Example sentences: Ramayana: When Rama approached Kaushalya to inform her that he had been exiled, he tried to maintain a deadpan expression; but with her mother’s heart, she immediately sensed that something was terribly wrong. Mahabharata:  While Draupadi was being dishonored, no one in the assembly could stay deadpan; except for a few cheering supporters

Example sentences: Ramayana:  When Rama was sentenced to exile, he faced that adversity with what can be called ‘radical acceptance’. Mahabharata:  The notion that a great warrior Arjuna, the embodiment of masculinity, would take on the guise of a eunuch was so radical that no one would consider that possibility — and that’s what would

Example sentences: Ramayana:  When Shurapanakha saw that Ravana’s reaction to her humiliation by Rama was tepid, she changed tack and started inciting Ravana’s lust by describing Sita’s beauty. Mahabharata: After the exile, when the Pandavas discussed options for regaining their kingdom from Duryodhana, Balaram’s response was tepid — it seemed he had started believing Duryodhana’s

Example sentences: Ramayana: When the giant Kumbhakarna stepped over Lanka’s huge wall to march toward the monkeys, that sight was so bizarre that the monkeys fell back in shock. Mahabharata: The notion that the entire Kaurava army with its galaxy of great warriors could be defeated by a single warrior was bizarre — except if

Example sentences: Ramayana:  Vibhishana, working in tandem with the monkeys, launched a surprise attack on Lanka while the demons were celebrating what they thought was Indrajita’s slaying of Rama and Lakshmana. Mahabharata:  Susharma working in tandem with his brothers diverted Arjuna away from the main battlefield so that Drona could attack the Pandavas using the

Example sentences: Ramayana:  Although thousands of monkeys marched across the bridge, it turned out to be neither friable nor sinkable.  Mahabharata:  The tunnel-maker sent by Vidura noted where the palace floor and the underlying earth were friable, then started making a tunnel from the palace to the forest. Bhagavad-gita:  Whereas the soul is not friable

Example sentences: Ramayana: Vibhishana reminded Ravana that because Hanuman was a messenger, killing him would be a flagrant violation of time-honored diplomatic codes.   Mahabharata:  When six warriors ganged together to kill the sixteen-year-old Abhimanyu, that was the most flagrant violation of war codes in the Kurukshetra war. Bhagavad-gita:  The mind is usually not flagrant in

Example sentences: Ramayana:  Vibhishan insisted that the sight of Indraji’s beheading Sita couldn’t have been veridical; Ravana was too infatuated with Sita to let her be killed. Mahabharata:  For Duryodhana, whether his mystical meeting with the demons was veridical or hallucinatory didn’t matter much; what mattered was that his resolve to win against the Pandavas

Example sentences: Ramayana: When Ravana made comments that were demeaning to Rama, Hanuman decided that enough was enough.   Mahabharata: When Duryodhana insulted Vidura in the presence of Dhritarashtra, Vidura felt that more demeaning than Duryodhana’s words was Dhritarashatra’s silence.  Bhagavad-gita: The notion that life has no meaning is demeaning not just to our intelligence but

Example sentences: Ramayana: When the citizens of Ayodhya heard that Rama had been told to go to the forest for fourteen years, they considered the order draconian.  Mahabharata: The demon Bakasura agreed to let the villagers of Ekachakra live in peace if they met his draconian demand to provide him one human being as his