India, July 24 -- By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist

Hindu mythology distinguishes between the world and life. The world is all about physics and chemistry. Life is about biology. Life is about hunger and fear. Without hunger and fear, there is no life.

When Biblical God creates the world, it includes the inanimate (sun, stars, land, sea) as well as animate (plants, animals, humans, angels). But in Hindu texts, creation and destruction is all about hunger and fear, the seed of life.

Brahma is the generator of hunger. Hunger is what establishes life, turns an object into an organism. It is what makes the predator seek out food and the prey fight for life. Shiva is the destroyer of hunger, and so the asc...