else, and you focused on it with your entire beings. The results were extreme and instantaneous”.

“But wait, I can’t believe that those other angelic beings haven’t been informed of the same things we were. It’s implausible that we were the only ones you told that thing about the accretion of soul stuff and the kalapa fountain in the heart, and the veil between the Absolute and the Relative becoming permeable and eventually letting go completely”, Lord Azazel protested, looking at his father.

“Indeed. Whenever there are new souls there, and that doesn’t actually happen that often, one of us sits them down and explains the fundamentals.”, Shiva confirmed.

“And?”, Kay asked wide-eyed.

“And nothing.”, Shiva shrugged. “They nod, store it for later use and forget about it. They think about all the things that await them in that new beautiful eternal world they arrived in. They think about all the friends they are going to make, about all the things they want to talk about, or do. They have all the time in the world, of course. They are in no hurry. They are Eternals, they are Angels. Or they think what we said doesn’t apply to them, at least not now, as they are; maybe later. Or they think it’s a good idea, get excited about it theoretically, but they don’t actually do anything. And so on”, Rudra took another sip of coffee and grinned.

“My mind fails to process this degree of complacency and reversal of priorities”, Azazel slapped his forehead as if trying to jump-start his brain. “How can anyone be such a fool as to have the means of apotheosis given to them by a God in person, and then waste time fucking around and talking about the colour of shit or whatever it is they do?”

Shakti giggled. “I like his thinking”, she winked at Shiva, who wisped her a box of chocolates.

“But you do get it now, yes?”, Shiva looked pointedly at Azazel and Karuna.

“You mean, the problems and stagnation you talked about, regarding Heaven and the Eternals?”, Kay asked shyly.

“Exactly”, confirmed Lord Rudra. “They aren’t exactly going anywhere, or even seeing a reason to. As far as they are concerned, they have arrived. They are fine. That’s how things are – there are four Gods above them, they are enlightened and eternal, and what’s left there but talk about music and philosophy?”, he mocked.

“I am trying to understand how they are different from those retards in the astral nursery, that third or half or whatever that just sits there and grazes like a herd of damn sheep”, Azazel made a disapproving gesture and sipped coffee.

“They are blue”, added Lady Lakshmi, to which all giggled.

“They are indeed blue”, nodded Vishnu. “Which is why that Jewel of mass destruction, harmful and terrible as it is, looks like the only way to reshuffle that place, unless we resort to nuking it altogether”.

“An interesting concept”, Zee was deep in thought. “They don’t feel like doing what you advised them, thinking it’s merely something Gods do, and it doesn’t apply to them, not realising that the Gods became so by doing exactly that, and then continued doing it because what the fuck else is one to do, other than the best thing there is?”, he grumbled. “But when that insane maggot Sanat Kumar offers them a trap that’s meant to turn them into slaves, fertilizer or his worshippers, because all glory to the One and Only Creator of the World, I guess, or formulates it as a challenge for them to irk their egos, they’ll throw themselves head first into the wood chipper with full enthusiasm”, he finished as lightning started sparking from his eyes, to Kay’s endless amusement and a fit of giggles.

“But look at it this way, my love”, she suggested, “Anyone who gets into that honey pot will actually have to change their thinking and make actual spiritual progress in order to get out, and the alternative would be getting destroyed, rather than being eternally safe. If you’re in a dangerous environment where everything is trying to either enslave or kill you, you don’t have the luxury of sitting in a metaphorical sofa for a zillion years discussing the difference between two shades of blue”, she grinned and blew blue flower petals at her eternal love.

“I guess some people literally need the hard way”, he smiled at his bride. “Or, alternatively, the blue sheep will turn into blue hamburgers”.

“Let me remind you that destruction of eternal angelic beings is still a tragedy”, Lady Lakshmi frowned, not amused by their jokes.

“I apologise, holy Mother of Beauty and Fortune”, Zee bowed and smiled at her. “However, isn’t it a tragedy from a position of the unmanifested brahman that only six people in a zillion years out of how many billions qualified candidates actually bothered to claim it as themselves?”, he countered.

“He does have a point, my love”, answered Lord Vishnu. “If they don’t have a true desire for God, could anyone remind me what exactly would be the point of their eternal existence?”, he looked around, as if truly asking.

“Beeee!”, bleethed Lady Shakti cynically, and everybody did their best not to spill coffee or turn the table over in fits of laughter, with only some of them actually succeeding.

“I’m afraid that the formerly safe existence as an eternal sheep is suddenly going to become much more precarious”, nodded Lord Shiva. “And we will have to wrap up that bloody mess and clean up after ourselves, my darling wife”, he warned.

“Oh goody”, she rolled her eyes. “Can we at least do it in some tropical paradise, sipping cold peach tea?”

“How about a genocidal war zone?”, Shiva grinned.

“Typical”, Shakti grinned, and the rest of the girls giggled.

“Michael, Raphael, are you seeing this?”, a large angelic being called his friends.

“We do indeed, Gabriel”, answered one of them, “But to see is one thing, and to understand it is quite another. It looks like those two newcomers are having some kind of a rapid initiatory phase, or explosive growth, of the kind I have never witnessed before”, concluded Michael. “How is this even possible?”

“I have some ideas, but I’m not sure if they are any good. We’ve seen them visited by Lord Shiva and Lady Lakshmi, when they had a private conversation away from our sight, and all four of them came out to make a proclamation of the dangers of having anything to do with that new world that was recently opened for incarnation under unclear circumstances of a demonic rebellion. After that, the two Gods departed, and those two, apparently husband and wife, remained here, always together and talking only to each other. My understanding is that they have some special relationship with the Gods, or they are themselves Gods in disguise, having a lila, which would explain the extreme energy outbursts of the so far unseen magnitude”, he concluded.

“I don’t know who they are, but I’m observing their outward appearance with great care”, reported Raphael. “They started as perfectly normal beings of blue vajra; the man much stronger than the woman, because she looked like a typical newcomer, while he looked like a mature angelic being of greater wisdom and experience. I could feel some of his thoughts from the distance, and I feel great respect for his maturity and attitude, as he reminds me of Lord Shiva; straight to the point, truthful, able to cut deep into any problem and make reality bleed from it. I love him, honestly. The girl is smart, loving and beautiful, and their paired up instantly, and they seem to be great for each other because they both started growing like crazy since. I’ve never seen such speed of evolution, but that is perhaps due to some sadhana they are performing, and they seem totally absorbed and concentrated in it. I can’t tell what it is, but they grew from normal blue to deep indigo blue very quickly, and now they are deep ultraviolet/magenta, which is the highest frequency I can still perceive, personally. If they continue with this, they will leave my sphere of perception very quickly”, he concluded his detailed report.

The others nodded respectfully, “You are very thorough, my friend, and your precision is greatly appreciated, but how this is possible, is still a mystery”, Michael shrugged.

…

Azazel noticed how both he and his wife evolved from blue through indigo to ultraviolet, as their deep contemplation of the Gods they adored became so deep, as they started perceiving the true nature of the Gods as their own, in a way. He understood with relief that some of his qualities, that he thought were sad relics of his demonic past, that would have to be transformed into something better, were in fact very similar to the mental tools of Lord Shiva, and he also felt how the Lady beside him started spreading her wings like a butterfly leaving the cocoon, accepting aspects of her own greatness and Divinity while adoring and praising the greatness and Divinity of others.

And then the veil within their hearts broke in earnest, and he lost the concept of difference between himself as a being, and the unmanifested Absolute on the other side, flowing in both oceans simultaneously, knowing that it is all him, allowing it to shape him in total surrender, shaping brahman to his will, understanding that the woman beside him is going through the same process and that they both woke up, for the second time, and he couldn’t say what they were now, but he knew they are husband and wife still. They felt the veil of light towards the Relative and willed it to shift, and they emerged in a different reality, opening their new eyes to see the four Gods greeting them.

Their consciousness and power now an ocean without limits, they knelt together before the Gods to salute them and offer their worship, only to hear Lord Vishnu address them:

“Rise, Lord Azazel, Lady Karuna; for there are now six Great Gods atop all of Creation. Praised be your wisdom, devotion, courage, intelligence and perseverance, for they are limitless and peerless. There are now three Divine Couples in our family”, he finished and bowed before them, as Lord Shiva offered Lord Azazel a military salute and a hug, and Lady Lakshmi curtsied to them both and proceeded to hug her daughter, beaming with happiness.

“It’s interesting how several days ago I was talking to that idiot Sanat Kumar, who dreamed of becoming a God by reducing everybody”, Zee told Mahadeva. “I guess my approach was more fruitful in the end, Father”, he laughed, as Shiva clapped his shoulder and invited them all for a cup of coffee.

Azazel was deep in thought. Around him, there was a whole heavenly world of crystalline souls involved in their own affairs he knew nothing about, very much the same way it was a day ago, but now there was a significant difference.

Now, he didn’t care.

It’s not that he didn’t care about those beings. He did, which was strange because he didn’t know any of them personally, but they were obviously someone who mattered to the Gods, and someone very much like himself and his wife. But earlier, he wanted to know them and be informed about what they were doing because he thought his spiritual progress depended on it, as it seemed a logical way forward.

“Sweetheart”, he turned to his wife, “I think I know what we have to do now”.

“What do you mean?”

“We wanted to find our way around this new world in order to figure out what to do next, because that seemed like an obvious thing to do”, he whispered in her ear, as she lay comfortably nested on his chest. “But we already know what to do next; truly, we already started, and it already bore good fruits, and now we just need to continue doing it in earnest”.

“You mean, worship the Gods, and love each other?”, she whispered back, looking at him adoringly.

“Exactly. And boy, do we have material for it now. I can’t put your Mistress out of my mind. I don’t know what I expected; as a demon, I thought Gods were distant, indifferent assholes who show up only when someone needs to be killed, but that seems to be merely demon lore, nonsense they believe to make themselves look good. I also thought they promote arse-kissers because they are that pathetic, but that is a complete and utter misrepresentation of reality, to the point where it is hundred percent harmful and zero percent true. What is actually the case is that Gods are all about worship, and worship is something you can’t even imagine unless you have tasted it, because it’s not a normal thought or an emotion; it’s a breakthrough of the Absolute, unmanifested God, right into your heart, because it wants to express its true nature, which is reality-consciousness-bliss, and as you see the truth of a holy being, and speak this truth, it is necessarily worshipful, and it is necessarily blissful, and the more you do it, the more you grow spiritually and the greater reality, consciousness and bliss you feel. You, for instance; why are you the way you are? You are beautiful, honest, truthful, straightforward, intelligent and blissful. You didn’t become like that by thinking like the demons do – which is, inventing slanderous lies about their betters in order to make themselves feel falsely superior. No; you found a Goddess to serve, you asked her questions, she told you stories, you believed her and you benefited. You became clear, bright, beautiful and wickedly smart, which is why I’m in love with you”, he kissed her temple, as she blushed from all the compliments. “Your Goddess is amazing. She’s amazingly powerful, in magical and mysterious ways that make her potentially invincible and fatal to any enemy, and yet you saw how she is. She calls you her daughter, she’s proud and protective of you, she’s caring, kind and lovely, and she looks at her holy brother with the same worshipful wide eyes as we do. And Lord Shiva, I don’t even know where to start. He’s so kind, constantly trying to put everybody at ease and find good things to say about us, to boost us up, although he obviously knows of all our failings, but he brings them up only to show us how far we’ve come. To me as a former demon, and as a warrior, it’s so impressive to see how deeply strategic he is, how much thought he puts into understanding the problems, understanding how his enemies think and being multiple steps ahead of them. He’s devious in the best possible sense of the word, completely unlike what the demons would think the good people are. They think good people are naive, stupid, gullible and weak. I don’t know where they actually got that, because the Gods are incredibly good, I guess ‘holy’ is the proper word, but they are wickedly smart, strategic, calculated, clairvoyant and strong, and there’s an obvious blade of infinite sharpness and hardness hidden from sight, but if someone wants to fuck with them, it comes out faster than you can blink. I don’t know if you can appreciate my description, but I find it so amazing that I can literally drink bliss from worshipping them in my mind like that. It is absolutely delectable”, Zee purred.

“I think you are absolutely delectable, my husband”, Kay nuzzled his neck. “As you talk about Gods in this manner, and I take in your energy, I feel so excited I could explode in a burst of light. I think you are right: we do have everything we need for the way forward. We have Gods to worship, we have the knowledge they gave us that we can apply, and we have each other to love and talk to, so that we can sharpen our ideas and get to the truth more easily, and cover for each other’s weaknesses as we strive towards perfection. There are no distractions, there is nothing else to do, and even if there were anything else to do, this spiritual practice would be preferable and more enjoyable”.

“Why are all those people staring at us?”, Zee turned around and scratched his head.

“Oh, you’re right. Wow. They are staring at us because we are glowing with such power that it’s outshining the rest of the world, apparently”, Kay blushed.

“And we are having another growth spurt, apparently. Oh well. Are we going to allow them to watch us and possibly benefit from learning what we do, or do I teleport us into that coffee lounge that my Lord thoughtfully left there when he left?”, Azazel winked.

“No, let them watch, I don’t mind, and if they benefit from the insight, it would please me very much, as this is not something I would want to keep to ourselves. I’ll just blur out any intimacy between us, so that they can’t resolve it, because that part is none of their business”, she smiled mischievously. “Praised be the most holy Gods, who taught us this devotional sadhana”, she whispered, choking up from ecstasy and clarity of consciousness.

“Indeed”, whispered Zee, drinking the nectar of devotion and glowing from such ecstasy that he thought he would burst into a supernova and die if it were to grow any stronger.

“Lord Shiva!” “My Lady!”, Zee and Kay scrambled incoherently.

“It’s all right”, Shiva raised his hand and smiled. “We just came to congratulate you, and possibly explain a thing or two, since you seem to be alarmed about something”, he winked.

“My Lady, I hope you’re not offended that I got married without asking you first”, Kay said sheepishly. “We sort of just clicked and it just happened”. Then she remembered something else. “And our connection seems to be based around our mutual worship of Lord Shiva, while I’m your student. I don’t know how to explain this, and I don’t know how proper and loyal this is towards you”.

“Of course I’m not offended, my daughter. In fact, just think about it. How big do you think this world is?”, Lakshmi nodded encouragingly

“I don’t know, really; I just came here, and after meeting Zee, it kind of didn’t seem important anymore”, she blushed. “But probably millions of beings, and I don’t know how to measure size, but it sort of seems endless”.

“Billions of beings are more likely”, Sri nodded. “And how likely do you think it would be for you to just happen to meet your husband in your first day here, completely at random, because you just happened to be the closest?”, she smiled mischievously. “You of all people should know how luck works”.

“Oh! You mean, it was your blessing that we found each other instantly?”

“Of course. I do care about you, you know.”, Lakshmi rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee.

“Lady Lakshmi, I am honoured to meet you”, Zee started, while Kay was still taking in her revelation. “I must apologise for not having much of experience with Gods, other than my Lord here, but could you please explain this to us, because I have no idea how your power works”, he scratched his head.

“Well, it is probably the weirdest out of all four of us”, she nodded. “You see, it’s something like this: I see something good and I approve. This creates something like a convergence nexus; imagine it like space around that thing being bent, so everything good rolls downhill more easily towards it. Fortune, luck, wealth, serendipity, good circumstances, meeting the right people at the right time, and so on. Likewise, if I see someone who is sinful and offensive and I dislike them, I withdraw my blessings and their lucky star turns into a black hole, so to speak”, she grinned. “The power of Lord Shiva is straightforward and obvious. Mine is more of the sort where you just happen to meet your girl on your first day here because she just happened to be close to you when you wanted to ask for directions”, she smiled innocently at Zee.

“I kind of see what you mean, my Lady, and I am extremely grateful for your blessing, and I’m also relieved that you approve of us”, he bowed.

“You two are very good for each other”, she nodded. “You are both very intelligent, so you’ll do well together. Also, your characters blend together perfectly; her gentle cuteness and your warrior ethics and ages of experience. I approve”. She took another sip of coffee, as Kay beamed from relief and gratitude.

“You are indeed very good for each other. Did you have a look at yourselves lately, by any chance?”, prompted Lord Shiva.

“We grew larger and more powerful!”, exclaimed Kay excitedly. “Zee, look at us, we are almost twice the size we were when we met!”

“How is that even possible?”, wondered the former demon. “Lord Shiva, would you please explain this phenomenon, because you obviously understand it and I am too new at this to even dare guessing?”, he scratched his head.

“Do you remember what I told you about the accretion process, and how souls attract free kalapas in a kalapa-rich environments such as the astral nursery?”, Shiva started, and Zee nodded. “Well, that’s not all there is to it. Sure, for the young astral souls, it is a dominant method, but for larger souls, its effects are negligible, because, obviously, there aren’t enough kalapas around to grow a vajra being to twice their initial size in mere hours, or eons for that matter. There’s another thing going on, and if you think about it, it is obvious. You see, in places of strong presence of sat-cit-ananda, the veil between the Relative and the Absolute becomes more permeable, and, basically, the Absolute leaks through in form of a kalapa shower, or a fountain. For one thing, every crystalline being such as yourself is a strong presence of sat-cit-ananda in the Relative, which means that the centre of your soul, your own heart, is a place where new kalapas are far more likely to leak through into the Relative, than some more general place, like the space around you. Also, the strength of that breakthrough depends on what you are doing. Devotion and worship of a God focuses your consciousness on an object of such great correspondence with the unmanifested Absolute, that it essentially creates a rip in the border between the Relative and the Absolute right in the middle of your heart, through which a huge flood of kalapas, the stuff of God, floods into your soul and instantly integrates at your highest energy level”, Shiva finished, and returned to his coffee.

Zee and Kay were completely astounded. “So does this mean that when we worshipped your holy person, my Lord, and admired your deeds and your perfect character, not only did we become unbreakably attracted to each other, but our souls also grew immensely due to the influx of new kalapas our devotion produced in our hearts?”, Kay asked, wide-eyed.

“Exactly. Why else do you think we Gods hang out together so much and can’t seem to stop praising each other? The same principle applies to us, as well. As we praise each other, we understand more of the Absolute as it manifests through the other God-person. Someone foolish enough to curse or criticise a God-person would, likewise, close themselves to everything that makes that person great, and this would diminish and destroy their soul rather than grow it.”

“So, when Lady Lakshmi praised you and your holy wife, and I was wholly consumed by awe and worship, this didn’t just transform the substance my soul was made of, but also created a flood of new particles right inside my heart, which I felt as a flood of worshipful emotion that overwhelmed me completely, and thus filled any lack of mass that I had in my evolution up to that point?”, Kay said in wonder.

“You are exactly right, and I see what my lovely sister meant when she praised your intelligence. You are indeed one smart cookie, and I am happy for my son for finding such a great partner”, Shiva smiled and nodded at her, and Lakshmi also smiled approvingly, to Kay’s great embarrassment. “We do, however, have another matter to discuss, which is why I brought Lady Lakshmi here. You see, there has been a small conspiracy, and she was somewhat left out, for which I apologise, and which I’m about to correct momentarily.”

“Recently, my wife brought my attention to a problem we were starting to have in the astral nursery. You see, one would expect souls to be born, go through the accretion cycle, crystallise and move here, with others of their kind. However, that is something that happens with the majority of souls, but not all of them. Approximately one third of all souls aren’t really making significant progress and basically just stand there like bloody idiots. A minor percentage, one in a hundred or less, turn demonic, or worse, turn into conceited fools of false spirituality. Both demons and fakers grow into large astral monstrosities, like my son here, and they stay in the astral nursery, thinking of ways to alleviate their boredom, usually in various harmful ways, like bullying beautiful souls such as his bride here. The problem we’re having is that the demons aren’t going anywhere, the fakers aren’t going anywhere, the retards grazing aimlessly aren’t going anywhere, but the best souls are filtering out relatively quickly as they attain crystallisation. The result is obvious – that plane becomes disproportionally filled with assholes and idiots, which at some point starts to affect the evolution of the newborn souls, which get to be surrounded by bullies and bad examples, which will eventually hinder all progress and completely stop evolutionary processes in new souls, and we’ll be forced to just reset the plane by killing everybody there and starting anew. This, however, seemed like a radical and inelegant method, so I came up with a solution nobody likes, but which seems to solve all problems, unfortunately at the cost of introducing new ones”, Shiva finished.

“Oh, so that’s what’s been going on. Let me guess: you created that Jewel, the artefact of Creation?”, Zee offered.

“Yes. The idea was to allow for the creation of new worlds, where we would funnel demons and idiots so that they no longer overcrowd the nursery and inhibit evolution of new souls. However, that can’t be something either of us Gods would make, for obvious reasons”, Shiva grinned.

“Right. Demons would instantly distrust it and none of them would get near that thing. Imagine your enemies making something and saying it’s a perfect new world for everybody they dislike. Of course it must be a trap of some kind”, Zee grinned back.

“And that’s why Karuna is so fortunate to have you as her husband, my dear”, Lakshmi smiled. “You are experienced in demon-lore and know how they all think, which is why you can guide her properly and help her evade all kinds of pitfalls she would otherwise be vulnerable to, in her gentle innocence”.

“I do understand the point Lord Shiva is making, though, and the conspiracy he mentioned probably also includes my husband, who has been conspicuously absent lately?”, she prompted.

“Indeed”, Shiva nodded. “As soon as my wife and I created that artefact, he came to visit and warn us. It was quite a sobering experience, let me tell you, as he showed us the consequences our actions had across both Time and Eternity. The carnage was extensive, and I’m afraid we lost some Eternals as well, not just demons and idiots. Also, lots of young souls were lost. However, the end result was even better than we expected, which is why we didn’t immediately backtrack on our plan, and instead proceeded with Lord Vishnu’s guidance and cooperation”, his face was grim. “As soon as he made it clear what is to happen, we instantly bowed to him and gave him the veto rights, but he declined and instead offered his support”.

“Likewise, when I felt that Lord Vishnu worked with the two of you on something, I immediately gave you all my blessings without even knowing what it was, because anything you three are working on simply cannot be other than for the best, knowing the holiness of your character”, Lakshmi bowed to Shiva. “But still, you said that we are going to lose Eternals, and this troubles me greatly. Those are our children, my Lord, like those two here. How could this happen?”, she whined worriedly, as Zee and Kay looked at each other with great concern.

“It troubles all of us, my Lady. My wife was as troubled as you are right now, and Lord Narayan looked grim as well. I have been feeling terrible about it ever since we set it in motion, and I am incredibly grateful for your blessings, Lady Lakshmi, for they might be the only thing that saves us from a great disaster, finds us a way towards success and guards us from error”, he brooded darkly.

“However, I rendered the core of the Jewel out of the Will of God and for the greatest good, which ought to guarantee this quality of the final outcome, and Lord Vishnu did show me how some of our children fell. Unfortunately, they were arrogant in their greatness and enlightenment, and thought no evil could befall them if they remain true and strong, and such mindset is a terrible match for the kind of a world that demon had designed. Some of them even dared him to do his worst, thus removing the shield of dharma that would have otherwise protected them from abuse, and the demon is nigh-omnipotent in his realm. As you can imagine, they were broken, some outright destroyed, since the world in question is designed to deprive them of both their powers and the insight into God, making it seem as if that tiny world is the totality of all reality. The humble ones, who were used to hardship, humiliation and suffering, fared exceedingly well, and even grew due to accretion of karma caused by their unjust suffering. Those who grew in our world without being truly challenged, unfortunately, not only were deluded, harmed or destroyed due to their arrogant and imprudent approach, but their souls were also used to power the illusions and traps of that place. We lost some Eternals, but gained new ones, of the completely new soul-structure; on one hand, they are less elegant and clean in their spiritual makeup than the old ones, but they are somewhat like our former demon here – wise due to his experience with evil, able to recognise traps and pitfalls, and humble due to his own prior failings that taught him not to take things for granted”, Shiva finished.

“But what could possibly be the outcome that is so great, that it justifies all of this?”, Lakshmi insisted, her face still showing deep concern.

To this, Shiva just looked at her pointedly, and put his finger in front of his lips, making her know it’s a secret and he’ll let her know in due time and in private, so she just relaxed, quite content with that.

“But what do we do now, Lord Shiva? We wanted to warn the souls here about the dangers of that new world Sanat Kumar had devised in his madness and evil. Is that the proper thing to do, knowing what you know about the consequences?”, Azazel asked, his voice shaking.

“By all means, we shall warn them, and all of us together, to give greater authority to the warning, because they would be unlikely to heed it were it just the two of you. However, you can imagine what’s going to happen. Some will see it as a challenge to their faith, strength, discernment and devotion. They will disregard the warning, and their story will come to a bad ending in Time, I’m afraid. However, from what I’ve seen, this is unfortunate but necessary, because they are the souls that evolved without sufficient wisdom and humility, like trees that managed to grow tall only because they never faced any wind. Fear of consequences needs to enter Heaven, I’m afraid, and there’s no easy way to do that”.

Kay held Zee tightly and whimpered.