Devdutt Patnaik interacts with FLO-FICCI Ladies Organisation

Hyderabad, July 24, 2019: Devdutt Patnaik, a renowned author known for his work in mythology and interpretations of ancient Indian scriptures, stories, symbols and rituals interacted with FLO-FICCI Ladies Organisation here in the city at Hotel The Park.

Welcoming the gathering Sona Chatwani, Chairperson of FLO highlighted Agriculture initiatives, Custard Apple Farming Project with Tribals in Tandur, Honeybee tearing project etc. She also gave brief about their signature project StyleTatva. It is our dream come true project she added

A medical doctor by training, Devdutt Patnaik has incorporated Vedic knowledge into human resource management. He worked for 15years in the healthcare and pharma industries, before he plunged full time into his passion. A TED speaker, he is an author of 50 books and 1000 columns.

Devdutt Patnaik addressed 200 plus FLO gathering on “Women in Mythology:Challenging Disempowering Interprelations”

Interacting with media prior to the session, Patnaik said, “I will tell them stories about women in our scriptures. I will tell them the stories they have not heard or read”, he told.

Unfortunately most of the stories of the ancient past are only about men and not about women. Somehow, stories about women are consciously avoided.

We need to develop deeper understanding of many great stories of our ancient wisdom.

India has the good repository of oldest Vocabulary, he added.

When his attention was drawn to the Sabarimala controversy, Patnaik said, people are talking about what they heard. Nobody seems to know the facts. Nobody is willing to listen to the scholars. We seem to be believing in more folk traditions. Folk traditions always projected women as inferior to men. And we are blindly following those folk traditions. The so called Gurus who never held a child nine months speak everything about women menstrual cycle. Devdutta Patnaik told people to focus on “Aatma Gyan”.

When asked to explain Atma Gyan, Mr Patnaik said, Atma gyan is nothing but to expand mind to include others.

I have lived in Hyderabad for about 18 months. I used to work with Apollo he said while explaining his connection with the city.

When asked why Indian youth and millennials are shying away from Mythology, he refused to agree and said did you hear a millennial Manu Pillai? he asked.

This Kerala born 29 year old Millennial Manu S. Pillai is an Indian historian and author. He has done lot of work on Indian Mythology. He is known for his debut non-fiction The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore for which he won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in 2017, he informed.

His second book narrates the story of the Deccan from the close of the thirteenth century to the dawn of the eighteenth.

You can’t force saraswathi on children. You can only excite them with your own work. So that they will emulate.

Replying to another question Patnaik said you must read and learn before you speak. Don’t blindly go by what our politicians say or interpret. Unlike Goddess Lakshmi, you have to go afterSaraswathi. The more you follow Goddess of wealth Lakshmi, the more distance she maintains. It is not the case with goddess of wisdom Saraswathi.

When asked to respond on the comments made by President Trump on Modi mediation of Kashmir issue, he refused to be drawn into the issue. I am not a politician. I am only good at Mythology. All I can say is that we are not following western model of governance which is all about command in control. China too has the same where land is owned by unions. In ancient India temple used to be centre thing of governance. Kings never owned land but protected the public property. He told to rediscover Indian model of Governance

Where are Navratnas. We give more importance to Natyashastra, the science of performance. We must focus more on Athashastra.

Commenting on the political set ups in our country he commented that ‘party’ is more important to them than the ‘Rajya’. Self first, party next, nation last for them, he observed.

Asked to comment if he would ever like to plunge into politics he sarcastically commented that politicians won’t know where I belong to. So no politics for me he said.