It is 2 a.m. I kid you not, yet I am going write this blogspot because for days I didn't get the #BoycottPK and the hype behind it, now I do.
Disclaimer:
This is not a spoiler. No, I will not reveal essential details about the movie. Spoilers I think are equivalent to a crime. Somewhere on the lines of Infringement, Plagiarism and Theft. What a spoiler does is: One, essentially 'spoils' it for a person who hasn't watched the movie, read the book or seen the show. You literally take away that joy, pain, agony, depression, disbelief etc emotions that Art in the form of literature or cinema allow you to experience. Even if it is negative emotion. It's all part of the process of accepting Art. Two, It essentially ruins the effort that actors, writers, editors, light-dada (lights-guy), make-up artist, producer, director, tea-guy, umbrella-guy and everyone other person who is related to the making of the movie, play, book etc. How? Well, say I spoil something for 3 people, that is -3 on the list, 3 people who will never fully completely enjoy the moment all those people worked to provide. Because now they either know what happens completely of partially. Latter being worse as it makes unrealistic scenarios arise in the viewers mind which always lead to disappointment like all over thought expectations. Why would you steal that experience from someone and why would you let the work of so many people go to waste? That is just cruel. Also, Third, It leads to cold wars. Like Peace is the way. I know as much as the butterflies flutter in you tummy, just keep it in.
That was a long Disclaimer. I can never be a disclaimer writer now. I m sure you have slept already. Okay wake up. This is going to get interesting. I think.
So. Yes. Let's do this.
My mother has been a part of The Art of Living foundation for a long time now. 6-7 years I guess. Initially, I was extremely skeptical about the whole foundation thing. Why? Well, if you live in India, you will know the amount of corruption that exists and the maniac faith that Hindus have, or wait that most religion followers have. Faith keeps you going. Faith gives one hope. Faith is a good thing. But God or the creator gave us a logical and reasoning brain, so we question. Questioning is good too. But when everything fails, questions can't be answered, faith in time, faith in a superpower, faith in whatever you like is the way to go. Faith teaches you patience. For me, faith without logic makes no sense. Back to it, so Corruption + Harmful level of faith, the WORST combination of this gives us those corrupt baba's, people who make a living out of telling people lies and playing with the beautiful human faith. This also leads to unnecessary sects formed per religion from the already chaotic concept of religion. And with sects, comes disagreement, which perpetuates hate in most cases. Perpetuating hate was that one thing religion was trying to prevent, and there we have it, utter chaos.
Now, in the movie, there is a portrayal of dhongi-baba or a corrupt faith player. There is a mention of gratitude to the foundation in the beginning. So, I thought to myself, if the founder or the foundation had anything to hide or wanted more followers, why would the agree such filming to be done in their Ashram? Answer is simple, the Guruji I have observed over a period of 6 years, doesn't really care about the followers or the fame. He is the most chill guy who wears white, has read a lot of religious scripture yet likes to promote secularism and oneness. He holds satsangs once everyday where people sing positive vibe-d music and can dance to it like no one is watching. He prays a lot and does a lot of meditation, promotes Yoga and meditation only to help decrease the overall stress of this stressful world. He helps orphans, children, youth, poor, rich and old people. He likes social work. I am not too sure about the other foundations like this, because seeing is believing and I haven't been able to witness others. Yeah, so if it is for the overall good and betterment, why not? So that. End of story. People can over analyze it all they want. The overall concept of the true meaning of God and portrayal of secularism and religion was so good that it doesn't matter that the producers chose this particular Ashram to film. That. Take it easy Art of Living people, Guruji knows his thing well.
So now that I have got the whole Ashram thing out of my system, I can proceed to the actual thing. God, Religion and What.
What is God? Who is he/she? Or is it an 'it'? Appearance? Residence? Any other distinct features?
Arvind Adiga wrote in his book 'The White Tiger', There are 36 million and 4 gods. I think there are more, but for reference we shall settle to that. If I ask my Mom, she will say, God is within us in our heart. And, honestly speaking, she kind of is right. In my most desperate times, I talk to God, or rather talk to myself. Desperate to be noted. I also talk to 'God' when I am alone, when I am extremely happy and all that. So basically for me, God is like a buddy, who I can talk to without setting bars or norms. Be my true self with.
The thing is, we humans are like clay. Stresses act on us. Like when put into a mold we turn into something beautiful. Sometimes we get kneaded, rolled and life seems terrible then. Usually the 'stress' is a circumstance or an action or a reaction like the mold or the act of rolling and kneading. Think about when you are waiting to be put into the mold. Waiting for the kneading and rolling to get done. Waiting to be picked up by the curious kindergarten child to be turned into a work of art.
During that 'inter-phase' of life. When the DNA, RNA, essential enzymes and organelles are synthesized and duplicated, what do we do? What do we do in the inter-phase of life? We wait, but we think. We think about the part, present and the future. The could, would and should have or be. The uncertainty is too overwhelming for that 1.3 kilograms of pink, gooey, directly consuming glucose, thinking, reasoning and processing organ of ours. The inter-phase of life is too overwhelming. It is scary. We can't have someone else face it for us. We do it alone. Being lonely is scary sometimes. It is life. This is that beautiful phase where Faith and Hope are also synthesized.
When humanity began, language and understanding was developed, one person transformed their faith into a person that they could talk to. Another to a pillow they could rest on. Different interpretations and hence different faith. The level, kind and extent of faith is highly subjective. Overall idea remains same. When a bunch of humans, have a similar rough outline of their faith, Religion is formed. This leads to customs and traditions and hence religion becomes what we know it now as.
We often fail to understand that Religion is not completely defined by it's customs and traditions. It is more fundamentally defined by Faith. And faith is the same thing for everyone, just of different levels, forms, kinds and extent of it. That is what differentiates different Religions.
My ancestors liked cows for the milk it gave and they loved it, you don't murder something you have an emotional attachment to. The cow's milk was sold and they could buy food for survival due to that. The cow was hence a blessing, God resides in the cow. When no one else could help. The cow did. God is Cow, Cow is God. So they became Brahmins. Whereas, Jessica's ancestors were Hunters and Gatherers. On a day they were very hungry ,when they had no food, a cow appeared that was killed and eaten. The meat filled their empty stomachs. When there was no food, that cow appeared. They ate meat, they hence over a period of time molded into Christians or Muslims or whatever.
Some wise person said, Religion is the way of life, they were right. We choose to eat meat or not, eat before sunset or break the fast after sunset, write our holy books in Sanskrit or Latin or Arabic or whatever we feel like communicating with etc. These little things we do in life, the way we live our lives, shape our faith and hence decide our religion.
We are NOT born with a stamp from a certain religion. Our parents like they pass on their genes, pass on their faith. We grow up choose to follow it or not and pass on something we like, to our children. It's all about how one individual wants to live their life and what they want to propagate.
Now I like Dogs. But someone can like cats. That doesn't in anyway mean that I must or they must impose what we like upon the other. Yes, I will talk about why I love dogs and why I prefer them over cats and why I can't emotionally connect to cats. But as a fellow human being I require you not to get offended and vice versa. When I talk about all that, it is my view. I don't mean to undervalue yours. I might not agree with it, but I accept it.
Non-Acceptance to someone not liking the same things. Not accepting the others decision. Not attempting to understand the other views. Being stupid and hurting the other by unintentionally imposing what you love because you have a deep passion for what you. This is what leads to misunderstanding and eventually hatred. This is the reason why Hindus and Muslims don't get along. We are both too busy trying to prove that what we believe is better than the other. This is why Jews and Christians couldn't coexist, because what one thought was that what they believed was higher or more superior than the other. We need to stop over analyzing and over doing things. Beneath that turban, moustache, beard, burqah, dupatta, saree, dress, pants, pyjamas, cross, Om etc we are all the same. We were all broken and we all found our kind of faith to fix are brokenness.
This movie beautifully shows, how God is a concept that keeps us going. It's okay to believe in God. It is also okay to follow a religion. Everything is fine. But when we have wars and terrorism that rises from religion we need to revisit our faith and solve the problems. Religion was meant to be positive, faith is a positive word. Why are we negating it?
Why do we bomb other countries? Why do we look down upon inter-caste marriages? Why do we act so judgmental when we see a brown man or a woman in burqah or the Fernandez family that lives down the lane?
Humans are judgmental self-righteous pricks. We need to fix that. It's human nature. But we can at least reduce it so as to coexist in peace. Indo-Pak doesn't have to be an 'Oh My God' affair. We can all celebrate or rest on the abundance of holidays. This movie is a MUST watch. It teaches us how to understand what is actually wrong, take yourself out of the system. To someone who doesn't know what religion is, what sense does it make and what would they do with the current issue. It makes you think about meaning of life, love, faith, religion etc, which is extremely essential in today's world. We need a perspective, and this movie helped me get one.
That's the thing about Art, it touches you in ways you wouldn't even imagine.
Faith caused Religion. Religion was misunderstood and propagated negatively to instill hate.
Faith started it right? Faith will make it alright too.
That's what we do in life's' inter-phase right?
Have faith.
Yes. Keep that faith. :)
Fin.
Disclaimer:
This is not a spoiler. No, I will not reveal essential details about the movie. Spoilers I think are equivalent to a crime. Somewhere on the lines of Infringement, Plagiarism and Theft. What a spoiler does is: One, essentially 'spoils' it for a person who hasn't watched the movie, read the book or seen the show. You literally take away that joy, pain, agony, depression, disbelief etc emotions that Art in the form of literature or cinema allow you to experience. Even if it is negative emotion. It's all part of the process of accepting Art. Two, It essentially ruins the effort that actors, writers, editors, light-dada (lights-guy), make-up artist, producer, director, tea-guy, umbrella-guy and everyone other person who is related to the making of the movie, play, book etc. How? Well, say I spoil something for 3 people, that is -3 on the list, 3 people who will never fully completely enjoy the moment all those people worked to provide. Because now they either know what happens completely of partially. Latter being worse as it makes unrealistic scenarios arise in the viewers mind which always lead to disappointment like all over thought expectations. Why would you steal that experience from someone and why would you let the work of so many people go to waste? That is just cruel. Also, Third, It leads to cold wars. Like Peace is the way. I know as much as the butterflies flutter in you tummy, just keep it in.
That was a long Disclaimer. I can never be a disclaimer writer now. I m sure you have slept already. Okay wake up. This is going to get interesting. I think.
So. Yes. Let's do this.
My mother has been a part of The Art of Living foundation for a long time now. 6-7 years I guess. Initially, I was extremely skeptical about the whole foundation thing. Why? Well, if you live in India, you will know the amount of corruption that exists and the maniac faith that Hindus have, or wait that most religion followers have. Faith keeps you going. Faith gives one hope. Faith is a good thing. But God or the creator gave us a logical and reasoning brain, so we question. Questioning is good too. But when everything fails, questions can't be answered, faith in time, faith in a superpower, faith in whatever you like is the way to go. Faith teaches you patience. For me, faith without logic makes no sense. Back to it, so Corruption + Harmful level of faith, the WORST combination of this gives us those corrupt baba's, people who make a living out of telling people lies and playing with the beautiful human faith. This also leads to unnecessary sects formed per religion from the already chaotic concept of religion. And with sects, comes disagreement, which perpetuates hate in most cases. Perpetuating hate was that one thing religion was trying to prevent, and there we have it, utter chaos.
Now, in the movie, there is a portrayal of dhongi-baba or a corrupt faith player. There is a mention of gratitude to the foundation in the beginning. So, I thought to myself, if the founder or the foundation had anything to hide or wanted more followers, why would the agree such filming to be done in their Ashram? Answer is simple, the Guruji I have observed over a period of 6 years, doesn't really care about the followers or the fame. He is the most chill guy who wears white, has read a lot of religious scripture yet likes to promote secularism and oneness. He holds satsangs once everyday where people sing positive vibe-d music and can dance to it like no one is watching. He prays a lot and does a lot of meditation, promotes Yoga and meditation only to help decrease the overall stress of this stressful world. He helps orphans, children, youth, poor, rich and old people. He likes social work. I am not too sure about the other foundations like this, because seeing is believing and I haven't been able to witness others. Yeah, so if it is for the overall good and betterment, why not? So that. End of story. People can over analyze it all they want. The overall concept of the true meaning of God and portrayal of secularism and religion was so good that it doesn't matter that the producers chose this particular Ashram to film. That. Take it easy Art of Living people, Guruji knows his thing well.
So now that I have got the whole Ashram thing out of my system, I can proceed to the actual thing. God, Religion and What.
What is God? Who is he/she? Or is it an 'it'? Appearance? Residence? Any other distinct features?
Arvind Adiga wrote in his book 'The White Tiger', There are 36 million and 4 gods. I think there are more, but for reference we shall settle to that. If I ask my Mom, she will say, God is within us in our heart. And, honestly speaking, she kind of is right. In my most desperate times, I talk to God, or rather talk to myself. Desperate to be noted. I also talk to 'God' when I am alone, when I am extremely happy and all that. So basically for me, God is like a buddy, who I can talk to without setting bars or norms. Be my true self with.
The thing is, we humans are like clay. Stresses act on us. Like when put into a mold we turn into something beautiful. Sometimes we get kneaded, rolled and life seems terrible then. Usually the 'stress' is a circumstance or an action or a reaction like the mold or the act of rolling and kneading. Think about when you are waiting to be put into the mold. Waiting for the kneading and rolling to get done. Waiting to be picked up by the curious kindergarten child to be turned into a work of art.
During that 'inter-phase' of life. When the DNA, RNA, essential enzymes and organelles are synthesized and duplicated, what do we do? What do we do in the inter-phase of life? We wait, but we think. We think about the part, present and the future. The could, would and should have or be. The uncertainty is too overwhelming for that 1.3 kilograms of pink, gooey, directly consuming glucose, thinking, reasoning and processing organ of ours. The inter-phase of life is too overwhelming. It is scary. We can't have someone else face it for us. We do it alone. Being lonely is scary sometimes. It is life. This is that beautiful phase where Faith and Hope are also synthesized.
When humanity began, language and understanding was developed, one person transformed their faith into a person that they could talk to. Another to a pillow they could rest on. Different interpretations and hence different faith. The level, kind and extent of faith is highly subjective. Overall idea remains same. When a bunch of humans, have a similar rough outline of their faith, Religion is formed. This leads to customs and traditions and hence religion becomes what we know it now as.
We often fail to understand that Religion is not completely defined by it's customs and traditions. It is more fundamentally defined by Faith. And faith is the same thing for everyone, just of different levels, forms, kinds and extent of it. That is what differentiates different Religions.
My ancestors liked cows for the milk it gave and they loved it, you don't murder something you have an emotional attachment to. The cow's milk was sold and they could buy food for survival due to that. The cow was hence a blessing, God resides in the cow. When no one else could help. The cow did. God is Cow, Cow is God. So they became Brahmins. Whereas, Jessica's ancestors were Hunters and Gatherers. On a day they were very hungry ,when they had no food, a cow appeared that was killed and eaten. The meat filled their empty stomachs. When there was no food, that cow appeared. They ate meat, they hence over a period of time molded into Christians or Muslims or whatever.
Some wise person said, Religion is the way of life, they were right. We choose to eat meat or not, eat before sunset or break the fast after sunset, write our holy books in Sanskrit or Latin or Arabic or whatever we feel like communicating with etc. These little things we do in life, the way we live our lives, shape our faith and hence decide our religion.
We are NOT born with a stamp from a certain religion. Our parents like they pass on their genes, pass on their faith. We grow up choose to follow it or not and pass on something we like, to our children. It's all about how one individual wants to live their life and what they want to propagate.
Now I like Dogs. But someone can like cats. That doesn't in anyway mean that I must or they must impose what we like upon the other. Yes, I will talk about why I love dogs and why I prefer them over cats and why I can't emotionally connect to cats. But as a fellow human being I require you not to get offended and vice versa. When I talk about all that, it is my view. I don't mean to undervalue yours. I might not agree with it, but I accept it.
Non-Acceptance to someone not liking the same things. Not accepting the others decision. Not attempting to understand the other views. Being stupid and hurting the other by unintentionally imposing what you love because you have a deep passion for what you. This is what leads to misunderstanding and eventually hatred. This is the reason why Hindus and Muslims don't get along. We are both too busy trying to prove that what we believe is better than the other. This is why Jews and Christians couldn't coexist, because what one thought was that what they believed was higher or more superior than the other. We need to stop over analyzing and over doing things. Beneath that turban, moustache, beard, burqah, dupatta, saree, dress, pants, pyjamas, cross, Om etc we are all the same. We were all broken and we all found our kind of faith to fix are brokenness.
This movie beautifully shows, how God is a concept that keeps us going. It's okay to believe in God. It is also okay to follow a religion. Everything is fine. But when we have wars and terrorism that rises from religion we need to revisit our faith and solve the problems. Religion was meant to be positive, faith is a positive word. Why are we negating it?
Why do we bomb other countries? Why do we look down upon inter-caste marriages? Why do we act so judgmental when we see a brown man or a woman in burqah or the Fernandez family that lives down the lane?
Humans are judgmental self-righteous pricks. We need to fix that. It's human nature. But we can at least reduce it so as to coexist in peace. Indo-Pak doesn't have to be an 'Oh My God' affair. We can all celebrate or rest on the abundance of holidays. This movie is a MUST watch. It teaches us how to understand what is actually wrong, take yourself out of the system. To someone who doesn't know what religion is, what sense does it make and what would they do with the current issue. It makes you think about meaning of life, love, faith, religion etc, which is extremely essential in today's world. We need a perspective, and this movie helped me get one.
That's the thing about Art, it touches you in ways you wouldn't even imagine.
Faith caused Religion. Religion was misunderstood and propagated negatively to instill hate.
Faith started it right? Faith will make it alright too.
That's what we do in life's' inter-phase right?
Have faith.
Yes. Keep that faith. :)
Fin.
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