Problem in Heaven - II

Brahma listened patiently as Chitragupta laid out the problem very animatedly and reinforced the gravity of the obvious problem with a couple of graphs. After the presentation was over, Brahma smiled at Chitragupta. His youthful exuberance evoked pleasant memories of the past when Heaven India was just about starting its operations. Brahma remembered the day they had landed their biggest client yet, Shree Krishna. A hunter had shot dead Krishna by mistake and Heaven India had won a surprisingly closely fought bit with Hell India. Apparently Krishna's CDC was equally exciting for both the corporations and this eventually lead to a radical makeover of the entire scoring process. Many specific factors taken into account for calculating the morality and ethics scores were tweaked to be more general and accommodating. This was the point when the slide started. Brahma also understood the importance of bagging Krishna and the dominoe effect of losing him to hell. The price of repercussions would have been too high against the option of compromising on morality. He still remembered the celebration across the region when Krishna took his first steps into Heaven's premises. Justifying the greater good was the moral they have been operating on since then. Even though there were arm chair critics who constantly ridiculed this, Brahma understood that this was the best considering the circumstances.

"Tell me Chitra why do you think there is a problem in the way we have been operating recently?"

"I am surprised that you're asking this my lord. The mission of Heaven Corp is to promote social well being and it is a well established fact that there is a direct relationship between CDS and the level of social well being in the region. Why, dont your remember the hassle that we had to face when we bagged the Mahatma? Did we not compromise on greed and morality so that we can up the morale of the earthlings? Ultimately we ended up doling out a huge amount for the Mahatma without the expected results. I feel quoting for low CDS earthlings goes against the basic premise with which Heaven India was built. It is unethical and unjust for the others who missed out earlier. Why was the CDS not compromised with while pitching for Bhagat Singh and Nathuram Ghodse? Ethics is like an arrow my lord. It runs a straight course and hits hard on the target. Even if it misses the target, it does so willingly without compromising on the direction of its travel."

Brahma leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. "Ethics, dear boy, is a reflection of your perception. The exposure that you've had over your lifetime plays a huge role in defining your mental limits in either acceding to something or refuting it. You believe something to be unethical but in the end they are your own personal beliefs. Someone else might very well not perceive the same thing to be unethical. Then there are the idealistic beliefs. What should be done ideally is never what is done practically. There are difficulties in implementation beyond what an idealistic mind can provide for."

"But my lord," Chitragupta was surprised at the direction this conversation was taking. "Ethics is one of the only irrefutable laws in the world. It's either black or white as there is no scope for grey areas in ethics. Morality may provide freedom for thought and adaptation but ethics is like water. Transparent and soft but can pave its way through rocks because it is so strong that it cannot be swayed off course!"

"But remember Chitra that water takes the shape of the vessel that holds it. Even though I agree with your interpretation of ethics, I also believe that adapting is the only way forward for ethics if it is to survive. A single sliver of water is no match against a forest of rocks my boy. It manages to wet a few but dies in the end. It should be patient and wait for that thunderstorm to strike to gain strength."

"My lord, are you trying to say that you're helpless and would not be able to mend what is happening? If the gods lose all hope then how can the earthfolk sustain their faith!"

Brahma sighed and got up. He went to the window and was lost in contemplation, is Chitragupta really so naive or was he getting too old for the job?
"Gods are humans too Chitra. We are more human than you can ever realise. An earthling lives for a specified duration and tries to experience what we have been doing for the past 800 years. Tell me Chitra what makes a human a 'human'?"

(To be continued...)