Writer: Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik
Genre: Mythology/Fiction
We all have been bought up with our staple dose of mythology. Its only if we choose to re-listen/ re-read can we realize that our stories/scriptures are not really as simple or black and white as they have been presented to us. Well, I am already in that mode and hence this book!
The book however did not really dwell into the topics that I was looking for. In essence, it was just the Ramayana that we all know of. But, there were some amazing thoughts and lines presented which I thought I should jot down.
Some fab lines For Sita:
- Lanka desired her submission. Ayodhya demanded her innocence.
- She was an independent goddess who made Ram the dependable God.
And some other gems:
- Humans curse to defend their imagination of themselves. This imagined notion of who we are, and how others are supposed to see us, is called aham. Aham constantly seeks validation from the external world.
- The point of the yagna is to outgrow fear, not indulge it.
- Rules cannot be used to compel people to car. It will only amplify fear. the whole purpose of sanskriti is to outgrow fear so that we do not feel the need to grab, control or dominate.
- In nature, to get you have to give. There is no charity. There is no exploitation, neither selfishness nor selflessness. One grows by helping others grow. Is that not the perfect society?
- Speaking sanskrit does not make anyone a brahmin. Expanding the mind does.
- God is not an external trophy to be possessed; God is an internal human potential to be realized.
