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7 Secrets Of Vishnu (The 7 Secret Series, #2) (2011)

by Devdutt Pattanaik(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 6

ISBN

9380658680 (ISBN13: 9789380658681)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Westland Limited

review 1: This is yet another wonderful book by Devdutt Pattanaik. It clearly highlights the various stories that were created, or existing truths that were embellished to drive through a number of important aspects of the way of life. What is also interesting is that these stories were created to combat the rise of other religions that focused on the practical way of life. This is more a political move than spiritual and can be construed as unfortunate. By correctly identifying that stories are easier to grasp and follow, than rules (written or oral), our elders hoped to instill the best values in the system. However, this book (and others such as the brilliant Yuganta) start to begin underscoring my overall perception that the way of life called Hinduism has been interjected wi... moreth an innumerable array of gods and goddesses. It is ironic that the more books I read on God, the more I start to believe that the ultimate aspect of salvation is a way of life rather than a belief in God. The confusion increases ever more unfortunately.
review 2: This book, talks about various things related to Vishnu. As a series, I feel like reading the "7 Secrets of Shiva" as well because depictions of Vishnu cannot be fully understood without understanding those of Shiva. By explaining the difference between the two major deities who have been worshipped throughout India, albeit in different fashions and at different occasions, a more complete picture of the cultural-spiritual-social-scientific amalgamation which is known as just a religion today is attempted to be exposed by the author.I would recommend this book to people interested in Hindu Mythology, be it Hindus or not. Hailing from Brahmin family, I grew up on lots of myth and got to know many faces of it by repeatedly exposing my understanding of the ancient life in this subcontinent to harsh treatments. I had pre conceived notions about this book, assuming it to be milder to my understanding.Many arguments and explanations by the author weren't to my liking, and some took time to process and accept, some were completely sensible explanations for mythical beliefs which I hadn't thought of previously.But nevertheless, the ideas and concepts put forward by the author has caught my attention and imagination. My own existence is being used, as usual to validate the claims. The contents were somewhat irritating to me at the beginning, but later on the flow became smoother and I could see where the author was leading.There is not much of a controversial stuff in here worth mentioning about. I am not sure if the author sensibly left them out, given the close to zero tolerance policy of Indian religious 'stakeholders'. It could have had more masala, not the artificial ones, but the natural ones are enough. And I know there is enough masala in the Indian mythology to fuel communal wars for a century if used strategically. To summarize, to me, this book brought me closer to my own line of thoughts and doubts about various things related to God,beliefs,history of India, the social order, my own lineage,my own existence and beliefs etc. It was a sort of refresher and now I have specific interesting stuff to dig out from archives :)4.2/5 for lovers of Vishnu and/or lovers of Indian mythology. less

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