Devdutt Pattanaik Quotes On God, Hinduism, And More
Last Updated on November 9, 2022
Devdutt Pattanaik is an Indian mythologist, illustrator, and writer. He is well known for his famous tv show Devlok on Epic TV channel.
He has written many books on leadership, the relevance of sacred stories, God, and business. He has written more than 600 articles and dozens of books, which have challenged the beliefs and the way people look at mythology.
In this article, you will read 40 amazing quotes by Devdutt Pattanaik which will blow your mind, will give you a new way of thinking and perceiving the world of mythology.
Devdutt Pattanaik Quotes
1. “What the person, who knows the truth, will speak, will not be understood by the person who does not know the truth.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
2. “To be a woman is like becoming a prey, her every move watched by hungry predators. Every glance of man is a violation. No one is spared. No one. Not mother, not sister, not daughter. It is only fear of Dharma that keeps men in check.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
3. “What we possess is temporary, but what we become is permanent.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
4. “Action focussed on intent is better than action focussed on outcome.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
5. “Impatience is the enemy of wisdom; it propels us to jump conclusions, judge and condemn, rather than understand” – Devdutt Pattanaik
6. “When a man praises himself, it is intellectual suicide.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
7. “Truth always hurts the idiot” – Devdutt Pattanaik
8. “In India, the eldest has the most responsibility and the crown goes to him. The crown could go to a person with the most talent. But how could ‘most talent’ be determined? So Indian society settled on age.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
9. “Is not about making the world a peaceful place; it is about us being at peace with the world.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
10. “Mythology is a subjective truth. Every culture imagines life a certain way.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
11. “Those who don’t clarify things disrespect the stupid and assume they are smart.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
12. “Nobody knows why we’re alive; so we all create stories based on our imagination of the world; and as a community, we believe in the same story. In India, every person believes his/ her own mythosphere to be real. Indian thought is obsessed with subjectivity; Greek thought with objectivity.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
13. “Those who work for poor people are of two types: 1. One who hate the rich, 2. One who provide for the poor. Do not confuse the two.
“ – Devdutt Pattanaik
14. “The dog is a loyal, lovable animal but Hindu scriptures do not treat it as an auspicious creature perhaps because loyalty feeds on fear and the purpose of Vedic scriptures is to outgrow fear by expanding the mind.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
15. “You want the world to behave as you wish. It does not, hence your anger and your grief.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
16. “The point of human life is to travel from ignorance to wisdom. In ignorance there is fear. In wisdom there peace and tranquillity.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
17. “Fear is a constant, and faith is a choice. Fear comes from karma, from faith arises dharma.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
18. “That which deludes you to be unhappy can be overpowered by another delusion that causes greater unhappiness” – Devdutt Pattanaik
19. “In Greek mythology, the hero wants to be great, but the very concept does not exist in the Indian vocabulary. Yet it has become the global template. And it’s a template that won’t fit in India.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
20. “Neither death nor wisdom has a full stop. There are only commas-no destinations, only waiting rooms.”
– Devdutt Pattanaik
21. “Medical training taught me the art of breaking down the complex maze of stories, symbols, and rituals into clear systems. You could say that it helped me figure out the anatomy and physiology of mythology and its relevance in a society more incisively. How is it that no society can, or does, exist without them?” – Devdutt Pattanaik
22. “Every human creates his own imagined version of the world, and of himself. Every human is therefore Brahma, creator of his own aham. ‘Aham Brahmasmi’, I am Brahma. ‘Tat tvam asi’, so are you.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
23. “Krishna offers Arjuna two things: what he is and what he has. Arjuna chooses what Krishna is. Duryodhana is happy with what Krishna has. This divide between him and his, me and mine, what one is and what one has, is the difference between seeking the soul and being satisfied with the matter.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
24. “we believe our problems are the greatest and our misfortunes the worst, there is always someone out there who has suffered more.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
25. “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.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
26. “Dharma is more about empathy than ethics, about intent rather than outcome. I follow dharma when I am concerned about your material, emotional or intellectual hunger. I follow adharma when I focus on my hunger at the cost of yours.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
27. “According to Vedic scriptures, God does not ‘create’ this world. He simply made all creatures aware of it. Awareness leads to discovery. Discovery is creation.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
28. “The Ramayana has never been a tale of Ram’s life. It is a tale of how Ram lived for others. By retelling his tale, storytellers hope to inspire themselves and others to live as Ram did.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
29. “Janaka gave his daughters to the sons of Dashratha, saying, ‘I give you Lakshmi, wealth, who will bring you pleasure and prosperity. Grant me Saraswati, wisdom. Let me learn the joy of letting go.’ This ritual came to be known as kanya-daan.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
30. “As long as we cling (moha), we are trapped. As soon as we let go, we are liberated (moksha). We become independent and content in our own company (atma-rati) yet generous and dependable for the other (brahma-nirvana).” – Devdutt Pattanaik
31. “Yoga enables us to be aware of these natural forces of attraction and repulsion, and not be swept away by them” – Devdutt Pattanaik
32. “Krishna’s son, Samba, is portrayed in the scriptures as an irresponsible lout, perhaps to inform us that the child of a great man need not be a great man; greatness is not transmitted through the generations. Every man ultimately makes or destroys his own legacy.”
– Devdutt Pattanaik
33. “The devotee looks at the deity (darshan) and the deity, with large unblinking eyes, looks back; the relationship is ‘two-way’ not ‘one-way’.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
34. “A yogi looks within to appreciate the mind that occupies the body, the thoughts that occupy the mind, the fears that occupy the thoughts, the opportunities and threats that occupy the fears, and the fears of others that occupy those opportunities and those threats.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
35. “As the Puranas remind us repeatedly, after either of the gods or the Goddess vanquishes the asura and Indra gets back his paradise, he goes back to his old ways, feeling entitled and finding joy in material things, getting insecure with yajamanas who do too much yagna and tapasvis who do too much tapasya, unable to enjoy his prosperity as he feels his paradise is under siege, much like successful people in the world today, who think of God only in bad times and forget about God in good times. For them God is all about their own fortune, not everybody’s fortune. For them there is no God within who enables the world without” – Devdutt Pattanaik
36. “I want you to be bhagavan: see my slice of reality, my insecurity and my vulnerability, and comfort me, without making me feel small. You have that potential. So do I. If not you and I, then surely there is somebody else.”
– Devdutt Pattanaik
37. “Refusal to accept the flow of the world is the root of all misery.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
38. “Through Karna, Vyasa reiterates that our knowledge of the world is imperfect based on perceptions and false information. We are surrounded by Kunti’s who hide the truth in fear. We are surrounded by Karnas, villains who are actually brothers.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
39. “Your suffering was repayment for the karmic debt incurred then” – Devdutt Pattanaik
40. “Action focussed on intent is better than action focussed on outcome.” – Devdutt Pattanaik
Conclusion
Devdutt Patanaik’s work is amazing and gives a new understanding and perspective on Indian mythology and its hidden metaphors. These quotes by Devdutt are just an example of his wisdom and knowledge and how he perceives the world.
I hope you found these quotes by Devdutt Pattanaik interesting. The quotes in this article were from his different books like My Gita, Jaya, and Sita.
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