 Author Amish Tripathi is a finance professional educated from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta ( IIM @-@ C ) . While working in the insurance industry , Tripathi felt that his life was devoid of any meaning or self . Ultimately he decided to take the spiritual route . He started reading on the different philosophies and the Indian mythologies . One day , while watching a historical program , Tripathi and his family got into the discussion about consciousness and the evil inside man . In the program they learned that in ancient Persia , demons were known as <unk> ( a term reserved for the Gods in Indian mythology ) , and angels were called Asuras ( a term reserved for demons in Indian mythology ) . Tripathi added , " It set me thinking that this was exact opposite of our Vedic etymology where evil was Asura and gods were Devas . It struck me that if the two civilizations were to confront each other , they would be at stark odds and calling each other evil . " But when he decided to write a book about the philosophy of evil , his family discouraged him , saying that the subject itself was not popular and would get a narrow audience . They suggested that Tripathi write a thriller / adventure novel and the philosophy should be a part of the story , hence there would be a mainstream appeal in it . Tripathi felt that no subject was better than Shiva , one of the major Hindu deity and the destroyer of evil ; his journey and stories about him would deliver the philosophy that he wanted to convey , to his readers . Once he started to write a book about Shiva , he decided to base it on some fundamental beliefs of his . He noted that the Hindu Gods were probably not " mythical beings or a figment of a rich imagination " , but rather they were once human beings like the rest . It was their deeds in the human life that made them famous as Gods . 
