The wonder of ancient Indian stories

Stories can evoke love, peace, excitement, thrill, joy, anger, pride, resentment, greed, jealousy, gratitude, generosity, lust, creativity, grandeur, despair and redemption. But in the ocean of stories that have been told over the ages, Indian puranas and itihaasas offer that rarest of gifts to the reader – they take him on a voyage of spiritual exploration, one that cleverly reveals the most profound knowledge of the creation and the universe.

The Indian literature and tradition is the longest unbroken chain in known human history. The rishis of ancient India, the greatest scientists of humanity, hid the gems of their invaluable knowledge in stories, anecdotes and historical records. Sanskrit, their lingua franca, is widely regarded as the mother of all languages and the most perfect language ever known to mankind. In the most perfect language, with the most perfect knowledge, the rishis created an immortal tradition of passing the greatest treasure of humanity, their knowledge. I say immortal because the same stories and traditions have been passed down thousands and thousands of years and generations. Even more remarkable is the fact that these traditions and stories were often modified through the influence of different times and attitudes, but their core, the spiritual knowledge, has remained intact and as profound and relevant as they were at the beginning of time.

Unfortunately, as English became the language of the Indian intellectual over the British Raj, and the British began to systematically destroy India’s spirit by purposely mistranslating and misrepresenting our heritage, generations of Indians were bereaved of the true wisdom that had survived all these millennia. (I would recommend a reading of the works of DK Hari and Francois Gautier to explore the facts. You can google their names.)

However, as the wheels of time have turned, we are witnessing a global reawakening of spiritual awareness. A new generation of Indian writers, more adept at English than the original English speakers, are now translating our Sanskrit texts into relevant, everyday prose that can be picked up at most leading bookstores.

Personally, I greatly admire the retelling done by Ramesh Menon. I am a happy and proud owner of his translations of the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Devi Bhagvatam and Krishna. I look forward to picking up a copy of the Shiva puraana once I am done with these.

The Mahabharata by Ramesh Menon comes in two volumes. On its jacket, are the words of Ved Vyas, the original narrator of this Mahakavya, stating that “What is contained herein is everywhere. What is not, is nowhere.” This is probably the best summary that comes to my mind after I went through the volumes, rapt. The epic characters embody every human virtue and flaw. The heroic pandavas, Krishna - the lord himself, the treacherous Kauravas, Karna – the antihero, Kunti, Dhritarashtra, Shakuni, scores and scores of other characters – humans, rakshasa, gandharvas, devas, rishis, yakshas, nagas - seem to live and breathe like they were right here. Reading their conversations and interactions is like witnessing the entire pageantry of human behavior passing before your eyes. The descriptions of the scenes blend astronomy, gemology, physics, philosophy, botany, zoology, architecture, and so many more sciences with poetry and beauty. The narrative sweeps you. The feeling of redemption at the end of the book is amplified by the fact that there is plenty of historical evidence supporting that the Mahabharata actually happened! Even Guruji openly proclaimed it to be true.

The Devi Bhagvatam deals with the most ancient of Indian folklore, tales of the very beginning of creation, of the first races of devas, asuras and men. In its pages, you will find physical descriptions of the events of the creation of the universe, its destruction along with timelines associated for each! It speaks of the hidden divinity that governs existence. The most ancient of mantras are mentioned here. Of course, there are plenty of stories about how the devi destroyed the most powerful of asuras, how the devas lived, along with tales of Vishnu. The sweep of the narrative across eras and characters is enormous.

Krishna delves into Krishna leela, his life story. It is written in a very interesting style with the focus shifting between two different arenas of action – the prakriti, or the circumstances that Krishna lived through - his life story, and the purusha, a description of what Krishna stood for. The purusha aspect is commonly known as the Bhagvat Gita.

I am yet to read Shiva and complete the Ramayana, but I can say that the Ramayana has been an engrossing read so far. Ramesh Menon has preserved the dialogues and has translated them faithfully. He has used his imagination and superb prose to set the pace and backdrops of the stories. The combination is mindblowing.

In a nutshell, his skilful translations have given us an opportunity to enjoy and discover the grandeur and vastness of ancient Indian tales. And they are cracking good reads. Go grab your copies today!