Quotes from Devdutt Pattanaik

In religious traditions around the world, there is invariably a medium between the spiritual and the material, between the deity and the devotee, between the transcendental and the phenomenal.

The purpose of society is to inspire humanity, not tame them

For Ram, Kaikeyi is no villain; he is no victim and certainly not a hero. A hero is provoked into action. A yajaman needs no provocation to act. Provocation makes action a reaction, turns

You call it justice but how much punishment is adequate - when is it fine to forgive and move on? A society that does not make room for imperfection can never be a happy society.

Life is like a river. You can struggle to change its course but ultimately it will go its own way. Bathe in it, drink it, be refreshed by it, share it with everyone, but never fight it, never be swept away by its flow, and never get attached to it. Observe it. Learn from it.

Arjuna, he who does not hate anyone, is friendly and compassionate always, is not possessive and self-indulgent, stable in pleasure and pain, forgiving, contained, controlled and firm in his love for me, in heart and head, is much loved by me.—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 12, verses 13 and 14 (paraphrased).

Laws by their very nature are arbitrary and depend on context.

She followed her husband to ensure he never felt incomplete.

Thus, 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.

The ordinal directions are represented by the moon (the north-east), the sun (the south-west), fire (the north-west) and wind (the south-east).

Why then do you call this tale "Jaya"? There is no real victory.' 'There are two kinds of victory in this world,' said the storyteller-sage, 'Vijaya and Jaya. Vijaya is material victory, where there is a loser. Jaya is spiritual victory, where there are no losers. In Kuru-kshetra there was Vijaya but not Jaya. But when Yudhishtira overcame his rage and forgave the Kauravas unconditionally, there was Jaya. That is the true ending of my tale, hence the title.

Mahabharata is about the household, about relationships, about others. It is essentially about a property dispute. Arjuna's dilemma begins when he realizes that the enemy is family and he fears the impact of killing family on society as a whole. Krishna

Those who are comfortable with imagination appreciate metaphors and symbols. Those who are not prefer the literal. Only through metaphors and symbols can one convey the conceptual. Without poetry, you cannot communicate ideas that are not material and measurable, like love, or justice or remarkability. But

More often than not, what is passed off as history is mythology, someone's understanding of truth shaped by memory, feelings and desire, available facts notwithstanding.

The words asura and rakshasa are often used interchangeably but they refer to two different groups of beings. Asuras are children of Kashyapa; they live under the ground and fight the devas. Rakshasas are children of Pulastya; they live in forests and fight humans. Kashyapa and Pulastya are Brahma's mind-born sons.

BUT BRAHMA STUBBORNLY REFUSES TO take the journey towards Purusha. He is determined to find identity and meaning through Prakriti alone. Brahma divides subjective reality into two parts: what belongs to him and what does not belong to him. Property is thus created. It is humankind's greatest delusion through which humanity seeks to generate meaning and identity.

Destiny and desire, karma and kama, are the two forces that propel the world. Destiny is a reaction, an obligation that follows an action. Desire is an aspiration that forces the world to transform in a particular way. Destiny creates fate. Desire is based on free will. We have the freedom to accept life as it is or to make it the way we want it to be. That is what makes us Manavas or humans. Kaikeyi

Bhartrihari has to confront the horror of human existence. We can never know everything and we can never be sure. All information is incomplete, and all readings distorted by personal prejudice. And yet we have to take decisions all the time and hope the results favour us.

Insecure men make terrible warriors.

Truth can terrify. But there are many who face truth fearlessly.

events in our lives are reactions to past actions.

Events are events. Humans qualify them as good or bad.

It is ironical that for all the value we give to the rational, life is primarily governed by the irrational.

The earth satisfies all our needs. But sometimes man forgets that he is the beneficiary of the earth's goodness. He deludes himself that he is the master of the earth. That is when Durga rises with her trident and impales the demon who assumes he can control her.