Mythology, Scriptures, and The Question of Ethics With Sunita Pant Bansal | The Literature Lounge

What is the true meaning of ‘Dharma’? Can the essence of ancient scriptures be captured in translation? And in a modern world, how do we distinguish eternal ethics from religious dogma?
In this profound episode of The Literature Lounge, Mohua Chinappa sits down with Sunita Pant Bansal, a renowned author and scholar of Indian scriptures and mythology. Sunita, who has been writing and interpreting sacred texts since 1989, argues that she doesn’t talk about religion, but the “philosophy of religion.”
She opens up about how her fascination with mythology began with her grandmother’s stories and why she believes a deep understanding of one scripture, like the Bhagavad Gita, can illuminate them all. We tackle the difficult questions: Why do people use scriptures to justify unethical actions? How do we reconcile apparent contradictions in ancient texts? And why is it so important to write about philosophy in the language people actually speak?