What is a myth and how it is significant. Why rationality is limited and the nature of eternal truth is difficult to comprehend with our current set of values. The limitation of language: what we think and observe is dictated by the language we speak and language is imperfect! How can we even aspire of fitting a perfect world into it.

For eg, if we had an efficient language: when we could speak more with limited words, our thoughts would have been more productive. The stories, rituals, visuals through which we try to understand what would have been impossible otherwise.

The universe was not created, we just became aware of it.

The moment the question: Who am I is asked, the universe is created, and it is created several times in a moment.

Brahma:

The notion of creator is embodied in brahma. When a seeker seeks to understand universe, he/she creates universe. A world devoid of any allurements and in the most basic form.

Saraswati:

The world, in which all answers lie. Embodiment of eternal knowledge. Saraswati has been always there, before even Brahma.

God:

The container of all things. The world is a manifestation of the God. There is no good and evil. No morality and values. They are required to just sustain a civilized society. When everything is God, everything is acceptable, everything can be a window to the God as everything symbolizes divinity and his/her creation. The ability to see beyond what is visible, get above right and wrong, deriding ourselves of the evolutionary and subconscious knowledge we have gathered, is enlightenment and it is achieved by Tapasya.

A random thought: When we take awe at how all the creation fits into the laws made by us, as we call them natural sciences, is there not a possibility that creation molds itself to fit into our scheme of things? To sustain our illusion of the reality, all our experiments show consistency, predictions match results.

Through the sail of time and unfateful events, the knowledge, which was generally transmitted orally to the generations , was lost in oblivion. What remained were the rituals and the practices, without their underlying significance. These too were obliterated in due course of time by a series of invasions, multiple infusions of foreign culture and the advent of Industrial and Information ages. Now what different authors and so called interpreters of the religion try to do is reverse engineering. We try to understand through myths , stories, rituals to understand why were they even created. We are trying to remove the layer of abstraction.

This book attempts to decode the stories, notions, characters and rituals in Hinduism and gain an insight, however vague it may be , of the eternal truth they were trying to represent.

God and Goddess

The concept of duality; the relation between subject and the object. If God is Brahma, then knowledge is Saraswati. Without either, there is neither.

Devas and Asuras

The regenerators and redistributors of the wealth. Devas are guided by Brihaspati: Who is balanced and rational. Asuras are guided by Shukra, who has one eye, imbalanced and has creative intuition. Both represent facets of mortals, and in several ways, complement each other. One side lives above the skies: air, clouds, rains, etc and the other side live beneath the earth. The Asuras are the keepers of earth's bounty. They know the fertility. Devas redistribute the wealth generated by the earth.

Association of Lakshmi with Alakshmi, Amrita with Vish, Devas with Asuras, Waxing and Waning moon, etc. is an attempt to drive home the idea that happy times are accompanied with bad times. Those ho ignore the other side, suffer.

The lemons and chilies:

Alakshmi is linked to misfortune, strife, poverty, pungent and smelly things. Once a merchant was asked by the twin sisters that who is more beautiful. The merchant answered; Lakshmi is beautiful when she enters a house and Alakshmi when she leaves. For this, sweet and fragrant things are kept inside the house and lemons and chilies are hanged outside the house.