The Life- Saving Deed

Good deeds make a deadly difference! (The story depicted in a nearly 400 year old Fresco painting of the Pilar Monastery Cloisters in Goa)

This picture encourages both the devotion to Archangel Michael (Devotions to Archangel Michael were widespread in the Eastern and Western churches by the 6 th centuries) as well as encourages embracing a lifestyle of doing good deeds, which will serve one well on Judgement Day. The Devil and his minions are all out to grab souls when they leave their bodies after their earthly death. The other worldly realm is a virtual battlefield with Gods angels, led my St. Michael meting out Divi ne justice, infact Divine mercy, literally snatching out the Souls from the Devils clutches by a whisker. The story portrayed above in the scene on earth, is of an atheist Duke who is sure fodder for Satans hell fires. His disbelief in God doesnt mean he disbelieves in doing good , even if it has no connections with heaven. Even his wife fails to recognise the patch of green grass in her husbands otherwise dry desert (which would need only the spark of death to ignite the fire of eternal hell). It was the green patch in his life which would ultimately thwart the fires igniting power, and what was that Green Zone? It was his goodness and magnanimity towards strangers and even enemies in faith . A pair of Franciscan monks had the misfortune to land up in the atheists horse stable for the nights stay because the Dukes wife thought her husband who was away would have nothing of them. When the Duke finally came, their blabber of prayers did not harden his atheistic stand, but rather his humanity was shaken up at the inhumanity meted out to them by his over cautious wife.

Notwithstanding the otherwise annoying sight of these overzealous robed men of faith, he ordered them a sumptuous meal and a good nights rest in his house, on the grounds that they were not animals but humans who deserved to stay in the house and certainly not in a stable meant for cattle and horses. And immediately the Heavens took note of the good deed of the Duke, his humanity towards the brown robed men, as one of Gods angel took away a bundle of Greens to Heaven, equivalent to the weight of the good deed. The day he died, he was up for grabs and his fate hung in balance between heaven and hell. The devil was rejoicing at the death of the Duke, and awaited his prized catch. Satan almost had him when up came the angel with the bundle of Greens collected from the green patch of the Dukes life comprising one of his good deed towards the monks. The weighing scale was precariously tilting towards Hell, when the bundle of Greens placed on the weighing scale surprisingl y made all the difference to tilt the scale back in favour of heaven. Satan was fuming mad almost darting to grab his slithery duke, but St. Michaels raised sword, made him turn away back into the abyss of hells fires. Has the Weighing Scale theme used in the painting above have its inspiration in the age old practice of Ceremonial Weighing in Hindu temples?

Ceremonial Weighing: Hindu temple in Secaucus holds ceremonial weighing of 175 pounds of pure platinum, a once-in-alifetime event of the weighing of Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa against pounds of pure platinum mined in Africa.