Hinduism

"Vasudha’s book is a very short book, and it is magical. She does a fantastic job of using these broad brush strokes to help explain Hindu traditions, that is, from the Indus Valley civilisation to the concept of time. She writes this complex history in very simple terms. It is one of my favourite books for people who are possibly reading about Hinduism for the first time, because every chapter sets the stage for a deep dive. Not everybody wants to do a PhD in Hinduism, and not everybody wants to read a thousand pages, but a majority want to read something that is accurate. She’s a brilliant scholar. She identifies as a Hindu, so it brings her into the scholar-practitioner category. People can read this book on an airplane, and when they land, they can go through the world and not say anything silly. The epics have an enormous role to play. If I have to trace what truly defines the socio-cultural DNA of Hindus, I will go to the epics and not to the Vedas, because the Vedas are so specialised. The two epics are fascinating. They’re very long, and they’re very complex. Authorship is debatable because we know that they were written over several centuries. Even today, the oral transmission is the most fascinating part of these two epics. If we look at the first text, Ramayana , most people know the Valmiki version. And why is that? I believe it is largely due to the comic books that were written by Amar Chitra Katha and then the famous television series Ramayan, based on Valmiki’s Ramayana . Most Hindus are shocked when I say there are more than three hundred versions of the Ramayana . When there are more than three hundred versions, many things can change. Who is a hero, who is a villain? Who is whose daughter, who is whose father? How I understand Ramayana is turning back to where we began: for a Hindu, dharma is very important. What is my duty? For me to understand my duty in the context of oral history, a story needs to be told. And for a story to be told, there has to be an “ultra-ideal.” So, what does an ideal son do? What is an ideal father? What is an ideal mother? How does an ideal wife behave? How does an ideal brother function? What are the signs of an ideal devotee? So we have a hyper-ideal projection on one side in the story, and because it’s a story, and because it’s oral history, and it needs to be performed, we need an ultra-villain character as well. Everything in terms of human persona is in these extremes that are portrayed in the story. Somewhere in this extreme, as a listener, as a receiver of the story, we will by default start identifying with these characters and thinking about where I am in the storyline. That is the power of the story. Even today, Ramayana is performed during Navratri in many parts of the world, including the UK, the US, and pretty much globally. How do I understand Mahabharata ? The Mahabharata is telling us about the complexity of living this life, living the life of the dharma, making tough choices, choices that — on the face of it — will look like I’m going against my dharma. And we know that if I go against my dharma, my karma is absolutely messed up. If my karma is messed up, my rebirth is messed up, the chain is gone. So now, what does it look like when I’m going to live this dharma life? What does every day look like? Am I a perfect being? Absolutely not. I say this all the time. I love shoes; I have a shoe problem. If I have to live a dharma life, an ideal life, and have a shoe problem, how do I put these two together as a Hindu? Mahabharata is that story. It is a plot that, when you start absorbing it, you have to pause and take breaths because it is now portraying human complexity in great detail. The most well-known version is the one by Vyasa. One of the chapters in The Mahabharata is the Bhagavad Gita . This is the chapter between the prince and his charioteer, who will then reveal himself as the incarnation of Vishnu. In this chapter, we find the prince asking, “How can I kill my own cousins? How can I go to battle with my own family? How is this dharma?” In this case, Vishnu, who is understood as a god, will reveal himself and then preach."