1 Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik (Summary)

2Indian mythology has always been an exciting area for me right from my childhood. I still remember the
3excitement of families during 90s, watching together Mahabharata and Ramayana on newly introduced
4big screens, and discussing its intricacies with the golden-agers. Devlok by Devdutt Patnaik, meticulously
5touches this sweet spot of my interest area. This is further braced by the well documented and simple
6language used by the author. The conversational form of writing adds freshness to the reading
7experience. Feels like having a live one on one with Devdutt Pattanaik. And the way he explains concepts
8by connecting them with real life examples is simply marvelous. It’s an effort by the author to explicate
9the rationale behind the Hindu rituals, beliefs and traditions without imposing the religion on you.

10The striking reason for the enormity of this book is the way it brings out Hinduism, not as a religion, but
11as an ideology or a way of life. And when you start relating this with your experience, it strikes the
12golden buzzer. One of the excerpt from the book which I really liked was the author’s reasoning for not
13having temples of ‘Lord Indra’. He connects this with the paradigm shift in the society from vedas to
14puranas 2000 years back. During the vedic time the concept of idol worship did not exist. People use to
15chant mantras to acknowledge the power of the nature (such as Indra, Surya etc.) in the form of shlokas.
16These shlokas were hard to crack and hence difficult to be passed on to general public. It was limited to
17the ones seeking the knowledge and hence not that effective. This uncovered the need to shift from
18these traditional shlokas to storytelling in simple, regional languages. This was the age of the Ramayana
19and Mahabharata. These stories successfully conveyed the social messages in a plausible manner.
20Interestingly, they also introduced the concept of considering heroes from stories (such as Krishna, Ram
21etc.) as godman. In this shift, while we had new Gods that we started worshipping, acknowledging
22nature got limited to just the yagnas. As the author explains this, he also leaves the readers with a food
23of thought on whether we should even argue on the Ramayana and Mahabharata as imaginary. The
24main motto of these epics was not presenting a fact, but to popularize the ideology among the common
25crowd. He subtly expresses his concern on the diminishing richness of Hindu mythology because of the
26over-aggressiveness and selective agenda driven preaching by misinterpreting of these epics.

27For me this book was worth investing time and getting curious with the nuances of the one of the oldest
28religion of the world. It induced in me a curiosity to learn more about the reasoning for each of the
29rituals at my home. The importance of the Vastu Shastra or the Jyotisha Shastra , ceremonies and
30offerings during every puja at my home etc. are topics that for sure I took away with me as areas to
31explore and question. The book is definitely informative and successful in its endeavor. One suggestion
32that I would have for this book would be to depict some of these stories pictorially, which would have
33enabled the author to connect more closely with the audience. Having said so, the Q&A format is
34extremely useful. Also the author has efficaciously preempted all the follow up questions from the
35reader and tried to explain them upfront. The chapters are short and hence do not challenge the
36attention time span of the reader, which additionally makes this a good read.

37In summary, I would definitely recommend this book to those who seek logical answers to the
38mythological questions, rituals and ideologies.

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