NAME : ARYAN

ROLL NO : 2017139

“A boon and a curse” by Devdutt Pattanaik

Why did I choose this book ?

From the very childhood I have been a huge fan of mythological stories
which involves any angle of boon or curse in it, but till now all the
knowledge that I had in this domain was in a very narrative form. So, I
decided to broaden my view on this topic and took a small shot on the book
“A boon and a curse” by Devdutt Pattanaik. We have all heard many stories
in the Puranas wherein due to some incidents the lives of characters or a
particular individual changes drastically because of just one shraap(curse)
or a vardaan(boon). I always wanted to know what these boons or curses
are actually and why the mythological stories are full of them. This will also
help me in thinking of the course in a different perspective.

Synopsys/ My understanding
All human beings have the ability to think because they got mind and are
able to understand the things happening around their environment. They
also raise questions on the things by which they are unsatisfied with and
want to dig more into its existence. All cultural myths in the world have
different explanations on this particular thing. Some say it is because of the
good deeds that human has done in his past life and that’s why when he
dies god gifted him by the body of a human(reincarnation). Others
describes it by saying that is because of the Shaitan(Satan) and many
justifies it by the existence of bhoot(ghosts). Vedas describes that all these
happenings are because of us only. Every karma(action) is just like a seed
we grow and the output depends on how well the seed was grown. In fact,
every action has a reaction. This is reflected clearly in our Indian culture
where if something good or prosperous is done by us, we often come to
hear from our elders or relatives saying that ​“ pichle janmo ke punya ka
 ​ nd on the other side if something wrong is done, we
phal mila hai tumhe” a
again come to hear that “ pichle janam mai jo paap kiye they, ussi ka natija
​ hus many stories have been created till now in this reference so
hai ye”. T
that a common person can understand this philosophy of
“karma-punya-paap” .​

So, the most important aspect at which I came while reading this book was
that it is possible for a human being to grant a vardaan or curse with a
shraap to any other human being, but there is no certainty that whether that
will have any effect or not, there is no logical explanation. We often come
across scenarios where if we are successful in doing a particular thing, we
always hear that ​“ unke aashirvaad se hi ye mumkin hua hai” ​and there are
certain instances where people say to other people like ​“ mai tumhe shraap
deti hu/deta hu etc. etc.” and by chance if they are failed in achieving a
particular thing they blame the people who has cursed him/her. According
to my understanding in some cases a vardaan can be bad and a shraap
can be good. It’s totally dependent on the perspective by which we look at,
for example at what time the boon is good and to whom it is good for etc.
For example, eating fast foods may feel very tasty to someone at once but
in the long term he is going to be ill. On the other hand, someone may not
like eating green vegetables too much but if he will eat, he is going to
develop a healthy body in the future. So, these are the situations which
cannot be judged in isolation. Take this story where Bhishma’s father
grants him with the boon of icchhamrityu(choosing when to die). Bhishma’s
declares that he will not die until all the problems of Kuru clan are resolved.
Now we all know what happened later, the problems seems to be never
ending and he witnesses the birth of his successors and prevented them
from taking place because he wishes to take all the decisions but he
refuses to die. In short, we can say that his boon became a curse for
others.

Till today’s date we have only heard about two things-boon,curse. So, I got
more deep in order to find out that is anything more to it. The basic
question I had was that why is it necessarily meant to be binary in nature
like say “a boon” or “a curse”. Is there anything between, something like
analog in nature. So, the answer is crystal clear and yes it is something
more to it. We all live in kalyug, and as the years are passing people are
losing more of their self control. Everybody says hurtful things when upset.
Even the sinner asks for an apology, the initial pain caused by him on other
might get reduced but it does not disappear. Therefore curses once given
cannot be changed but yes they can be modified later.

The final conclusion is that who decides what is paap and what is punya
which is the basic root of all these boons and curses. The story of Krishna
and Kamsa explains this. In all the mythological stories Krishna is
considered as a hero while Kamsa is seen as a villain. Krishna goes to
Mathura and kills him in a wrestling match. Now, normally an ordinary
person will think it is wrong because killing your own relative is not justified.
But again there will be some people who might think that it is right because
Krishna has killed a tyrant and has done a punya. After reading the book I
think that it was good in the short term but was not so in the long term. So,
according to me it is never clear-cut whether karma is a paap or punya.
One can never be sure whether lord Krishna should be given a shraap or a
vardaan according to the deed that he has done. The world that we live in
today, our karma whether good or bad is not decided by god, not even by a
single person but by the whole society.

I really like the way the author has explained the basic crux of boons and
curses by portraying several stories which helped me in building a better
insight. I can now broaden my perspectives and can think more
philosophically on this subject. It is written in such a way so as to
understand how myths play a significant roles in our lives and how they
have helped us in shaping the norms of the society. I understood that a
good karma,bad karma is nothing but an individual state of mind. It taught
me that at the end it is the human being itself who has the right wisdom to
judge his own deeds. I enjoyed some of the philosophical contexts of the
book very much, which also helped me in changing my morals and taught
me a very useful success lesson. It was ​“ Manushya punya ka phal aur
sukh chahta hai par punya karna nahi chahta aur whi paap ka dukh nhi
chahta par paap chodna nahi chahta isiliy sukh milta nahi hai parantu dukh
bhogna padta hai”.