India, April 16 -- By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist

Gauri is Mrs. Shiva. Lakshmi is Mrs. Vishnu. Sita is Mrs. Ram. But Radha is not Mrs. Krishna. Everyone knows that. We just do not openly talk about it. Thus, Hindu mythology makes us realise that relationships cannot be standardised. Life is complicated and we are non-gendered souls wrapped in gendered bodies who long to be witnessed.

Those who truly witness us may not have the body we expect them to have. So Shiva, the hermit, has a princess for a wife. She is his second wife. His first wife, Sati, was a priest's daughter. She was angry with him and her father. She had to transform herself, become the mountain maid, to reconcile the two men in her l...