Nainital: With West Asia locked in a conflict and drones and missiles taking over the skies, a session at the Nainital Literature Festival, featuring mythologist and author Devdutt Pattanaik, pondered a question: Do gods love war or peace?
Pattanaik, who was in conversation with astrologer Shalini Modi in Charkhet on Friday, began by highlighting how the depiction of gods has changed over the years.
“In posters these days, in Ram Navami or Diwali, everywhere they show Ram shooting an arrow. No sign of him with his wife, with Hanuman,” Pattanaik said.
Pattanaik’s session proved to be a crowd puller, as speakers, authors, volunteers, and school students, who had earlier crowded around the food stalls, began to fill the seats, making it a near full house.
“Kind images of gods are disappearing, and angry images are appearing,” he said.
The mythologist said that such depictions are inspired by Marvel and DC comics and that they are the work of those who have never read the scriptures, eliciting a nod from Modi, who is an enthusiast of Indian scriptures and has authored several books on spirituality and mythology.
Also read: Ram wasn’t always top god in India. Political chaos, conflict with Turks elevated him
Bollywood’s depictions
Pattanaik pointed out how every God has a musical instrument, Krishna’s flute to Saraswati’s Veena, but people choose to ignore that.
Portraying gods as angry is inaccurate, he said, since only “helpless people get angry, and gods aren’t helpless”.
“This is 21st-century Hinduism that is being promoted. It is some sort of a cult that has emerged. These come and go”.
He had a bone to pick with Bollywood, too.
“It is more interested in showing Ram as a vegetarian,” said Pattanaik, stressing that one should gain a deeper understanding of the scriptures and focus on the consequences, the aftermath of the Mahabharat or Ramayana.
Also read: Missionaries saw Hindu gods as monsters & representations of Satan: Manu Pillai
How not to be a Bakasur
The second edition of the Nainital Literature Festival, scheduled from 13 to 15 March, brought together a diverse array of speakers—from food historian Pushpesh Pant, actor Nagesh Kukunoor, businessman and columnist Suhel Seth, to former parliamentarian Subhashini Ali.
Pattanaik gave a form to modern-day Bakasurs at the event—billionaires and powerful people.
They are greedy monsters who would even eat the people who feed them.
“The richest and the most powerful people I have met are also the unhappiest and most miserable,” said Pattanaik.
Pattanaik went on to say that it’s a lie that money can bring happiness. “A whole generation of people have been lied to. Becoming successful doesn’t guarantee joy and satisfaction”.
On being asked how not to end up like a Bakasur, Pattanaik emphasised the importance of showing compassion to others.
“We are living in a world where people are justifying genocide. We tell our children to be ambitious, but don’t tell them to become compassionate. We are proud when children become ambitious, and we are happy when they start behaving like psychopaths”.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)