Book Review – Devdutt’s 7 Secrets of Goddess

First of all thanks to Blogadda’s Nirav ( or Nirav’s Blogadda? ), for the neat and valuable gift – The 7 Secrets of Goddess Book.

Devdutt Pattnaik, certainly adds respect and credibility to the word, ‘myth’. While the external world views Hinduism as chaotic, he provides the rationale behind its faith and gradual evolution. He also does not restrain to point out the issues, like caste and suppressing women, which we, as a society messed up.

The Book analyses how Hinduism symbolises ‘God as Mind’ and ‘Goddess as Nature’. It explains how Hinduism emphasises the philosophy of liberating the Mind by co-existing with nature, rather just chasing materialistic pleasures in a conditional living.

The author points out how Hinduism worship feminine forms without constraints – Be it Goddesses or Gods in female forms or Nature as Goddess – in contrast to the masculine saviours of other Religion. But it also painfully points out how its sensuous and feminine nature slowly subsides during various regimes in accordance to the Religion of the Rulers.

The Book explains how domestication of Goddesses ( essentially means Nature including Women ) gradually happened in our society. It navigates the transformation of Goddess from Kali, a free wanderer in the wild, to much domesticated Gowri, reflecting of changing times of our society and culture.

He also exposes myth ( mentioned in western style ) around Sati and Chastity, weaved by clever Male dominated society and the diminishing stature of Goddess as the society gets more ‘civilized’.

Another beautiful viewpoint is presented on how Hinduism has transformed to survive the challenging times of Rise of Buddhism and other cults, Islamic Rule and Christian Colonisation, so that is more palatable to the external gaze. The evil Sati were abolished as a realization of changing times. But the author laments how the Devadasi system could have been modified rather being abolished. The Book also explains the evolution of the Caste system which still remains though not in potent form as before.

Major strength of the author is how he relates Myths to the current world, which is well elaborated in his Book of Business Sutras. Here, we find quite interesting insights on why the National Leaders are celibate ( atleast for the outside world )

The Book excels at the pointing out symbolic representation of the Goddess with Visuals and Callouts. If you wonder why Saraswati is associated with Shiva, Brahma,Vishnu and Ganesha, you will find the answer here. Is Lashmi is subservient because she is helping Vishnu at his footsteps? not necessarily…nice explanation in this book. What is the difference between Kali, Gowri and Durga? find it here.

The Book has neat representation of Goddesses with easy to read Fonts and nice layout  making it a Page turner.

While the author explains his views in a clear and lucid manner, wonder if the Book could be done better if it is based on an argumentative tone adopted by Malcolm Gladwell unravelling the story knots in a phased conversation with the readers. or like Freakonomics authors, who explain numbers in an argumentative and engaging fashion

Some of the stories could have been more cohesive, like Lakshmi’s functions and symbolism mentioned before explaining her origins. The Book is packed with so much mythology, may be it could have been unravelled in a slower pace rather condensing a story in a sentence.

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