Top 160 Devdutt Pattanaik Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Within infinite myths lies the Eternal Truth Who sees it all? Varuna has but a thousand eyes Indra, a hundred And I, only two.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

2. “We are not rational creatures who feel; we are emotional creatures who rationalize.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

3. “Refusal to accept the flow of the world is the root of all misery.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

4. “There is no such thing as an objective interpretation.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

5. “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 matter.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

6. “Arjuna, you have control over your action alone, not the fruits of your action. So do not be drawn to expectation, or inaction.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

7. “Mythology is a subjective truth. Every culture imagines life a certain way.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

8. “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

9. “Draupadi learns that both vengeance and justice come at a price. Krishna asks her to forgive and let go. It is difficult. He holds her in his arms and gives her strength. Life is difficult and people are imperfect. Unable to cope with the vagaries of this world, everyone makes mistakes. True love is the ability to love people despite their mistakes.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

10. “Through Karna, Vyasa reiterates that our knowledge of the world is imperfect based on perceptions and false information. We are surrounded by Kuntis who hide the truth in fear. We are surrounded by Karnas, villains who are actually brothers.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

11. “Life is like a river. You can struggle to change its course but ultimately it will go its own way. Bathe.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

12. “Dharma is about exchange, about giving and receiving, It is about outgrowing animal instincts, outgrowing fear, discovering the ability to feed others, comfort others, enable others to find meaning.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

13. “In Hinduism, dharma means realizing our potential: changing ourselves into the best we theoretically can be. What is that? Humans.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

14. “In the absence of conceptual clarity, the dominant emotion is fear, fear of losing opportunities, fear of threats, fear of achievement, fear of abandonment, fear of invalidation. The emotion of fear impacts the way we think and what we believe. It contaminates the filtering of sensations and choice of responses. It creates a vicious cycle where atma is eclipsed by aham, our judgemental self.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

15. “From imagination comes our vision of the world, our vision of our future, and most importantly our vision of ourselves, who we are and what we want to be.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

16. “Neither Sita nor Ram let the forest erode their values. Wherever they go, they hold on to the principles of dharma. They may have left Ayodhya, but Ayodhya never leaves them.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

17. “Even perfection is a myth. There is no evidence of a perfect world, a perfect man or a perfect family anywhere on earth. Perfection, be it Rama Rajya or Camelot, exists only in mythology. Yet everyone craves for it. This craving inspires art, establishes empires, sparks revolutions and motivates leaders. Such is the power of myth.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

18. “Lakshmi massages Vishnu’s feet. Is this male domination? Kali stands on Shiva’s chest. Is this female domination? Shiva is half a woman. Is this gender equality? Why then is Shakti never half a man?”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

19. “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. We knot our imagination with fear to create aham. Tapasya and yagna are two tools that can help us unknot the mind, outgrow fear and discover atma, our true self.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

20. “If you don’t have imagination, you stop being human; animals don’t have imagination; Alzheimer’s is the death of imagination.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

21. “Ramkrishna Paramhansa, the nineteenth-century Bengali mystic, said that the essence of The Gita can be deciphered simply by reversing the syllables that constitute Gita. So Gita, or gi-ta, becomes ta-gi, or tyagi, which means ’one who lets go of possessions.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

22. “Fear is a constant, and faith is a choice. Fear comes from karma, from faith arises dharma.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

23. “In time, Radha became a goddess in her own right, the symbol of sacrifice, surrender and unconditional love.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

24. “God does not hate you, Draupadi. But you are responsible for rejecting Karna on the grounds of caste. A great warrior, he would never have gambled you in a game of dice. You chose a priest instead, who turned out to be a prince, who shared you with his four brothers, but who could not protect you. And so here you are – helpless, humiliated, and alone, in a situation that you inadvertently helped create. Take responsibility for it.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

25. “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

26. “Through her, the Ramayan reminds us that even a victim can be a winner if he or she refuses to surrender to the circumstance.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

27. “Mythology is a vast body of knowledge that has not been tapped.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

28. “The purpose of life is to grow – materially, intellectually and emotionally. Unfortunately, the Kauravas focus only on material growth. By embracing Krishna, the Pandavas are offered intellectual and emotional growth, besides material growth, that has the power to help them break their own self-imposed limitations.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

29. “Who decides what justice is? How does one end this unending spiral of revenge where everyone believes they are right and their opponents are wrong?”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

30. “When we stop loving, we embrace adharma. We judge, condemn and reject people. Invalidate them in hatred. We stop being generous. Like the Kauravas, we become mean-minded, petty, stingy, clingy and possessive. Or like the Pandavas, we become clueless, confused, in search of direction and wisdom. We forget the path to Madhuvan. We entrap ourselves in Kurukshetra.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

31. “Brahmins were essentially transmitters and stewards of Vedic hymns and rituals, not its interpreters or owners. Over time, however, they used their exalted position to dominate society and claim entitlements. It was an irony of history that those who carried knowledge of how to expand the mind failed to expand their own minds, and chose the common path of domination instead.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

32. “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

33. “We are all a combination of what we are born with as well as what we are raised to be. Our natural disposition is known as varna while the cultural indoctrination is jati. Krishna is by varna a nobleman but by jati a cowherd. Though nobleman, he can never be king. Though cowherd, he can always lead.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

34. “Your act of vengeance will achieve nothing but create a spiral of vendetta. Find it in your heart to forgive.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

35. “No event is spontaneous; it is the result of many past events. This is karma. The events in your life are the result of your past deeds, performed in this lifetime or the ones before. You alone are responsible for it.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

36. “The Kamasutra warns that conception with women on top can alter the sexuality of the children conceived.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

37. “As per some Vedic marriage rites, a woman is first given in marriage to the romantic moon-god, Chandra, then to the highly sensual Gandharva named Vishwavasu, then to the fire-god, Agni, who cleanses and purifies all things, and finally to her human husband. Thus, the ‘four men’ quota is exhausted. Clearly this was an attempt of society to prevent Hindu women from remarrying.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

38. “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

39. “This is complete, that is complete, from completeness comes completeness, when completeness is added or subtracted, it still remains complete.’ This.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

40. “Mighty brawn is no match for a nimble brain. Let.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

41. “Impatience is the enemy of wisdom; it propels us to jump conclusions, judge and condemn, rather than understand.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

42. “Your suffering was repayment for the karmic debt incurred then.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

43. “In nature, the strong overpower the weak in order to improve their chances of survival. But in culture, the strong must protect the weak. That is dharma.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

44. “Shiva becomes the destroyer, acquiring strength and inspiration from his consort Shakti, who is both Gauri, radiant goddess of eroticism, and Kali, dark goddess of extermination.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

45. “If Lakshmi brings wealth, then Saraswati brings peace. The two are rarely seen together. Only Ganesha is able to bring them together. He removes the obstacle to wisdom.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

46. “Vedas are the earliest sacred scriptures of Hinduism and are full of abstract hymns containing esoteric concepts. The Puranas were written later and use stories and characters to make those esoteric concepts more accessible.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

47. “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

48. “There is great joy in satisfying oneself,’ said Hanuman. ‘But there is greater joy when we satisfy ourselves by satisfying others. Still greater joy when we do not need satisfaction. And even more joy, when despite not needing satisfaction, we provide satisfaction to others.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

49. “Neither death nor wisdom has a full stop. There are only commas-no destinations, only waiting rooms.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik

50. “The ego is the product of imagination. It is how a human being sees himself or herself. It makes humans demand special status in nature and culture. Nature does not care for this self-image of human beings. Culture, which is a man-made creation, attempts to accommodate it.”

— Devdutt Pattanaik