The Palace Of Illusions Quotes
"Like many Indian children, I grew up on the vast, varied, and fascinating tales of the Mahabharat."
"It moves with graceful felicity between the very recognizable human world and magical realms where yakshas and apsaras roam."
"The lifelong struggle between the cousins for the throne of Hastinapur culminates in the bloody battle of Kurukshetra."
"If I ever wrote a book, I would place the women in the forefront of the action."
"The story inspired me to make up fancy names for myself: Offspring of Vengeance, or the Unexpected One."
"It was so quiet, you could have heard a housefly fart."
"A problem becomes a problem only if you believe it to be so. And often others see you as you see yourself."
"The world of the senses and of that which lay beyond them."
"Even in mortal danger, Drupad could not but admire the young man—his poise, his courtesy, his skill at arms."
"Each day I moved further from them into a dusky solitude."
"A king was made to kneel at the feet of a brahmin."
"I wondered how long I would have to wait before destiny brought them into my life."
"She is not helping you to learn. Will she be sitting behind you in your chariot in battle when you need to remember these important precepts?"
"I'd teach them, instead, to be survivors. And why was a battle necessary at all?"
"Your father designed the test to lure Arjun to Panchaal, didn't he?"
"What's the use of being a queen if I'm just a pawn in the game of kings?"
"Perhaps Time was the master player. But within the limits allowed to humans in this world the sages called unreal, I would be a player, too."
"The breath made my mind one-pointed, and I began to glimpse subtleties that had been invisible to me before."
"Love comes like lightning, and disappears the same way. If you're lucky, it strikes you right."
"Earth may break asunder, but I will not forsake you. From this moment, your friends are my friends, and your enemies my bitterest foes."
"It's always been that way. When did the innocent not suffer?"
"Pleasure is simpler, and duty more important. Learn to be satisfied with them."
"If you're wrong in thinking of woman as an innocent species."
"I tried to guess what shape they might take, but here I failed."
"For surely a wife-to-be, who must sever herself from her family and attach herself to her husband's line, has the right to know this."
"An honorable life for the princess as a daughter-in-law of Hastinapur—or a death you force upon her."
"Understand what drove a woman like her. What allowed her to survive when she was surrounded by enemies."
"The honor of family is more important than other kinds of honor."
"You can't teach you that. Love comes like lightning, and disappears the same way."
"I visualized myself as a great queen, dispensing wisdom and love."
"I'd never walked barefoot on common streets, over thorns and stones."
"I didn't wish to hear any more of this story."
"Sometimes I talk too much. If you know what's good for you, you'll put that story out of your mind."
"If it had gone any further, I would have stood against my brother for your sake, even if it made me traitor to my clan."
"My heart ached for both mother and child, because even I who knew so little of life could guess that such things were never done."
"I advise you to forget about love, princess. Pleasure is simpler, and duty more important."
"What use was it to worry about the future, which might take a shape far different from what either Kunti or I wanted?"
"It's the best thing that could happen to you."
"Sometimes the gods give us gifts and ask for nothing back."
"He only reveals his divinity to those who are ready for it."
"You don't know how vindictive Duryodhan can be, or how dangerous."
"Expectations are like hidden rocks in your path—all they do is trip you up."
"Your childhood hunger is the one that never leaves you."
"The current of destiny seemed to have flung us ashore and receded."
"Time is like a flower, Krishna said once. An inner petal would never know the older, outer ones, even though it was shaped by them."
"A wife who holds in her heart desireful thoughts of a man who is not her husband is as unfaithful as a woman who sleeps with such a man."
"The wife is the property of the husband, no less so than a cow or a slave."
"They and not I should be ashamed for shattering the bounds of decency."
"No one can shame you, he said, if you don't allow it."
"I will not comb it," I said, "until the day I bathe it in Kaurava blood."
"A woman doesn't think that way. I would have thrown myself forward to save them if it had been in my power that day."
"The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power, and its weakness."
"All through the history of the world, the virtuous have suffered for causes unseen."
"What is the most wondrous thing on earth? Each day countless humans enter the Temple of Death, yet the ones left behind continue to live as though they were immortal."
"If they were to gain the revenge they'd promised me, they needed to proceed without being racked by the doubt that had awakened in my heart."
"The day I had burned for, lying sleepless on my thorny bed in the forest or pounding sandalwood into powder in Queen Sudeshna's chamber—that day of vindication had finally arrived."
"I watched as Ghatotkacha, Bheem's son by his first wife Hidimba, picked Kunti up and carried her."
"He was more a parent to them than my husbands or I."
"Perhaps there were other lifetimes. But I wanted the satisfaction of vengeance in this one."
"Once I lost my palace, all places—be they mansions or hovels—became the same to me."
"Who we were as individuals was receding to the background."
"What mattered more was that our dear ones were going into danger to fight beside each other."
"Who knows how many men have died already—and yet I'm afraid that their suffering is nothing compared to what awaits all of you."
"Wasn't this what I'd secretly wanted all my life, to know that he was attracted to me, even against his will?"
"We were delighted but dismayed as well. Bheem had violated the most important law of gada-yuddha, hitting Duryodhan below the navel."
"What kind of man would I be if I hadn't kept the vow I made for her?"
"I take care of my own—in whichever way possible."
"If there's sin in what I did, I'll gladly shoulder it for her sake."
"I longed to join them. There was so much I wanted to say and to hear from each of them."
"I swore that I would be a better mother from now on, giving them all the attention they desired."
"A dark thought uncoiled my mind: I who was a major cause of so much destruction had no right to be so lucky."
"I knew what I must do. I shook my companions awake."
"I walked to where they'd laid the bodies... too numb to weep."
"She who sows vengeance must reap its bloody fruit."
"May the earth be rid of the seed of the Pandavas."
"The moment when Panchaali gave up struggling with Dussasan and called on me to save her, in that moment your death warrant was signed."
"I stared into the tangle of branches overhead where I could see a nest of sleeping crows."
"As the two flames coursed along the sky, oceans began to dry up and mountains to crumble."
"I stepped out between the flames and raised my hands. By the power of my penances, for a moment the astras were rendered immobile."
"What end can be more fitting than this for a man who killed his guru when he'd dropped his weapons?"
"You call them mine, and you call the others theirs. For shame!"
"Hasn't this been the cause of your troubles ever since the fatherless sons of Pandu arrived at Hastinapur?"
"The path was narrow and untraveled, cluttered with sharp rocks and choked with snow and slush."
"I reached with my other hand for Karna—how surprisingly solid his clasp!"