MAMMON MEETS THE KING
It was now time for Mammon to meet His Majesty. Mammon was a powerful god by any standard. Being the flashy type, it was hardly surprising that this usurper came with the pomp and pageantry for which he had become renowned. As he was led into the presence of the King, he looked deliberate, calm and collected. He looked like someone with not a worry in the world. Despite his earlier apprehension, he had stopped panicking.
Mammon wore the mien of someone who was prepared to say it all. He had managed to convince himself that he had enough facts which would enable him to stoutly defend himself before King Almighty.
As he appeared before His Majesty, he bowed in reverence, putting aside for once his arrogance.
'Great and glorious King,' he began, setting the ball rolling, 'I bow in adoration. I learnt that you wanted me to appear before you. Here am I to answer your call.'
'You are welcome,' replied the King, sizing up this god who had built for himself such an inexcusable reputation for notoriety.
The King continued, 'I was appalled and saddened when I discovered that you are one of those who decided to conspire against me. I understand that you fought tooth and nail against my plans for Terrestrial. You did not, for once, consider it dangerous to think of swapping places with my appointed representatives whom you turned against me. You decided to set yourself up in order to take over from these ones.
'Ruler of all climes,' said Mammon, now looking uncomfortable, perhaps because of the strong way the King began.
'I am Mammon. Interestingly, I was invented by your representatives as a medium of exchange and a store of value. I became a child of necessity, as without me most transactions between individuals would have been clumsier to conduct.'
'What I usually do is that I make it easy for them to go about their lives and businesses in more ways than one. Through me most things could be obtained which means that I am a mere tool, no more no less. A tool can only sensibly be used to do that for which it was created. Essentially, these people desired me because they believed that through me they could obtain all that they have ever desired. I am therefore proud to state that I am essentially a means to an end.'
'That sounds quite interesting,' the King shot back. His Majesty, however, refused to be bowled over by Mammon's words as he continued probing,
'But was that a sufficient reason for you to usurp my representatives? Was that why you aided and abetted those who insisted that my plans for the kingdom outpost would never stand? Obviously, His Majesty wanted clarifications.
Rattled by the torrent of questions, Mammon's heart began to beat rather faster than usual but he managed to continue to respond to the King.
'Not exactly, Your Majesty,' he went on,
'I did not deliberately set out to displace your representatives, how would I have been able to do that successfully? Trouble started when your representatives decided to put me on a pedestal, when they decided to make me indispensable. They thought that I should be worshipped in the hope that I would smile on them. They erroneously began to think that with me all things are possible, that they could obtain just anything by having me.'
'Glorious King,' Mammon went on, apparently now determined to tell all.
'I thought that my limitations ought to have been obvious to these people from the beginning. In any case, there was never a time that I promised to deliver more than I honestly could. However, despite my limitations, your representatives still went ahead and enthroned me as god. They actually worshipped me. They made me supreme in all their calculations and became particularly daring in their search for me. However, I failed as god in that I could not be the all-sufficiency that they had always craved.'
'Talking about my limitations, for instance, I could not add a day to any of your representatives' tenure around here once it pleases you to recall him or her. I could hardly satisfy the deepest yearnings of their hearts. Also, by myself alone, I simply cannot confer peace, joy, happiness and absolute fulfillment on any of these people.'
Speaking further, Mammon said,
'Surprisingly, Your Majesty, up till now many of your representatives have refused to accept that I cannot be the all-in-all that they have always longed for. They failed to realise that with me not all things are possible. They strangely believed that once they put their trust in me all other things would follow.'
'Nevertheless, there is no doubt that a measure of me will always be needed in order to have access to many of the good things of earthly life. Your Majesty, many of the things that went wrong around here could therefore not have been caused by me alone. It would simply not be fair for me to be used as a scapegoat for the misdemeanours of these royal representatives. The problems arose when they decided to install me as god. I only obliged. They simply departed from the path which you set for them.'
At the end of his defence, His Majesty saw no reason why Mammon should be held solely responsible for the choices which the royal representatives freely made.
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