Satan wanted to frustrate the purpose of God – though he knew very little of it in the beginning and then kept watching with awe His grand plan unfolding little by little – (God) at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. - Heb 1:1. Satan didn’t want the privileged place that he lost to be filled by anybody. He didn’t want God’s plan to succeed. He started devising his defensive strategy to upset God’s plan. Satan, having been created a wise being, started framing his guard intelligently. He took up in his hand three weapons that he thought would help him all along in his misdemeanor – the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. One or more of these would be handy to topple the plan of God, he thought. (He used the same strategy with the Son of Man, Jesus, and failed utterly. Read more about this elsewhere in ABHOT).

Serpent means the “shining one”. The Hebrew original is Nachash. Lucifer is the Hebrew form of the ‘light bearer”. He is also called the morning star – the planet Venus – that usually shines in the east just before sunrise a large part of the year. Satan has always wanted to usurp the place held by God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ‘bright morning star” in Rev 22:16. Satan wants this title and has managed to retain it in the world for a long time now. He will be once and for all destroyed by the brightness of the Lord’s coming very soon when he will have to surrender his falsely appropriated name (this and many such names) at his Creator’s feet.

God gave man a freewill. Man could decide for himself whether to keep depending on God for everything or break away as an independent being. Continually trusting God for everything would have been ideal. A willful submission to God would make love, devotion, and service meaningful; else the relationship would be one of mechanical, choiceless, and mundane.

Satan tempted mankind to doubt God. He provoked man to choose his own course. He used all his chosen weapons right the first time when he came to Eve, the weaker vessel, lest he fail. Satan said that man can be God himself. As mankind had the right to choose their own course, man wanted to break away from God. Man fell because he wanted to be God. He swallowed the lie of the devil. He believed God’s adversary instead of believing his Creator, his Father, and benefactor. Man thought he could be his own Lord.

The first man disobeyed God, the obvious result of unbelief. He became a being who could know the good from the evil. Then, he chose evil. He chose the evil one. He chose d’evil. Devil.

Knowledge or life? That is the question. There were two significant trees apart from others in the midst of the Garden of Eden – a tree of life and a tree that bore the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Man chose knowledge over life. He still chooses knowledge over life. Vidhya over Aayush. Ved over Ayur. He wants to find life through knowledge. Even believers choose knowledge over life – they read the Scriptures to know more which will enable them to get a degree (B.Th., M.Th., B.D, M.Div.) or a Dr. and recognition as a “Theologian” in Scriptures. They don’t pursue the Scriptures to derive life which it is, in its essence. And Jesus, the Word of God is Life Himself. Anyone who comes to Him receives eternal life – knowledge of sin, righteousness, and the impending judgment comes when the Holy Spirit indwells the believer.

The Serpent presented a lie that man could be God and said that God was holding this truth back from man. He has been presenting this same lie to date to gullible people. There are many flavors of this lie making the rounds. One such is Advaitha which was propagated by Adhishankara of India. He taught his followers “Aham Brahmasmi” which meant “You are god - the supreme self” or “You have the god in you”. Today’s so-called godmen appearing in various attires and outfits have this philosophy built deep into their teachings and have trapped millions of individuals, both simple and intelligent, in their net with this enticing concept. And a lot of intellectuals and wealthy men of the world who are seeking power through money, social recognition, fame, and political authority & position have already fallen victim to this global deception. Such a person wants to be a god at least to his immediate circle and makes use of one or more of these factors to exercise his power over those around him and ultimately control their lives. The original Serpent is behind these devices; he manipulates men under his domain to bring about this control over innocent people.

It is evident that the descendants of Adam started worshipping him as a god. Idols resembling Adam were made of stone and wood (and metal at later times) and paintings depicting him as god are being worshipped even today. Adam is worshiped as man-Isan / Iswaran with all his features – complete with the red/fiery skin color (thee-vannan), the serpent around his neck, the animal skin as his clothing, the third eye of understanding open, the blue neck (Adam’s apple?) of poison (Neelakantan), the crescent as the reflector of God’s glory (but was marred by sin) (Chandrasekhar, Piraichoodan), his wife (Uma / Ammon) being his other half (Umapathy, Madhorubagan, Ardhanareeswaran). Eve is also worshipped as Sivan’s Sakthi or Ishi or Iswari. Aishwarya (former Miss Universe) is another form of the same word meaning wealth, Lakshmi (latcham / 100K) of the Thamizhar.

Easwaran was later (around the 8th Century AD) named Sivan by the Jewish Aryans, usurping the name “Sivam” from the local Christian believers. These Aryans had earlier started occupying the Indian sub-continent from the year 722 BC until the third century AD and perverted the Christian religion Saivam – the path of love, (not asaivam or violence/animal sacrifice) established by St. Thomas even in the first century AD. Until the 8th century AD, Saivites worshipped the God of Love (An-bay sivam!); the Sivanadiyaar (Servants of Love) wrote Saiva Sitthaandham (end of a mindful search for eternity) that talk of the loving God Who descended from heaven to save mankind from sin and eternal death. Siva-gnana-botham and Thiruvundhiyaar are ancient Christian books of poems! Aryans even slaughtered many such Thamizh Sitthars who defied the authority of these crypto-Jews. Nanthanaar and Thiruppaanazhwaar are notable martyrs. In fact, kugai idi kalagam was unleashed on the Sitthars who ran to the caves for shelter but were killed for their faith. They came to be known as the Panchamar (the fifth class on the social ladder).