India, Aug. 27 -- By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist

The Rig Veda praises the gods. The priest composes beautiful hymns, asks for cattle, sons, victory, rain. The relationship is simple: human below, god above, prayer going upward. The Atharva Veda works differently. The priest does not pray. He acts.

The Rig Vedic world is fundamentally ordered. The gods maintain that order. The priest's job is to acknowledge it correctly through hymn and sacrifice. The Atharva Vedic world is full of threats. Disease, enemies, sorcerers, evil spirits, the hostile intentions of other people. Order is not the natural state. It has to be made and defended, constantly, by someone who knows how.

The practitioner who does t...