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And if God created the Devil without knowing that he was going to be the Devil, then he is not omniscient, all-knowing. He created the Devil not knowing that this was going to disturb the whole world. He created Adam not knowing that he would eat the fruit of the tree. He prohibited it! -- then he is not omniscient, all-knowing. If the Devil is there, then God cannot be omnipresent because who is present in the Devil? Then he cannot be everywhere; at least he is not there in the Devil's heart. And if he is in the Devil's heart, then why condemn the poor Devil?
There is a conspiracy -- a hidden harmony. God prohibited Adam from eating just to tempt him. This is the first temptation, because whenever you say, "Don't do this," temptation has entered. The Devil comes only later on -- the first temptation is from God himself. Otherwise, in the garden of Eden there were millions of trees, so if Adam had been left to himself it is almost impossible that he would have found the tree of knowledge -- almost impossible, unbelievable!
Even up to now we have not been able to find all the trees of this earth. Many trees still remain unknown, uncategorized, many species still have to be discovered. And this earth is nothing -- the garden of Eden was God's garden: millions and millions of trees, infinite. Left to themselves, alone, Adam and Eve would never have found it -- but God tempted them. This I insist: the temptation comes from God. And the Devil is just the other partner in the game. He tempted, "Don't eat!" -- and immediately the tree was known, and then the desire must have come. Why does God prohibit? There must be something to it. And it is not prohibited to God, he himself eats from it; and just for us it is prohibited -- the mind has started to function, the game starts. Then, just as a partner in the conspiracy, the Devil comes, the serpent, and he says, "Eat it! -- because if you eat, you will be like gods." And that is the deepest desire in the human mind, to be like gods.
The Devil did the trick because he knows the conspiracy. He didn't approach Adam directly, he approached through Eve -- because if you want to tempt man, you can tempt him
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