Angels and Demons

It was a Fullmoon Saturday night, and we enjoyed the mesmeric breeze of the river Ganges with little Ema who always wander in the world of fantasy and bookish world where angels and demons fight with each other to establish one's dominions. Question regarding their existence that arises in Ema's little mind made us compel to think and confer our opinions before her, and we truly enjoy the discussion.

We were four then - Me, Mr Bose, Laura and Alam. Laura among us fictional a little bit and belief in their existence. I don't want to say that she is childish, but it would be better to say she likes fiction and mythology, and belief that everything written in those books can not be wrong. On the contrary, Alam is a man of science while Mr Bose of Philosophy.

Ema began the discussion by sharing the stories she had read until then as far as her brain could memorise.

Laura was close to her as usual as she could relate her thinking with little Ema.

'You have read a lot of books Ema, and I, too, think they exist'

'And demons always are defeated by the angels'

'Yes, Ema, that's true. Good always conquers over evils'

'But all demons are not evil some are good'

'Yes God never does injustice to them.'

'But some demons are the prey of their fate.'

'You are right Ema, just as Meghnath in Ramayana epic. If we think in this way that he fought for his father and country, he can not be considered unrighteous but if we see in this direction that he fought in support of the evil, his deed was wicked one. There are several examples like this, Ema.'

Here Alam interrupted,

' What are you discussing about, and what for you, Laura. Ema may be a little girl. You shouldn't mislead her. Do you believe in this 21st century all of these nonsenses?'

'Calm down, Alam ', Mr bose entered into the discussion-

'Both of you are correct in your stand.'

He went on-

'Ema, angels and demons both are within ourselves. The dark side in our mind implies demons and bright one implies angels. Now it completely depends on us which side we should awake. If we choose our good sides and positive thinking, we awake angels of our mind, and if we negatively lead ourselves and do any misdeed that would be harmful to others, we awake demon of our mind. All epics and story are just reflections of these two opposite sides of our mind.'

Mr bose continued to shower his philosophy-

'Ema, think about great men like Mother Teresa, Don Bosco, Nanak, Kabir etc. to whom we revered. They all awake angel of their mind. On the contrary men like Hitler awake demon of their minds.'

'In this world human being of this two different psychology exist and clashes between them is inevitable. Whole human civilisation witnessed this collision of good and evil; of positive and dark sides.'

'Positive thinking is with the betterment of others, and dark sides connected with the higher ambition and hunger of power, and achieve it by bulldozing all of them who may be a thorn of his path and be prosperous by deceiving others.'

Ema felt bored with this long lecture and turned to me- ' what's your view, uncle'

'Oh yes, why are you silent, speak out' Mr Bose ironically said.

Now it's my turn. I went on-

' I am neither a man of science or philosophy, nor I believe in mythology. My approach is realistic here. Here I just want to share with you a lecture that I heard from one of my professors that stir my mind until now when I think about it. Listen carefully.....', I went on-

'Different situation gives different definitions of angels and demons. To a hungry and thirsty person, his hunger and thirst are demons and who satisfy it are angels. To a merchant who always cares about money, none but profit-givers are angels to him. Poor people consider them as angels who serve them and distribute money or other needs to them. Powerful persons consider them as angels for whom their hunger of power would be satisfied. Thus all people have their stereotype of angels and demons'.

'After all, the human being is controlled by interest and self-interest determine the definition of angels and demons'.

Mr Bose could not counteract the argument nor Alam and Laura did.

And the chapter is closed.