Quotes from Devdutt Pattanaik

Only the truly enlightened know the world as it truly is; the rest construct a reality that comforts the ego. The enlightened are therefore always at peace while

Within there is regard for the law of marriage; without there isn't any. Within, Sita is Rama's wife. Outside, she is a woman for the taking. Ravana knows that if he enters Rama's hut and forces himself on Sita he will be judged by the rules of society. But when he forces himself on Sita outside the Lakshmana-rekha, he will be judged by the laws of the jungle. Within, he will be the villain who disregarded the laws of marriage. Outside, he will be hero, the great trickster.

This war is not for property. This war is about dharma. And dharma is about outgrowing the animal instinct of territoriality and discovering the human ability to share and care. The Kauravas refuse to share their wealth with their own brothers. They refuse to keep their word and use force to usurp other people's wealth. The earth cannot be burdened by such kings. They have to be killed.

If people around us behave like deer, it means we are behaving like lions. If people around us behave like lions, it means they see us as deer. If people around us behave like dogs, friendly or hostile, it means we matter to them.

Dharma must not only domesticate nature, it also needs to ensure there is harmony between nature and culture.

In the Valmiki Ramayana, there is no mention of the Lakshman-rekha. It is first mentioned in the Telugu and Bengali Ramayana s written over a thousand years after the Valmiki Ramayana was composed. Many early Sanskrit plays that describe Sita's abduction do not mention this line.

The symbol of dharma is the bow, which the gods gave to Prithu. The bow indicates balance — the string cannot be left loose or too taut. Prithu is described as the first responsible king of earth. This is why the earth is called Prithvi.

The events in your life are the result of your past deeds, performed in this lifetime or the ones before. You alone are responsible for it. Such is the law of karma.

that which deludes you to be unhappy can be overpowered by another delusion that causes greater unhappiness

They did not like to know whose body they were burning. It gave them a personality. An identity. Someone's child. Someone's parent. Names made them wonder of the life lead by the dead before they came to the funeral pyre. The sufferings they left behind, and the desires they still clung too. Such thoughts made it difficult for them to sleep. Burning a nameless corpse was so much better—like burning garbage, a chore that did not stir a thought or a feeling.

A Siddha must be differentiated from a Rishi. A Rishi obtains his power from the Devas by chanting the appropriate hymns and making the appropriate offerings during yagna. Siddhas bypass the Devas and go directly to God to get their powers.

The place from where Sita is abducted has been identified as Panchavati, near Nashik in Maharashtra on the banks of the river Godavari. The name of the city of Nashik near Panchavati is derived from 'nasika' which means nose in Sanskrit and Prakrit, alluding to the cut nose of Surpanakha.

Ashrama ensures that not more than two generations utilised the earth's resources at any one time. When the grandson is born, it is time to retire, eat less food than the householder. And when the great grandson is born, it is time to become a hermit, eat what the forest, not the field, provides.

Rules always change in times of war and in times of peace, as they do in times of fortune and misfortune.

Animals fight to save their bodies. Humans curse to defend their imagination of themselves

no decision is right or wrong. Decisions can be beneficial or harmful, in the short-term or long-term, to oneself or to others. Essentially, every decision has a consequence, no matter which rule is upheld and which one is ignored. This law of consequence is known as karma.

With new words are created new worlds, as they are vehicles of new ideas. They enable the process of expanding the mind. The

But we cannot blame anyone for our misfortunes, as all calamities are an outcome of our past deeds. We have to take responsibility for all the good that happens to us and all the bad. We are the cause, and we have to face the consequences. This is the law of karma.

Despite being given the freedom to take decisions, Narad chooses to stay karya-karta, follow decisions rather than take them, as he is too afraid of the consequences. Garud, on the other hand, anticipates the needs of Vishnu, decides to enquire voluntarily and is thus a karta. Vishnu who allows Garud to be a karta is a yajaman.

God and Goddess. Purusha and Prakriti. Observer and observation. Subject and object. That's what it is. Not this, not that; this too, that too. That's who we are. Tat tvam asi.

Insulting the other destroys the other's emotional body; praising oneself destroys one's intellectual body.

Villains have no gender

conflict does not necessarily happen when one is right and the other is wrong; it can happen simply because two people follow different value systems.

Brahma is the human mind that misbehaves. Shiva is the human mind that vehemently rejects this misbehaviour. Vishnu is the human mind that does not condone this misbehaviour, yet understands it. What is this misbehaviour?