The invention of Satan is an important principle of scriptures. One question which no scripture can ever explain without the help of devil is that when everyone is created by God and God rules the mind, body and soul of every person, why there are so many evils in this world. In other words, if God is perfect, His creation too must be perfect. Thus there exists no scope of any imperfection in this world except due to the mischief of Devil who somehow seems to be beyond the control of God.
The concept of devil alone can provide some answer to this perennial problem which the nonbelievers and atheists have always seeking. It tells that Satan is quite powerful and his job is to corrupt the minds of people so that they can not follow the good and righteous path. However, he holds power only on the nonbelievers as the faithful are protected by the power of God. Thus, anyone who does not believe in God falls prey to Satan and follows the evil path.
This theory does satisfy the believers, but fail to satisfy the unbelievers. The reason is that since God is Omnipotent and Omnipresent, why does He not kill the Devil and make the world good once for all.
The debate thus continues without any logical conclusion. Those who believe may find it logical but those who disbelieve fail to appreciate the logic. Fyodor Dostoyevsky said
"If the devil does not exist, and man has therefore created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness"
However, this theory is the very basis of human civilization as every civilization at least in the West has been formed based on this basic principle. What is against the scriptures or the law of the land is easily termed as devil.
God and Devil: Not Always
Indian philosophers principally have two important philosophies. These are dvaita (dualism) and Dvait (non-dualism).
As per the dualism, every thing in the world has been created in pair. One is opposite to other. Thus we have the concept of God and Devil just like we have defined Good and Evil. This is easy to understand hence most popular amongst the common people. The popular scriptures like Ramayana and Mahabharata are nothing but the stories of the fight between Good and Evil. On the side of god is the Incarnation of God (Rama and Krishna) while on the other side is the Devil like Ravana or Duryodhana. Thus in popular Hindu religion, God is the representation of good while the one who opposes God is represented as devil.
However, in the philosophy of non-dualism represented by Upanishads, there is only One God called Brahma or Paramatma Who represents everything that exists in the universe. There is no good and no evil in this world as everything is nothing but the representation of God. Thus even Devil is just another representation of God.
Non-duality is contrary to the commonsense and difficult to visualize except by intuition. In a way even the modern science has moved from dualism to non-dualism. All the theories of Albert Einstein like wave-particle duality, mass-energy equivalence are nothing but the representation of non-duality between the forms and mass and energy. Yet it is impossible to visualize how mass can be energy or wave can be particle.
Hence, it is difficult to visualize any similarity between God and Devil. Yet it is not impossible to find some, if one so desires.
God and Devil
Interestingly, Devil in scriptures shares many traits with God. Like God, he is invisible and without any form. Though, some artists have portrayed Devil with green colored skin and horns, yet it is purely an imagination of an artist having no scriptural support. The picture of Devil is as unreal as the picture of God as an old man with beard.
Further, Devil lives in us and not outside us. Just like God is omnipresent, devil too is omnipresent. There is no place in earth or heaven where devil does not exist.
Devil too controls our heart and mind like God. The difference is that while God guides the person to do good, devil guides him to do evil.
Devil like God is also eternal since he is present from the beginning of the creation. Even in Genesis, there is no day for the creation of Devil, who seems to be present from the date of creation of the universe.
He also seems to be omnipotent as there is not one whom devil can not control and misguide.
Devil has Many Names
Devil was created in every scripture but given different names. In Judaism, He is called Satan and in Islam he is called Ilbis. In different scriptures of Hinduism, he is known by different names like Ravan, Duryodhan etc. However, the common name of devil in Hinduism is Asur or Anti-God. Thus devil is like anti-particle which exists for every particle. Any one who confronts God is devil.
In the modern times, where the people have developed the concept of Nation States and Societies that are based on constitution, the concept of devil still exists. In these societies too, people who break the laws are considered Devil and often called Criminals. However, it is difficult to find a man or woman who is not inhabited by Devil.
Atheists: The Devils of Scriptures
Atheists are the people who do not believe in God as described in the Scripture. It is difficult to find a person who can claim to fully believe in the scriptures particularly when many events described in scriptures have been proven wrong by science. Galileo, when he gave his heliocentric theory which stated that Earth moves around Sun and not otherwise, his statement was found to be against Bible and he was finally convicted. Yet people prefer to believe the truth rather than the scriptures.
There would be hardly a person today who would like to believe that plagues, draughts and floods are brought by God. However, any one who questions Scriptures automatically becomes an atheist or nonbeliever due to the influence of Satan.
Criminals: The Devils of Civilization
Every country makes some laws for governance. In earlier times, the king used to be the law in himself as what he said was law against which lied no appeal. In modern times, man is following Constitution or other laws of the land. Any one, who breaks the law, is called criminal and punished in the Earth itself by the creators of these laws (States) by putting him in the prism which seems to have been designed on the pattern of hell.
Yet criminals are found in every society as the modern laws is designed for the people who are rich and powerful. Thus it serves only a small section of the society. Most people who are aggrieved by the law when oppose the law, they are called criminal.
All great people from Christ to Gandhi has opposed the laws that were wrong and punished with imprisonment and even death by the people whose interests were served by the law.
Who is Not Devil?
Is it really possible to find and man who believe scriptures without an iota of doubt or a man who never breaks any law of the land? It is easy to term everyone as devil as we all are criminals or atheist in the eyes of scriptures or the law of the land. Hence, everyone can be easily termed as sinner or criminal.
Therefore, it is extremely dangerous to believe the concept of devil as given in any scripture or law. The danger is such that each one of us, however, good we may be shall be viewed as Devil by vast section of society. The follower of one religion can quickly brand the people of other religion as devil. Follower of one ideology like capitalism or socialism can easily brand the other as devil. We can be easily proven as criminal as it is impossible to follow all laws. Thus, unless one understands the true nature of devil, he can see himself more like Devil than as God. This is dangerous for the peace and harmony of the person as he would not only hate others beings thinking them to be devil but also not be able to forgive himself as it is impossible to be only good in all times.
Only if a person understand the true nature of devil, can he live the life of peace and happiness as for such a person, even devil is the manifestation of God. Devil, seems to be represent the other reality of the universe which we find it difficult to associate with God.