topics: |  india | myth | philosophy

i found this book with my sister-in-law, who is heavily into myth.  I read
a few pages of the introduction, and was instantly hooked to the originality
and power of the argument.  Perhaps others had said this before, but I hadn't
come across such a clear statement for the role of myth in our lives, how
myth constituted the background reality for most of our everyday actions and
beliefs.

At the time I was reading up on the 1857 war of independence, also known as
the Mutiny.  I found in postcolonial literature a re-evaluation of the history
of the mutiny and 
was struck by how much the reconstruction of the mutiny in british eyes was
not very much different from a mythological narrative.  In particular, the
attempts to blow up events - by introducing fantastic tales of sepoys
raping british women and deliberately cutting down britishers who had been
promised safe pasage.  it is the grotesqueness of these stories, that like
a ten-headed demon, that gives myths its staying power
and makes it memorable.  

From the myths come truths - beliefs that guide our lives, such as the myth
of the impossibility of indian self-governance and hence the role for
british rule.  Many Indians also believed this to be the case. 

Thus myths become the truths of our lives.  This is why even a historian
such as Eric Stokes, trained in objectivity, cannot overcome the mutiny
myths, and he on visiting the Sati Chaura ghat, he finds "the air seems
loaded with menace."

Patnaik is also a fine artist, and his pencil sketches of the gods work well
to enliven the story.  Not surprising at all how this book is such a
best-seller.

Excerpts

Introduction

Everybody lives in myth.  This idea disturbs most people, for conventionally,
myth means falsehood.  Nobody likes to live in falsehood...

But there are many types of truths, subjective as well as objective.  Some
logical, some intuitive, some cultural, some universal.  Some depend on
evidence, others on faith.  Myth is truth which is subjective, intuitive,
cultural and grounded in faith.

[In Greek philosophy, mythos, distinguished from logos.  From logos
came science and mathematics; "logic" is etymologically from logos.
mythos gave rise to the oracles and the arts.  Logos explained how the sun
rises and how babies are born.  But it never explained why a baby is born,
why does man exist on earth?  For answers to these we turn to mythos.  Mythos
gave purpose, meaning, and validation to existence.

In sanskrit, myth was mithya, as opposed to sat. mithya was truth seen
through a frame of reference.  sat was truth independent of any
viewpoint. mithya gave a limited, distorted view of reality, sat a limitless,
correct view of things.  Myth was a delusion, open to correction. 2

Myth is essentially a cultural construct, a common understanding of the world
that binds individuals and communities together. This understanding may be
religious or secular.

Ideas such as heaven and hell, angels and demons, fate and freewill, sin,
satan and salvation are religious myths.
Ideas such as sovereignty, nation-state, human rights, women's rights, animal
rights and gay rights are secular myths.
Secular or religious, myths are truths that we live by.

If myth is an idea, mythology is the vehicle of that idea. Mythology
constitutes stories, symbols and rituals that make a myth tangible. Stories,
symbols and rituals are essentially languages—languages that are heard, seen
and performed.Together they construct the truths of a culture.The story of
the Resurrection, the symbol of the crucifix and the ritual of baptism
establish the idea that is Christianity. The story of independence, the
symbol of the national flag and the ritual of the national anthem reinforce
the idea of a nation state.

Mythology tends to be hyperbolic and fantastic to drive home a myth. It is
modern arrogance to presume that in ancient times people actually believed in
the objective existence of virgin births, flying horses, parting seas,
talking serpents, gods with six heads and demons with eight arms.The
sacredness of such obviously irrational plots and characters ensures their
flawless transmission over generations.

The unrealistic content draws attention to the idea behind the
communication. Behind virgin births and parting seas is an entity who is
greater than all forces of nature put together. A god with six heads and a
demon with eight arms project a universe where there are infinite
possibilities, for the better and for the worse.

From myth comes beliefs, from mythology customs. Myth conditions thoughts and
feelings. Mythology influences behaviours and communications.

Myth and mythology thus have a profound influence on culture. Likewise, culture
has a profound influence on myth and mythology.

People outgrow myth and mythology when myth and mythology fail to respond to
their cultural needs. So long as Egyptians believed in the afterworld ruled by
Osiris, they built pyramids. So long as Greeks believed in Charon, the ferryman
of the dead, they placed copper coins for him in the mouth of the dead. Today
no one believes in Osiris or Charon.  There are no pyramids or coins in the
mouth of the dead. Instead there are new funeral ceremonies spawned by new
belief systems, new mythologies based on new myths, each one helping people
cope with the painful inevitability and mystery of death.

It is ironical that for all the value we give to the rational, life is
primarily governed by the irrational.  Love is not rational.  Sorrow is not
rational. Hatred, ambition, rage and greed are irrational.  Even ethics, morals
and aesthetics are not rational.  They depend on values and standards which are
ultimately subjective.  What is right, sacred and beautiful to one group of
people need not be right, sacred and beautiful to another group of
people.

Every opinion and every decision depends on the prevailing myth.  Even
perfection is a myth. There is no evidence of a perfect world, a perfect man
or a perfect family anywhere on earth. Perfection, be it Rama Rajya or
Camelot, exists only in mythology. Yet everyone craves for it. This craving
inspires art, establishes empires, sparks revolutions and motivates
leaders. Such is the power of myth.

This book explores Hindu mythology. Behind the mythology is a myth. Behind
the myth a truth: an inherited truth about life and death, about nature and
culture, about perfection and possibility, about hierarchies and
horizons.This subjective and cultural truth of the Hindus is neither superior
nor inferior to other truths. It is simply yet another human understanding of
life.

ch 1: The circle of Brahma and Saraswati

A Hindu deity may be just a rock in a cave, a tree growing in an orchard, a
river flowing down the plains, a cow wandering in the street, or perhaps an
elaborately decorated idol of stone, clay or metal enshrined in a
temple.Anything can be God. So long as it can respond to the human
condition. In many shrines, deities are given human form merely by placing a
pair of eyes and a pair of hands on a rock. Eyes represent sense organs and
hands represent action organs. This indicates the deity is conscious, sensitive
and responsive. 6

Puja makes gods more personal.There are Ishta-devatas or personal gods,
Kula-devatas or family gods, Graha-devatas or household gods, and Grama-devatas
or village gods. These gods either protected their worshippers or provided for
them.

Protector or guardian gods are usually male. Known as viras, or brave ones,
they are visualized as mustachioed hypermasculine men who ride horses, brandish
swords and spears, kill demons and have the virility to pleasure many
wives. Their images are typically placed at the frontiers of villages, keeping
out the malevolent forces of the forests that threaten the settlement. Ayyanar
is a popular guardian god of the South while Khandoba is well known in the
Deccan Plateau.

 
Khandoba. The folk guardian god of the Maratha community. Like all such guardian gods, Khandoba sports a moustache, rides a white horse and swings a sword. He is identified with Shiva.

[Among the interesting aspects, even for us who have grown up in the midst of
all this, are the vignettes of village religion.]
 
Seven rocks representing seven virgins or seven mothers are found in many parts
of India. Found next to rivers or ponds or lakes, under the shade of neem or
tamarind or lemon trees, they are worshipped mainly by women seeking
children. The seven rocks are never kept in a temple or served by a
priest. They are identified merely by the vermilion powder they are smeared
with.

 
hari-hara: A composite form of Shiva and Vishnu. Shiva, the ash-smeared ascetic, represents the realized soul who withdraws from the world. Vishnu, the gold-bedecked king, represents the realized soul who participates in the world.

The Goddess marries Shiva, the hermit, and makes him a householder. She forces
him to open his eyes and see the mirror in her hand. Not by shutting his eyes,
but by opening them can God see himself. The Goddess is the object, the mirror,
the world. God is the subject, the reflection, the self. Without her, he cannot
know himself. Without him, she has no purpose. Both validate each other’s
existence.

God is spirit; Goddess is matter. God is soul; Goddess is substance. God is
the observer; Goddess is the observation. God establishes artificial values;
Goddess is natural phenomena. God is the divine within all beings; Goddess is
the divine around all beings. One cannot exist without the other. Without
either, there is neither.

---bio
Dr Devdutt Pattanaik studied medicine but decided he loves telling stories
better. He feels stories are like Eclair sweets; if you chew long enough, you
get a burst of chocolate that is locked inside. So rather than working as a
doctor, he decided to write and tell ancient Indian stories and reveal the
idea-chocolate locked within them. He believes these stories are the gifts of
our ancestors. He has been doing this for a long time and even uses the
wisdom of these stories to help businesses. He is currently Chief Belief
Officer of Future Group.