Mammon

"The word Mammon in biblical term for riches, is often used to describe the debasing influence of material wealth. The term was used by Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount and also appears in The Gospel According to Luke. Medieval writers commonly interpreted it as an evil demon or god."

This is one such Mammon named, Ravi Krishna Gupta from Dodabetta, Ooty. This man is very rich. He have earned a lots of money by indulging in various kinds of illegal activities and illegal business.

He is a devil. Due to the greed for money and lust for happiness, this 35-aged man Ravi Krishna indulged in various sins. One such kind of his sin have changed his whole life. What could be that sin? Let's see...

There is another guy called Akhilesh. He is one of the popular Indian Tamil directors, settled in Chennai. Besides being settled with a lots of money, he is not satisfied. Unlike Ravi Krishna, this guy is not a mammon. But, he is hesperus like Venus.

Akhilesh received plenty of awards and nominations due to his style of Narration and works in the film industry across various types of genres like: "Comedy, Action, Drama, Crime and Thriller." But, he is still more keen to direct a horror story, with a plenty of suspense, thrills and mystery into the story.

He discuss with his girlfriend, Ruhi and they make a plan to go for a resort near to Doddabetta, Ooty. While going Ruhi asks Akhil, "Akhil. What's the base for this story?"

"This story's base would be a suspense. I will let you know, later on" said Akhilesh.

They meets Gupta, who takes them to a resort, located near the Pykara waterfalls. The place shined like a mirror with shining stars, around the sky. The flowing waters in the waterfalls are like the sounds of thunder. The whole place looked dark with dense trees and plants.

Gupta shows them the resort. The resort looked like a green carpet. The trees and plants are music of the soul to that resort. The place sparked like a diamond. This place impressed Akhilesh.

After paying the full amount to Gupta, Akhilesh plans to prepare the script of the horror film by taking this place as a setting. One side, he is planning to direct the horror-thriller. On the other side, he makes romance with his girlfriend Ruhi.

Their love is a journey. It started like a fragile flower and at present, it follows as a thrill ride and botanical garden. They spends a lots of time together. Leaving a beautiful smile, having a kiss to show the flowers of affection. Their love shines like a sun.

Everything was fine until, Akhilesh starts to realize some strange things inside the house. When the place that they resides turn darker wind blows are severe, Thunder storms strike like a noise and incessant events(notably the heavy rain and strange sounds[crying and devil sounds]).

Akhil starts to realize and experience these impacts of late. When he informs this to Ruhi, she starts to laugh at him and tells, "He had gone mad as he planned to take a horror film."

Akhil is convinced that, there is nothing in the resort. But, a very few days later, he sees a stranger through his window. He heavily frightens. Half closing his eyes, he crossed to the window and fumbled to slam it, making sure that the latch was in place this time.

The wind had started his lamp moving, and when he turned back the whole room seemed to be swinging around. One moment the fight was blazing in his eyes, the next it was flooding the opposite wall. But in between the blaze and the flood it lit the middle of his room, and standing there – shaking the rain off his hat – was a stranger.

He looked harmless enough. He was no more than six inches taller than Harvey, his frame scrawny, his skin distinctly yellowish in colour. He was wearing a fancy suit, a pair of spectacles and a lavish smile.

Akhil is left shattered and feared due to the strange events. He decides to escape from the place with Ruhi at any cost. However, as he fears going out during night times, he stays in and decides to investigate about the strange events to the localites.

Being smart, Akhil manages to take the photo of the stranger in his phone. He goes outside in order to investigate about this man to the local people. However, he had been seen as a vulture by everyone. They tells him that, "There's no such guy in their place" and additinally tells him, "He is instigating about a dead man, before five years back."

Shocked, Akhil proceeds to his resort hoping that, he can find something relavant about that man. While instigating, he finds the same photo of that strange man in his room. After learning that he hails from Kumbakarai of Theni, Akhil goes along with Ruhi to investigate about this man.

Ruhi is convinced that, "there's something strange in that resort." Henceforth, she accompanies with Akhil. After finding his house, they goes and conducts a widespread search. Upon searching, they finds a diary titled as Mammon. The first page shows his name as Major Sandeep Radhakrishnan.

(The man narrates a few events in his diary.)

Jesus Christ told, "You cannot serve both God and mammon." While in the Middle Ages it was often personified and sometimes included in the seven princes of Hell. Mammon in Hebrew (ממון) means "money". The word was adopted to modern Hebrew to mean wealth.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon- Matthew.

These all means to say us that, "Greed for money is the journey to death." Not only in Bible books; even in Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna articulates clearly that, "lust, greed, and anger are the gateways to hell. These are the root cause of virtually every single problem in human life. Here hell signifies self-destruction. If a person is lustful, greedy, and remains angry, then this leads to the hell of self-destruction."

I was born into a upper-middle class family in Kumbakarai. My father worked as a bank employee in Theni district's Government Bank. After my younger sister Anjali's birth, my mother died. I raised her by showering up lots of love and affection. She is like a goldsmith for our family.

She studied well and scored good marks in 12th Exams. She wished to join Medical course in a Government Medical College. But, the seat got full and as a result of this, we were forced to enroll her in a private college, owned by Gupta.

There from donation fees to admission fees, they got from us of total as: 80 Lakhs. We hoped for a better future to Anjali. But, we were left cheated. Because, the college didn't get any prior approval from the government and instead cheated us by getting money.

Unable to bear the cheating and felt betrayed, my sister fell from the cliff of Gupta's college and died. However, due to Gupta's influence, the case was covered by the media and police department.

I formed a group of team with the help of my army friends. We planned to expose the corruption and business in Education system by collecting various informations about numerous of private colleges and universities. We further instigated about corruption in medical system and waited to expose Gupta.

However, he learned this and met me personally. He requested for monetary talks. But, I refused. He told me that, "They would meet sooner when time comes."

(Narration ends here)

Up to this the diary ends. Akhilesh is crucial to know the afterwards. Knowing his cruciality, Sandeep comes as a spirit and tells what happened in further.

Gupta kidnapped Sandeep's army friends and lured them to the place of Dodabetta. There, he had been asked to come with his father. Sandeep's father gets killed by Gupta's henchman.

After reaching there, Sandeep manages to kill the henchman of Gupta. Knowing that, he can't be defeated and killed directly because of his strong army background, Gupta holds his army friends in the knife point threatening to kill them.

Sandeep loses his mind and henceforth, henchman beats him up severely. Afterwards of beating, Gupta shoots Sandeep. He falls dead onto the ground and later on was buried inside the resort of Gupta.

After hearing about the whole past, Akhil is touched and he decides to help Sandeep in the mission of exposing the education business activities. He manages to take the pen drive(Holding the evidences of frauds and corruption) and diary.

However, Gupta learns about this as well as the spirit of Sandeep. He tries to stop Akhil and Ruhi. But, they escapes and eventually exposes Gupta to the world.

He had been issued an arrest warrant by the government. Then, Sandeep tells Gupta as a voice(without showing his face), "Mammon being carried up from Hell by a wolf, coming to inflame the human heart with Greed." Implying to him that due to his greed for money and status, he is meeting a tragic fate.

Guilt-stricken and remorseful, Gupta shoots himself. Before shooting himself, Gupta apologizes to Sandeep, which he have never told to anyone since childhood.

A few days later, Akhilesh takes the horror film based on this, titling it as "Mammon." Due to the title and gripping story, it goes on to become a super-hit in the theatre, praised by critics and audience.

As it got selected for Vijay Awards as well as National Awards Ceremony festivals, he have been interviewed by an TV personality, who asks him the meaning for Mammon and the connection with his story, after having a few fun discussions.

Akhilesh replies saying, "During the Middle Ages, Mammon was commonly personified as the demon of wealth and greed. Thus Peter Lombard (II, dist. 6) says, "Riches are called by the name of a devil, namely Mammon, for Mammon is the name of a devil, by which name riches are called according to the Syrian tongue." Piers Plowman also regards Mammon as a deity. Nicholas de Lyra, commenting on the passage in Luke, says: "Mammon est nomen daemonis" (Mammon is the name of a demon). Many have personified about Mammon. I took a lots of research and studied about it from Bible."

"Which one did you liked a lot in that research about Mammon sir?" asked the TV Personality.

"Gregory of Nyssa asserted that Mammon was another name for Beelzebub. In the 4th century Cyprian and Jerome relate Mammon to greed and greed as an evil master that enslaves, and John Chrysostom even personifies Mammon as greed. Albert Barnes in his Notes on the New Testament states that Mammon was a Syriac word for an idol worshipped as the god of riches, similar to Plutus among the Greeks, but he cited no authority for the statement. These quotations about Mammon inspired me a lot to write the story of the film."

"If any other things about Mammon, can you kindly tell to the audience sir?" asked TV Personality.

Akhil replied, "Sure. No trace, however, of any Syriac god of such a name exists and the common literary identification of the name with a god of covetousness or avarice likely stems from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, where Mammon oversees a cave of worldly wealth. Milton's Paradise Lost describes a fallen angel who values earthly treasure over all other things. Later occultist writings such as Jacques Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal describe Mammon as Hell's ambassador to England. For Thomas Carlyle in Past and Present, the "Gospel of Mammonism" became simply a metaphoric personification for the materialist spirit of the 19th century."

And besides this, Akhil finally tells that, "Do everything you have to do, but not with greed, not with ego, not with lust, not with envy but with love, compassion, humility, and devotion."

He leaves from the place after thanking the TV personality. A few days later, he meets Ruhi and proposes for marriage. They share a hug and proceeds inside the house...