After hearing Man’s unambiguous decision, Devil realized that Man was not going to die at any cost nor was he in a position to kill him personally. He then went to God and said, “My Lord, in the end you are the one who is victorious but I am glad to know that Man who was totally dejected till a few moments ago is going back to life.”
“Friend, its not just mine, it is your victory also. Together, we have been able to give the gift of life to Man. Otherwise, you could have killed him easily by some means or the others yourself,” God said to console Devil.
“Lord, that is why you are the one who is the great one, who does not want to look down even at one who has lost,” said Devil to God.
Now Devil turned his attention towards Man and said, “My Man, you are great that is why you were able to understand how beautiful life is. Now you are free, you can go anywhere you like.”
Hearing this from Devil, Man became so happy that tears came to his eyes. He was also surprised that Devil, who had come there personally to take him away, was also the one who had set him free. It now occurred to him that was this God standing in place of Devil. So he asked Devil, “You have given me the gift of life all right but can I find out a few things about you two. After all, who do you think you are?”
On hearing this, Devil thought of a mischief. He asked Man, “Why don’t you tell us, who we are?”
Man kept thinking for quite a while and then he said to Devil, “This friend of yours is really cruel. When I was thirsty, you had given me a cupful of fruit juices which he drank up. When I was hungry, you gave me food but this one ate it all up. He tried his hardest to get me killed but every time you saved me somehow or the other. He made me climb mountain after mountain since the morning and was planning to push me off the cliff and kill me. But you helped me on all those occasions. He made my path more difficult to climb and made my life miserable. But you massaged my feet to make me feel better. Leave alone being God, he can not even be his helper. You made my paths easier, you encouraged me all the time, treated me lovingly all the time and supported me; therefore, you must definitely be God himself.”
Hearing this from Man, Devil started laughing loudly. But God was just smiling at all this and saying nothing.
“Hey you foolish Man, I used to think that you were intelligent but you have turned out to be utterly foolish. The one who spoke to you lovingly for a short while, the one who gave you some false hopes and courage, you have begun to regard only him to be God. Hey you, the fool of fools, the one who wanted to poison you for death, the one who was getting you intoxicated, the one who was misleading you and the one who was exploiting your innocence in order to win, you have begun to regard him as your well wisher and started considering him to be your God, at whose command you will not even think twice but blindfold yourself to doubt and not hesitate to die.
You, who regards himself to be most intelligent living being on this earth, in reality you are afraid to admit the truth. You are ignorant, when you consider your parents and your teachers who could have given you the ability to progress in life, to be your enemy. But regarded those to be your friends who kept you company in the quest of fulfillment of carnal desires, intoxication and so on. You remember your parents, your teachers only for their punishments and their stopping you from doing anything wrong more than you remember their teachings. Do you think they used to feel happy about correcting your mistakes or punishing you so that you could follow the right path. Listen you fool, the pain they suffered from punishing you was considerably more than the punishments they gave to you.
You consider yourself to be very smart. You always depended more on those who followed you like shadows and were dependent on you for everything. Hey you dimwitted Man, have you still not realized that those who follow you like shadows when the light is shining on you but the same people leave you behind the moment your future starts to get darker.
Your brothers and sisters, your teachers, etc. even though they used to give you the last bit of their energy and goodwill for the betterment of you, you hated them. It seems to me that you prefer lies to truth. How will you be able to recognize God?
The one who had staked everything and given up all his rules and regulations and even lied to you so as to save you, the one who drank up all the poison so that you could live, the one who made his own feet bloody from sharp stones on your way and accompanied you here, there and everywhere; you have begun to regard him to be Devil. Man how blind are you that you can’t see the truth, what has happened to your wisdom, do you not even have enough sense to find out what is good for you and what is not?
Hey you brainless Man, just open your eyes and see that the one you thought to be Devil, is the one who became a tree and fell in your path so that you did not fall from such a great height. The world you hated all along, and now you are now in love with still has the people who made you so dejected that you wanted to kill yourself just to be free from them. You also think it is the same people who have come to take you along with them today. Don’t you even understand that the one who did all this is God who you still regard to be the evil one, and the one you regard to be everything for you, your God - me Devil, the real evil one?” said Devil to admonish Man.
After finding out the truth from Devil, Man’s legs started trembling. His whole body started shaking. He was looking down in shame. The Lord he had been praying to all his life, the one for whom he was going from pillar to post, the one for whom he wanted to sacrifice his life; the same Lord had gone anywhere and everywhere with him the entire day. He realized his mistake that this God was the one, who had made even the deepest valley appear shallow and prevented him from committing suicide. He was the one, who with the touch of his hand neutralized the venom of the snake bite. When Man realized his mistake he started crying in an uncontrollably and fell at the feet of God to beg for his forgiveness.
God picked up the helpless Man and embraced him affectionately while wiping the tears from his eyes.

anilkrantz@vsnl.com