By Devdutt Pattanaik
As the word ‘Queer’ which means unconventional or unusual so is this book which is a collection of unorthodox tales from Hindu Mythology.
After reading this book you will realize what seems unusual and unconventional to us in present has always existed in Hinduism since ages but have been overlooked by everyone as we cannot accept our deities whom we bound our heads to, are part of these tales.
Yes, I am talking about those tales of our traditional history where the relationship between 2 men or 2 women, or where a man becoming a woman, or a woman becoming a man were not considered unconventional, were not demeaned, were not looked down upon by the society, rather were well accepted and worshipped at times.
Queer stories are not restricted to Hindu mythology. Arctic regions have a different tale, as per them the first couple on earth were two men, they got married, made love but child conceived could not come out so one of them was turned into a woman. Then Pattnaik has mentioned instances of Aztech mythology, Cuban Santaria mythology, Viking mythology, Ancient Egyptian mythology and all of them have queer stories to tell.
These tales portray a very strong example that why in the present world we consider these relationships as unconventional, unusual when they have always existed in our society; why in today’s world people have to fight for gay rights. The world we live in today is the one where queer people, an umbrella term for gays as Pattnaik rightly said, stay invisible for the benefit of others. And this is one much in contrast to the celebration of queer ideas in Hindu stories, symbols, and rituals. The irony is queer people, queer incidents are oppressed on religious beliefs without realizing that these are not queer and such things have always been existing in our religious stories, folklores be it Hinduism or any other.
Its high time we have to stop objectifying gay relationships and we should learn from our age-old traditional tales, it’s normal and natural for these relationships to exist so let them be, don’t oppress them, don’t choke their voice. They have very equal rights like others.
It's brave of Pattnaik to touch upon this topic and writing a book on these unconventional stories of Hindu mythology in today's era when we have so many religious guardians and right-wingers in society.
However, Pattnaik's way of writing was something I couldn't get in the flow with.
Still, I would recommend this book to know more about so-called unconventional or queer tales that have always been existing in our religions.
This book is full of queer stories. Few of those are:
- Vishnu, who transformed into a woman dancer to enchant an asura and made him burnt to ashes, thus, saving the lives of many including Shiva.
- Rasa-leela, when Krishna and Radha used to dance secretively in the night in the forest outside the village, accompanied by other women who would form a circle around the divine couple. But no men were allowed to join this dance, the only way they could enter was by taking a dip in Yamuna river and allowing themselves to be transformed into women. And Shiva who was so enchanted with the rasa-leela that he wanted to dance on Krishna’s flute and thus took a bath in Yamuna river and transformed into a woman, named Gopeshwara, to dance on Krishna’s flute.
- The king named, Bhagirath, was born of two women. There was a king who had two wives but no children so he begged to rishis for a child and thus rishis gave him a portion which when consumed by his wives, they could get pregnant, but since king died before the portion was ready so as advised by rishis, one wife drank the portion and other wife approached her like a husband and thus, a child named Bhagirath was born.
- Nara and Narayan, twin sages were known for their celibacy and were meditating on the Himalayas. Fearing their power, Indra sent apsaras to seduce them. And when Nara saw these celestial damsels approaching them, he turned to Narayana who painted the image of a beautiful woman on his thigh and thus emerged a nymph more beautiful than all the nymphs sent by Indra and her name was Urvashi as she emerged from thighs(Uru).
Lines I liked the most
- ‘Gender makes no sense in the world of devotion.’
- ‘Don’t imagine the son of God will also be like God. Every living creature is unique, carrying his or her own burden of karma.’
- ‘Maya, delusion produced by desire, makes you forget everything except the pursuit of self-gratification.’
- ‘Life is not a problem to be solved. It is a sight to be seen, and contemplated upon so that we see ourselves truly and eventually open ourselves to joy without seeking change in the world.’
- ‘As long as we let the mind be controlled by fear and transformed into aham(ego), the march of Yuga will continue; this is samsara, the wheel of rebirth. As soon as we unknot the mind with wisdom, then atma(soul) reveals itself and the march of Yuga stops; this is moksha, liberation.’