Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth/Mithya

Seminar paper First draft.

In his book ‘Myth=mithya’, Devdutt Pattanaik has given the word myth a new definition that is “subjective truth expressed in truth expressed in stories, symbols and rituals, that shape all cultures, Indian or Western, ancient or modern, religious or secular’. The Sanskrit word for subjective truth is mithya.

Ancient Hindu sages knew what we today call as myth as mithya. Mithya was the truth seen through the set criteria. Myth is mainly a cultural form, a common perception that bring us together they can be religious and secular. Ideas such as heaven and hell, rebirth, sin, satan, curses, devta and asura and salvation are religious myths. Religious myth make profound impact on one group of people but not everyone. You can either accept them or reject them. Beliefs takes birth from myths, customs and the rituals from mythology. People forget them or outgrow them when they do not fulfill their cultural needs and desires.

Let us take an example of Shiva and Shakti of the most famous couple God of Hindu mythology. Everyone teaches us to be like Goddess Parvati who did the

Shiva is a God pictured as an ascetic. Hair matted, body smeared with ash the remenants of cremated body, he sits naked atop a snow clad mountain, totally incorporated within himself, ignorant of the universe around him. Shiva does not seek the worldly truths he only wants to go after sat, that is the truth that is permanent absolute and unconditional. So he shut himself from the world, memories, desires, ideas, ego and crushes his consciousness. Purification of sub-conscious mind leads to enlightenment. With enlightenment we get the felling of tranquil bliss and extreme happiness. For Shiva there is no desire to sense or respond to worldly requirements. There is no action or reaction. No karma hence no cycle of birth. For him the world has halted, there is no world but only atman. Therefore Shiva is the God who destroys the