Devdutt Pattanaik: 21 Days to Diwali

One morning I got an excited WhatsApp message one of the many that try to prove Hinduism is scientific a popular trend seen in religions around the world ever since the scientist began to be taken more seriously than the priest This message had an image of a Google map that showed that the distance from Sri Lanka to Ayodhya could be covered by foot in 21 days the same number of days between Vijayadashami which marks the killing of Ravana and Diwali which marks the return of Ram to Ayodhya This got many people excitedWhen Google Maps says 21 days of walking it means 21 days of continuous walking without resting or sleeping a little detail no one clarified But more importantly did Ram not travel by Pushpak Viman the famous flying chariot of Ravana according to Valmiki Ramayana Was the plane so slow Twentyone days When I tweeted this question both for fun and as a social experiment I was amazed at the range of passionate responsesOn one extreme were people who mocked the idea of the ancient Pushpak Viman sarcastically speaking of fewer fuelling stations and absence of Google Maps They included the immature ones who saw mythology as fantasy and the mature ones who understood it is subjective truth transmitted through metaphorsOn the other extreme were those who simply pointed out with absolute certainty that after killing Ravana Ram had many chores to do coronation of Vibhishana for example and so must have left a few days after Vijayadashami For them the Pushpak Viman was a lost ancient Indian reality like Atlantis Eden and Avalon are for many in the West all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding I suspect many of these people are engineers who need to reconcile science with matters of faith and they cannot handle the gap between physical and psychological realities So deep is the yearning to make mythology into history that they accept even fantasy fiction which aligns with their faith as absolute historical truthThen came the trolls With their foul language They transformed a casual fun tweet into an attack on Hinduism Modi and nation Their outrage enabled them to feel important as they transformed themselves into saviours Most of these trolls emerged at night which means many of them live in the USA and aspire to eventually give up their Indian citizenship and become Americans They demanded I write the same way on Christianity and Islam which clearly means they have never read anything I have written and believed without question the lies of their cult leader a Bharat Mata Tyagi an infamous plagiarist and patriotpretender Cutest were the direct messages that clarified that they really liked my work but wished I did not use the word mythology Surely Ram was realPhilosophers have struggled to explain what is real For Buddhist philosophers even Buddha was not real just a collection of moments frames of temporary experiences created by our senses For scientists it is that which is measurable For a troll it is their cult leaders fantasy For many it is the word of the guru History itself becomes mythology or rather propaganda when we transform historical figures into unidimensional great souls and ignore data that reveals that in the past the great soul was once a racist and even casteistThe author writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times Reach him at devduttdevduttcom