Shyam: An Illustrated Retelling of the Bhagavata

by Devdutt Pattanaik

Krishna embodies the enlightened householder: he who lives as a householder but thinks like a hermit, is engaged in everything but possessive of nothing.

This is a superb balance. Approaching material life within a spiritual context. This way the divine takes precedence over the mundane. The creative guides and takes precedence over the routine. Life takes precedence over Living. Lovely thought.

‘All villains are essentially victims, my sons, if only we hear their story. The horrid Kamsa of Mathura was a child born of rape, cursed by his own mother who killed herself rather than raise him. The tyrant Jarasandha of Magadha was cast out at birth,

as he was thought to be dead. Such children, born in trauma, cannot be normal. They will always see the world as a threat.’ Nanda then hugged his two boys. ‘You are raised in love. Made to feel safe and wanted. You must never see the world as a threat. More importantly, you must never make the world a threat for others.’

In the Ramayana, Ram kills Indra’s son Vali for the sake of Surya’s

son Sugriva. This is reversed in the Mahabharata when Krishna helps in the killing of Surya’s son Karna for the sake of Indra’s son Arjuna. These stories depict the rivalry between two Vedic gods for supremacy: the sun god (Surya) and the rain god (Indra).