I immensely enjoyed ‘The Pregnant King‘ and ‘Jaya‘. A lot of things draw me to Dr.Pattanaik’s writings. I have a dispassionate relationship with religion, customs and the concept of God & gods. Most writing on religion reads like a priest’s preaching. I want to read about faith, belief & customs from an objective perspective and not from inside a “You must revere this or DIE!” mindset. All that I’ve read of Dr.Pattanaik’s writing so far, has matched that need. It has been refreshing to read his thoughts and even old stories, expressed without a fundamentalist ‘This is a God so we don’t question anything he/she does.’ attitude. I’m afraid 7 Secrets Of Shiva did not do the same. It was as dry and preachy as the aforementioned religious treatises that I’ve taken much care to avoid.Secondly, the other books I mentioned (Jaya & The Pregnant King) contained a fair degree of the author’s own analysis of beliefs. His articles often carry forward an idea from mythology and apply it to realities of our modern times. But 7 Secrets of Shiva seems to be no more than a collation of several floating stories about Shiva, with no sign of the author’s objective intellect showing.Most notably, every Pattanaik work I’ve read so far has been beautifully illustrated by his own simple, distinctive sketches. I couldn’t find a single one in 7 Secrets of Shiva. Instead the book contains plenty of black and white photographs & paintings. The starkness of this is only compounded by a large font size, the kind you usually see in children’s books. Where is the quality I’ve come to expect from a Pattanaik book?I get the feeling that I’m not the intended audience for this book. Perhaps it is a book for those completely unfamiliar with Hindu mythology and want a ready primer on the Shiva myth. Even so, I would rather recommend a simple Amar Chitra Katha over the dry, heavy tome that is 7 Secrets of Shiva. For the first time in my reading life, Dr.Devdutt Pattanaik disappoints. We all know that the Hindu literature has mentioned lots of deep spiritual concepts and thoughts as symbolic stories. The reason behind depicting God and Godess as humans was to make it easier for us humans to understand these concepts easily.The author has covered such symbolic stories around Lord Shiva and attempted to decipher the meanings. For some people things might look a bit odd but readers must understand that deciphering ancient symbolic stories is not an easy task and it can never be done 100% successfully. However the author has given his logical point of view very convincingly. I agree with some and some raises further questions in my mind. If you are ready to read this book with an open mind then you will not be disappointed. I liked it.
What do You think about Seven Secrets Of Shiva (2012)?
You can connect the dots in the entangled Indian mythology maze.(After reading it)
—laswthrt18
