India, Nov. 17 -- Man is, perhaps, the only animal that can imagine. This is our greatest gift and, at times, our most profound curse. There are no limitations to the worlds we can conjure within the theatre of our minds. We can envision heavens and hells, build cities in the clouds, and converse with gods.

This boundless capacity is the bedrock of all our literary and sacred texts. The epics of old-the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bible, the Quran-are not merely stories; they are monuments to human imagination, where the moral and the mythical intertwine to explain our place in a chaotic universe. They allow us to live a thousand lives and die a thousand deaths, all from the safety of our own minds.

This same faculty allows us to pro...