Banaras, A Mystic Love Story

Commentary on ' The grand design' , by Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinov

2010-09-11T13:58:00.008+05:30

In the beginning when there was near nothing ( Though, gravity was always to be there, says the book), say of the size of an atom, genereal theory of relativity would not be valid ( and the expansion of the space must have happened at infinite times the speed of light) and only the quantum mechanics would apply. Therefore, ( since none of us were there to observe ) the quantum particles must have chosen every possible trajectory. Now since according to M theory, there are 11 ( 10 dimensions and time) dimensions including the time ( even though you and I can experience only four because others are too small for us to see in our universe), there must be billions of other worlds like us and trillions who would not be like us because the dimensions they may exist will be a different set of three ( because more than 3 dimension worlds are not stable) than ours.

Obviously those worlds would have a different set of laws etc than ours.

The book then goes to a great length highlighting the miraculous nature of the planet that we inhabit. To quote some:

"The many improbable occurrences that conspired to enable our existence... if...."

".......Our solar system that seem oddly conducive to the development of human life but also the characteristics of our entire universe, and that is much more difficult to explain."

".......At the time no one knew enough nuclear physics to understand the magnitude of the Serendipity that resulted in these exact physical laws."

The key word used many times to justify the things why they are the way they are is serendipity.

The universe seemingly can be born out of nothing..if there was to be gravity before the universe, according to the book.

However to have a gravity you need the matter and energy which requires the universe and that would put us back to where we began.

There is that usual dogma attached as to every subject that looks at the world only from its own point of view. Like to a musician the creation is just a rhythm, to chemistry is all about chemical reactions and periodic table, to engineers everything is engineering and to mathematician everything mathematics. ..poor us!

Philosophy is a subject which ought to join the fragments and try and project a plausible reality. However the book begins by saying that philosophy is dead and I agree entirely that the way we knew philosophy, indeed is dead but ..but...is supposedly being taken over by physics.....!

Science needs to be objective or else it's not science and if it engages to dabble in what essentially is unknowable with its faculties, it begins to sound very amateurish.

The book confronts the Bible, esp,, the Genesis, but maintains an ominous silence on the Upnishads. It is my belief that the interpretation and the very definition of God should be finalized first, before trying to make a comment on it, using the typical reductionist approach.

When it is well known and accepted by prominent physicists around the world that upnishad's understanding of creation and the creator is far more sophisticated, subtle and holistic, the very omission suggests that to the esteemed authors the definition of 'Brahman' seemed too inconvenient while discussing the truth of creation.

Here I quote, Ulrich Mohrof, a Quantum physicist and spiritualist:

"Remember the ancient conundrum about the divisibility of matter? If the synchronic multiplicity of the world rested on surfaces that carve up things much as cookie cutters carve up rolled-out pastry, then things ought to be divisible ad infinitum. If on the other hand we want to understand matter in the manner which has been paradigmatic for some 25 centuries — i.e., in terms of the composition and interaction of parts — then there have to be ultimate, not further divisible parts. But why then are these parts not further divisible? Thanks to QM, we know now why the modern “atoms” — quarks and leptons — are not further divisible. The reason they are not further divisible is that they are formless. The shapes of things resolve themselves into sets of fuzzy relative positions (or spatial relations) between formless objects.
If now you recall that ultimately there is only one “thing,” and that this is or consti-tutes everything, you will conclude that the shapes of things resolve themselves into MOHRHOFF: SPIRITUAL PHYSICS 65
the self-relations of a single formless “something.” Taking our cue from the Upanishads, we might as well call it Brahman. Brahman is said
• to be without form,
• to constitute all things,
• to contain all things,
• to originate all things.

Here is a nutshell account, based on QM, of how formless Brahman originates and comes to contain and constitute all things: Brahman enters into spatial relations with itself. As a result,
• there are things that have shapes (sets of spatial relations),
• there is space — Brahman as the one place that contains them all,
• there is matter — Brahman as the apparent multitude of relata (“apparent” because the relations are self-relations) and as the one thing that constitutes them all.

Can you think of a more concise creation story or a more economical way to manifest a world?"

Unqote.

'The grand design', the book, may be considered as a nice introduction in physics to a lay man and may certainly prove to be a money spinner that may have been an important motivation for the authors and the publishers, it does little to unravel anything fundamentally new.

My friend ( if I may call him, since he is my FB friend and also has seen and commented on Banaras movie), Urich Mohrof's short extract, quoted earlier, from his paper 'spiritual physics', speaks all that can be spoken of creation and the creator, in nutshell.

To me this is the truth, because it is simple.

Heart of the existence

2010-03-14T06:44:00.004+05:30

Courtesy Gita Belin:

"In September 2001, two geostationary operational environmental
satellites (GOES) orbiting the earth detected a rise in global magnetism
that forever changed the way scientists view our world and us. The
GOES-8 and GOES-10 each showed a powerful spike of Earth's
magnetic-field strength in the readings they broadcast every 30 minutes.
It was the magnitude of the spikes and the time they occurred that first
called them to the scientists' attention.

From a location of about 22,300 miles above the equator, GOES-8
detected the first surge, followed by an upward trend in the readings
that topped out at nearly 50 units (nanoteslas) higher than any that had
been typical for the same time previously. The time was 9 a.m. eastern
standard time, 15 minutes after the first plane hit the World Trade
Center and about 15 minutes before the second impact. The correlation
between the events and the reading was uncanny. And it was undeniable.
In light of the data, two questions had to be asked: Were the attacks on
the World Trade Center and the satellite readings actually related? If
so, what was the link? It's the answer to the second question that
sparked the research, and the ambitious initiative that has followed.

Subsequent studies by Princeton University and the Institute of
Heartmath, an innovative nonprofit institution formed in 1991 to pioneer
research and development of heart-based technologies, have found that
the correlation between the GOES readings and the events of 9/11 are
more than coincidences.

Following the discovery that the satellites had recorded similar spikes
during events of global focus in the past, such as the death of Princess
Diana, the factor that seemed to connect the readings was clear: the
indications pointed to the human heart.

Specifically, it's the heart-based emotions of the world's population
that results from such events that seems to be influencing the magnetic
fields of the earth. What makes this discovery so significant is that
those fields are now linked to everything from the stability of the
climate to peace between nations."

Children of God

2010-03-13T01:20:00.005+05:30

Soon, these children would be brought into the world of so called ''faith. To become Christians or Muslims or something else. Eventually they will learn to be afraid, to hate and to kill.

Who are the marauders of such innocence?

Think.

Close encounter with this beautiful leopard at Kruger SA

2009-04-17T14:19:00.001+05:30

The wild, the natural and the beautiful

Slumdog millionaire: movie

2009-01-25T23:30:00.002+05:30

Slumdog millionaire

I saw the film in a theater ‘cause I wanted to enjoy the movie as it was intended to be enjoyed.

It’s a wonderful depiction of the craft of film making.

Give a predictable almost mundane story; convert it into a skillfully crafted script. Combine it with dazzling cinematography and boldly conceived visuals. Add to that the genius of Rehman to spice it up and you already have a near winner. Get a Boyle as the director and make Mumbai slums as the backdrop and you have a “masterpiece”.

And that’s our Slumdog millionaire.

When we, in India, watch this movie it feels good. Though with a tinge of envy (on craft of film making). Nice film. Well picturised. Good drama. Happy ending.

But when foreigners watch the movie they get exhilarated. It took them to bring to the world the goodness of India through Gandhi and now through SM they bring to the world the filth of it. It is when we look at SM with this mindset, that we have problem.
Who are they to show us the mirror?

When we shoot in London, we don’t show Brixton. Neither do we show south hall or east London. When we shoot in NY we don’t shoot the ghettos. We always shoot the best symbols in the city. We are sentimentalists. That’s our choice.

They (I include the second generation NRI directors) come and make Salam Mumbai, Water and SM (save that kind fellow Richard Attenborough; bless his soul).We are romanticists. We create fantasies to live the movies. We live among reality. We don’t need to see it on the screen. These movies are made for foreigners. They can’t believe it. It stirs their soul. Some feel good because it makes them feel secure… even superior. They are comforted after watching SMs. They feel relieved as they see us living in the filth. They feel a great exhilaration.

Let’s enjoy and learn the art of film making from SM. lets not make judgment on others about their mindsets and perceptions. Let’s see if there are things that we can learn from others.

I believe in optimism. I believe in continuing to reach for the sky. Let’s continue making a mark on the world and keep appreciating the excellence even if, at times, it’s not convenient.

Alvida Kittu

2008-09-14T17:33:00.003+05:30

Queen Kittu

There are moments within which the whole eternity shrinks and you transcend the physical reality to enter the world of deep feelings, Compassion and Love. We should call ourselves Lucky if we experience even one such moment in our entire life.

With you kittu, the ten years, that you spent with us, were such divine beautiful experience that it hurts when you are no longer with us, even though we know, that you have merely gone away to change your ailing attire.

In life you were a queen and you went away being a queen.

You may have gone far..but you will ever remain close.. in our hearts.

Alvida Kittu.

Adieu

Sep 13, 2008

A melting life

2008-07-20T12:29:00.005+05:30

A melting life

When the sheer intentionality to be, intricately assembles the elements from the ingredients to create a being that can breathe, think, meditate, reflect, reason and love, a miracle that is life, begins.

The being then wishes to ‘become’, giving birth to ego and fear, which in turn, manifests as anxiety, depression, jealousy and hatred.

This compulsive nature to become grows into an obsession. The self (I) and everything associated with it (mine) becomes the epicenter of the existence, bringing the corporeal world to the centre stage. Life thus, becomes a perpetual race where we all try to quench the unquenchable thirst of the ego.

A day, however, arrives in all’s life when the revelation comes. To the rare, it comes early but to majority, only in the end. But comes it does. It may come weeks before, hours before or even moments before the end.

When the end is in sight, life begins to melt and ego begins to fade
The reality of the illusion begins to dawn and the true meaning of existence transcends the being.

As tears trickle down the eyes, a sad smile appears on the lips and futility of the spent life is realized, a new intentionality is born even as the corporeal world disappears;

The resolve, to come back again.

Grand illussion

2008-01-01T13:19:00.000+05:30

Living the moment

Lately the whole world has been talking about Living the moment. Is it that suddenly our evolution has begun moving faster? Is it that the philosophy of life is finally beginning to be understood?

Alas! The phrase is being taken too literally.

Living the moment is being interpreted to defy your own logic. It is thought to be the point of liberation from all kinds of ethics. Morality that has been the reason for a lot of conflict is suddenly no longer a burden.Living the moment is interpreted to succumb to your sensory system completely. A complete liberation from reason.

This is the grandest of all illusions.

Living the moment is to live every moment in complete awareness.To Live with complete knowledge. No bias. No conditioning. No denial. Only compassion. Pure awareness.

It's the feeling of unification with everything.
Yet being aware of oneself.

Welcoming an opportunity

2007-12-31T23:19:00.000+05:30

We are blessed with yet another year to understand our true nature.
Let us welcome the opportunity of spending some precious time together on this planet.

Let us celebrate this togetherness in complete awareness.
Welcome the new year.

WELCOME 2008

The state of No-mind

2007-08-21T23:10:00.000+05:30

I reproduce a comment/question from a wise friend along with my observations. I am taking the liberty to post it here (rather than replying in the comments space) so all could see it.

Dear Mr.Singh,

I recently saw your movie and was extremely impressed by your deft handling of such a complex topic.

I've been exploring mysticism for a few years myself and have heard that one needs to drop the mind to realize the "no-mind".

Like you, I too am a techno marketer and find it difficult to balance the use of the mind in creating business strategies and then drop it while meditating.

What I do for a living requires intensive use of the mind and the thought process, while the investigation of the ultimate tool requires dropping the mind / thoughts all together.

How does one create "cunning" business strategies to outmanoeuvre competition and at the same time develop compassion.

Have you faced this dilemma and what has been your experience?

Would love to hear from you.

Anonymous

Dear sir,

I thank you for taking time out to write to me. I also wish you to succeed in all your quests.

In my mind you can never play a role honestly until you have known yourself.You can pretend to be a marketer but you will only play that role the way others expect you to.

Business, as we understand is “competition” and competition is primitive. It all is very Darwinian. And if you want to be a true winner, you have to be watchful and adaptive. But the destination of an evolved business should be excellence and not competition.

Yet business like any other living entity, needs to survive.You used the word “cunning” in the context of business strategy but you must remember that when you create business strategies you “become” the business. Business strategies need to be defined in complete awareness and there is no question of them being “cunning”. You do certain things, you win, you do some other things, you fail. There is nothing “cunning” or “wrong”. There are only the right things that need to be done.

However, you have a choice to play the kind of role you want to, for a kind of (business) entity you wish to. It’s completely your choice.

Sir, since you are already having the conflict all I can say is your level of awareness is changing. Conflict brings change. You are seeking non-movement of thought, a kind of transcending peace, but your role is bringing you a disturbance. You need to investigate the two and create harmony between them.

If you know me then you know that I left big companies so that I could live by my own value system, I could live my dream. Not that the companies I worked for in any way were wrong ( in fact some of them are the most reputed companies of our time) its just that I “grew” to become “non-fit” in those surroundings.

This is the clue to attaining a state of “no mind”. You have to align yourself to who you are. You have to continually work to end the conflict.This is how you will evolve and that’s how you will achieve the “no-mind”.

Let me also say that the peace thus attained shows on one’s face as also manifests in one’s work.

I do hope I have not sounded like a preacher, and if I did, please forgive me.

God is not great..... by Christopher Hitchens

2007-08-19T14:38:00.000+05:30

The case against religion.... and God

After I finished this book titled, God is not great,
I tried to fathom the unfathomable dissonance of a mind. I guess when someone as informed as Hitchens, enters a state of I-know-all, the outcome is a highly jumbled up and an opinionated product, nothing less than this book.

Hitchens attacks everyone and everything. He makes sniper attacks on Jesus, Mohammad, Moses, Buddha and every other prophet you can think of, and sprays bullets on the likes of Gandhi, mother Theresa and Martin Luther King. He declares all religions to be evil and all believers to be idiots, extremists or terrorists.

Religions, in time, become dogma and dogmas are not something to be proud. Hitchens is entitled to his opinion about individuals from his knowledge of right and wrong and there is little one can do change it.

Hitchens ridicules God and in fact negates his very existence. And that prompted me to write this article.

First and foremost, from what I could make out from his book, his mind is conditioned by the description of God as he may have interpreted from reading books. He may also be influenced by the disillusionment he may have personally experienced by living in the company of “masters” he may have chosen in the past or were chosen for him. He looks for a God of some higher order who has the capability to interfere with our actions, decide our fate and generally keep a watch on whatever we do. Will he be disappointed? I bet.

God is not something that can be captured even in imagination, leave alone being described. And it is very stupid of Hitchens to make presumptions about believer’s perception of God.

According to Hitchens, our world is completely explained by Charles Darwin and all the credit for our being here is given to “evolution”. While I have no quarrel with Darwin, I have a few questions for Hitchens.

The world (or any system) left on its own has tendency to move towards disorder (Law of thermodynamics. We experience this in our daily life, as we have to spend large sums of money in repairing and maintaining our belongings), implying that when we get a glimpse of some kind of “order” among chaos, it is manifest of some intelligence. Our species and all other species living on this planet are good examples of this.

Humans are more evolved than other species because they have the potential to “connect” and “see” the truth much beyond the capability of their sensory system. However, this transcendental experience, being tacit in nature, is beyond articulation and can not (is incapable to) be expressed or shared with others. And such people, who, even though have personally gone through such experience, when confronted by people like Hitchens to give sensory evidence of that experience, can only listen and smile.

Unchecked by his own reason, Hitchens goes after the idea of intelligent-design and uses some convoluted logic to explain our presence through evolution.

According to Hitchens “airplanes are, in their human-designed way,”evolving” and so in a different way are we”. Taking his argument further, if the airplane “evolution” is driven by human-intelligence what intelligence is driving the Darwinian evolution?

Hitchens should know that intelligence does manifest in other forms and can be replicated but never be created from nothing. If evolution is intelligent, then there must be a source for that intelligence. I wonder if Hitchens would like to propose a name for such a source.

Evolution is limited only to conscious entities. It is not applicable to the "material" world. Evolution is a process that is authored by some intelligence to ensure that it doesn’t have to keep looking over it.

Certain intelligence creates a universe with certain laws and replicates itself inside to create evolution, much as humans create airplane and replicate themselves inside the airplane. The laws of the universe do not evolve. Only the consciousness does.

And consciousness is a replication of the infinite intelligence that causes everything to emerge from nothingness. If that can be called God then he certainly is great.

Banaras at the Wychwood festival in England

2007-06-17T20:36:00.000+05:30

Banaras receives standing ovation at the Wychwood festival in Cheltnham.

Cheltnham is among one of the most picturesque locations in England. The festival for music and movies was organized in the famous Cheltnham racecourse grounds of this beautiful city. The festival attracted more than 8000 people on this sunny and warm Saturday of the 2nd day of the June.

The movie Banaras, a mystic love story was selected as the only Hollywood movie ‘cause of its “spiritual” appeal.

The audience comprised of families and mature audience who were all enthralled with the music, dance and the sheer experience of watching the movie.

The intensity and the effect of the movie were visible on the audience as many of them had tears in their eyes. The viewers were all English and Europeans. At the end of the movie, I was invited to come to the stage and take questions.

It was a wonderful feeling to know that the movie had connected so well with the audience who knew nothing about Banaras and did not speak Hindi.

"A wonderful story"

2007-04-28T11:01:00.000+05:30

I am reproducing the mail which I recieved from someone who viewed Banaras on a DVD.

"Dear Mr. Singh,

It's at times like these I wish I had a better command of language. I've just seen Banaras - A Mystic Love Story for the first time, and I fear my meager grasp of words is insufficient to describe the profound impact it had on me.

I confess, I bought the DVD because it starred Urmila Matondkar. I'm a newcomer to Indian film having only discovered it this year, but because of her I developed an immediate fascination not only with Indian film, but with India in general. But Urmila-ji was only the initial motivation for my interest -- not the sole reason I feel so compelled to write to you.

Even taken only at face value as a work of art Banaras excels. When you place the most beautiful woman in the world against the backdrop of such an inspiring place only good things can result. So even if all you do is look at it, Banaras is well worth the time.

Worth the time, but if you only look at it as a pretty thing you will cheat yourself. Allow yourself to respond without thought to the images and dialogue on the screen and the film -- like the city itself, I can only imagine -- will conduct you to places you hadn't hoped to go because you never knew they existed.

Allow youself to experience the film without filtering and you will feel Shwetanmbari's anguish, Soham's serenity, Baba-ji's wisdom, Gayatri's guilt... the current of emotion washes you away as surely as the Ganga herself.

This is a film that cannot be merely seen. It must be experienced. If the viewer can allow himself to do that, why... he might even learn something. I certainly did, though what it was I cannot readily define.

Or perhaps it was not learning at all, but validation of that which I already knew. Consciously or unconsciously, what I saw did not seem like a revelation so much as a confirmation. It took on the appearance of revelation -- perhaps because I had not, or would not, recognize it as a truth I already knew.

One thing is certain. I will watch Banaras many more times. I find that -- having to depend on subtitles -- this is necessary with any non-English film, but particularly one with such a rich subtext.

Sir, you have crafted a masterpiece, a triumph. And perhaps one day I will find the words to define its effect on me. Until then, I can only offer the sincerest of thanks for bringing such a wonderful story to life.

James Bengel,
Raleigh, NC, USA"

Blessed, Soham

2007-03-24T23:24:00.000+05:30

A lot happened in the past few months!
Time ran faster, yet,I became younger... A sense of renewal!?

I became a grandfather on the Valentine’s Day, the 14th February 2007.

All our family sat in a room to discuss and finalise the name of the new born baby. We all had our long lists of names... A very lengthy debate followed.

Someone jokingly remarked, “Why don’t we ask the little one?”
We joined in a chorus...….yes...yes…Let’s ask him!... And suddenly there was a familiar chant on television.

As our heads turned towards the TV, we saw Soham sitting on the Ganges in deep meditation.

The movie Banaras promo was coming in South Africa.

We were all speechless. Soham had spoken.

Welcome back Soham !!!

Sat chit anand

2007-02-04T22:23:00.000+05:30

Experiencing Shoonya

On the banks of the Ganges, one day, I sat in a prayer posture. The sun was about to appear on the distant horizon. Devotees were taking dips in the holy water.The chants of Om Namah Shivay along with the usual bells from the near-by temples were filling the air to create a very unique and divine atmosphere. There was fragrance of the freshness of the morning as flowers were being offered in the welcome of the rising sun.

Imagine, how the mere awareness consumes you!
You are sitting in the tranquility of the early morning on the bank of Ganges. Fresh air is rustling past your body and passing through your nostrils. You are consumed by the soothing sound and the anticipated embrace of the first light of sun.
You seem touched by divinity!

Your eyes slowly begin to close ‘cause you do not wish this moment to pass. You want to capture it for ever.

The sound of stillness.

A complete silence consumes your very existence. Everything that you know disappears, completely. The images of the rising sun and the Ganges, suddenly, are gone.

Galaxies begin gliding past you soundlessly . The stillness fades into a continuous hummm.

You no longer smell the air. You cease to feel the presence of your body. There is no warning when strage things begin to happen.

Suddenly, the sky begins to contract and the cosmos begins to shrink. Galaxies seem colliding with the other galaxies and collapsing inside enormous dark matter. Silent, yet, thunderous and deafening sound seems wrapped around the unbelievable phenomenon.

Oceans of clouds and lights and sound and matter begin dissolving in your very existence. The phenomena, that could only be eternal, accelerates to an infinite speed.

The infinite mass of matter and energy getting consumed inside your existence, fills you with a divine feeling of goodness, well being and bliss. Atoms and electrons are dancing and bowing to you before entering your non present body. The latent fear is exorcised as “I” begins to completely non-exist.

“I” is no more. Cosmos is no more. Spirit is no more. God is no more.

Yet I am.

I am for I am the Shoonya,
the Sat chit anand.

Dammed humanity

2007-01-17T22:55:00.000+05:30

Cruel, selfish and compassionless species?

What’s gone wrong with us?

Today morning, a confused leopard wanders from what is left of its habitat (which is being encroached every day by we the humans) into a colony in Nasik (150 km north of Mumbai, close to Panchvati, where once Ram and Sita spent time during their exile in the jungle). As soon as it is discovered by the residents, all hell breaks loose on the fate less and hapless leopard.

Forest officers (who are paid to protect these magnificent creations of God) are called in to catch the animal. The police too join in to enjoy the party. Camera crews rush to broadcast the “reality show”.

Leopard runs for his life… away from the people but finds itself locked within the compound walls. Restless and nervous it runs around and harmlessly pretends to attack some of the men. Three people get some scratches. Poor animal runs for 9 hours nonstop trying to evade the inevitable.

The dance of death reaches its finale. “Tamasha” reaches its climax as the doomed creature is captured to the utter delight of all the humans assembled. Not satisfied with the mere capture, they poke sticks into the trapped and completely pinned animal.

The exhausted leopard finally succumbs to the raw, inhuman and sadistic cruelities of the psychopaths and eventually leaves for a better place. (May its soul rest in heaven)

I am sad and very angry with myself because I identify myself as a human belonging to the same specie that all those marauders were.

I am ashamed to be a human who kill the innocent, helpless, harmless and the defenseless, to derive pleasure out of their primitive and deplorable deeds.

We, the dammed humans!
May God show some mercy on us.

A Revealing 2007?

2006-12-31T07:54:00.000+05:30

“The dream of the Buddha has always been to remind you of that which has been forgotten, to awaken that which is asleep in you.” ……. OSHO

Osho used to tell us a fascinating story (I used to hear him in ’71- ’72 at cross maidan in Bombay):

God created the human. Gave him the intelligence and the ability to be able to do things... almost anything. Feeling a little insecure about what the human could do to him, ‘thought of hiding from him. Considered a no of places but was afraid that he would be able to dig him. In the end, however, he played a masterstroke. He hid inside the human.

And till today the man is looking for him everywhere except inside himself.

Time to ponder!................What is there, inside me?

An abundance of despair,
Or that occasional flicker of hope?

A mountain of desire,
Or the rare glimpse of that detached feeling?

An ocean of anxiety,
Or those divine moments during the meditation?

The floods of fear,
Or the episodic transcendental moments of love?

The demonic, incoherent and fragmented psyche
Or the omniscient, omnipotent and all encompassing divinity called God?

In Banaras, Swami Purnanand tells Dr Bhattacharya, “Agar Satya to jaanana hai pahchaanana hai to pehle apne aapko samajhne ki koshish keejiye”.

(If you want to know the truth, first you will have to understand yourself)

This year let us resolve to try to look inside ourselves, who knows we might be able to get the glimpse of God.

Wish you all a revealing 2007.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2006-12-24T23:16:00.000+05:30

Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings

Let a zillion stars light up our soul and remind us of the compassion of Jesus Christ. Let those closed eyes show us the way to salvation.

Banaras Team

"Echos from the heart?"

2006-12-18T23:09:00.000+05:30

I am full of my memories. I see other’s action through my mind.

I see them the way I expect them to be. I see them the way, I have become. I see how I myself would act in the circumstance the other is. I never make an effort to find out their true intention. In my mind it’s total waste of time to assume presence of goodness in others. I have long convinced myself that everyone around me is selfish that whatever he/she might be doing is to serve their own selfish interests. I am perpetually insecure and defensive. I am always on guard. I am suspicious. I have become a bundle of fear. I live in a world of fear where everyone is a potential attacker. The whole world is busy conspiring against me.

That is the kind of world I have created for myself.

I am reminded of the time when Kaikei faces Rama after he has just learnt about his exile. I feel like Kaikei.

Rama is calm and trying to pacify the situation. He loves Kaikei for he treats her as his own mother. He holds no grudge against her for being sent to Jungle because he is able to empathize with her. A “mother” trying to make her own son the king of Ayodhya. Rama talks to her about the benefit of going to the jungle. He talks about the opportunity to be able to serve the great sages in the jungle…….

As Kaikei listens to the divine words, she sees them only through her own mind. She thinks them as mere taunt. As she listens to Rama, She becomes even more insecure….

Here is a gem from Ramayana in Tulsidas’s words:

Sahaj saral raghubar bachan,
Kumati, kutil kari jaan
Chalai jnok jal vakragati,
Yadyapi salil samaan

Though the words of Sri Ram are simple and sincere, Kaikei interprets them as crooked and wicked and is able to justify her own wickedness. It is as water (in a pond) though by nature, still and calm, is interpreted otherwise by the leach, which swims across it only in crooked manner.

Do I have to continue living in a world which is created by my fear in form of a perpetual hell or begin to create a world which is devoid of insecurity and conditioning and is full of godness?

The choice is really really my own.

I am reminded of Shwetambari who created her own heaven.

Banaras the movie.. A recent post

2006-12-13T14:23:00.000+05:30

During the past few months, as the fragrance of spirituality and music of Banaras is spreading, the prophecy of wise men like Steve and Prem seems coming true. Below, I am reproducing the content of a blog posted recently.

November 25

People's Purpose in Life.

Well, last night I saw the movie Banaras starring Urmilla and some hot long-haired dude named "A. Patel." It was a great movie. At first, I just wanted to see the songs because that's what really has to get me interested, the music. The Song "Om Namah Shivay" was what caught me. And then, my sister said well we should for the fun of it. I don't regret a second of it. It was a magnificient. A mystic love story that opened my eyes alot.

A girl fell in love with a highly spiritual man and well we all know how it goes in "Bhaarat" when it comes to love. You should be of the same caste etc and obviously he wasn't. So the girl's mother murdered him. She went crazy and due to the betrayal she left "Banaras." Man, the images of Banaras were vivid and flambouyant. I loved it and I loved the spirituality behind it. Only then to realise that Love sometimes doesn't go the way you want it to go because that's not your purpose in life.

Some people have a hard time understanding that. I mean maybe I am one of them. If you're not in a relationship then you're either Gay or Eccentric or something of that nature, right? Wrong!!!

Last night after looking at the movie I realised that a man's destiny is written for him. We can't really do much to change that. Only if you prayer maybe somethings may. But generally, what's written for you, that's how you have to live. In The heroine;s case in this movie, she was in love but was certainly cut out for greater things in Lord Shiva's eyes. Yes, it hurt to see the love of your life lying there Lifeless yet peaceful. I can't imagine such pain but I felt it last night. Hmmm.... She was a mystical woman. A woman who ended up being spiritually inspiring to others and a fantastic Musician. I loved it.

So the little purpose of this writing, is to convince myself and you too that sometimes things we want in life are not always what's the right thing for us that;s why it doesnt work. I am glad I saw that today. It may help me with my healing.

Remember one thing, what is written in your destiny, that is what will unfold ..... you can't really change that.....

Namaskar
OM NAMAH SHIVAY

BANARAS II ?

2006-12-11T11:26:00.000+05:30

I received a mail from Prem, the mystic from Chicago, that I would like to share with all of you. In time, I would try and answer some of the questions Prem has raised.The deapth of his understanding and his being is so visible......Thanks Prem for taking the time to write.

Dear LalG,

Pranams! I just visited your blog after a long time. Your cat Kittu looks beautiful!

I am happy to see that Banaras was screened in Goa. Mr.Steve is right. Just like that number 1 Xmas movie, Banaras will be remembered as one of the best Mystical movies as time passes by. You have given us all mystics a special gift.

I was watching the movie yesterday night. I was going to ask you more about the Music in the movie. I just found some answers in the June 29 blog archive. The title song NamaShivaya still rings in my ears. Pt.Jasraj is my favorite. Honestly I felt some kind of presence of Pt.Jasraj while listening to the songs, the singers’ voices in the movie reaching tremendous depth before reaching the heights and then moving fluidly. I just realized reading in your blog that Mr.Sanjiv Abhankar is a protégé of Pt.Jasraj. How amazing!

I am not familiar with all the musicians and singers. But when I listen to the depth of notes, vitality of the voice, arousing drums, strings, bells, etc the whole gamut of sound universe coming alive, everyone of them I realize truly is a Creator who can turn people on and make people come alive with the magic of Sound. And above all to put together a Team like that shows how much you are attuned to Divine Music.

The movie deals with important Human questions that it transcends all language and cultural boundaries. Even though it is just a passing scene in the beginning, a girl sits devastated by the accident in total shock in front of Shwetambari. Shweta shows her father the red wedding sari, and her Father gives her the bad news he is killed. Krishna playing the flute as they carry the corpse, the corpse burning on the banks, how the broken to pieces Shweta goes through the pain and emerges out of it - the screenplay and the sequences are gripping, you just get glued to the screen. No scene in the movie is an unnecessary scene.

Every scene is tied to the gravity of the significant questions that the movie deals with? Do I have a Teacher like Babaji watching over me and guiding me, or am I alone here? “Satya Kya Hai”?

I am curious and I have similar questions like your friends on the blog. When the bird flies away and Soham’s nerves gets fired up and he experiences the Cosmos – is that your real personal experience? It is so vivid to the detail, the bird flying off before the experience – it is poetically perfect. I can tell it is definitely somebody’s experience, because the Earthquake, the volcano, etc are all signs mentioned in books about kundalini. But the bird cooing and taking off is a special experience.
I feel the presence of Buddha, Shiva, Krishna and Babaji in your Aura. Have you met Babaji sir? I studied Kriya Yoga for 2 years here in Chicago at the Temple of Kriya Yoga in the lineage of Babaji. People in that school love Babaji, they have a special all day celebration for Babaji every year.

In the first scene during the title Setu Creations, a cosmic baby opens its eyes and looks at the Earth. What does that Baby symbolize? I have had a similar vision while meditating in Shirdi Sai Temple where half of the baby’s body is submerged in the water and the other half of the baby is above the Cosmic water. And the baby’s eye is very big. I have always been very curious what that means.

I din’t know you were here in Chicago sir. I would have loved to meet such a spirited fragrant soul attuned to the vibrations of Banaras. Who in the Bollywood would have had the guts to make such a movie like Banaras! Bollywood caters to the lower needs of Man. Banaras caters to the divine thirst in Man. It points out the nature of True Love. I feel your vibration in the Beautiful Souls of Shweta and Soham; what is not in us does not come out in our Creation!

In Most of Bollywood movies woman and men don’t show maturity in relationships or delicate matters of the heart. The character of Shwetambari shows remarkable maturity - how she stands up and expresses her love with such grace, how she carries herself and how considerate and understanding she is to a spiritually evolved Soham. I fell in love with Urmila after seeing Shwetambari. And there is a certain softness and grace in Mr.Ashmit Patel that perfectly fits the character of Soham – a Soul in poise and balance. The Chemistry in the relaionship of Shwetambari and Soham is so lovely, and how they relate with each other is so perfect.

What does the name Shwetambari mean?

In the love songs, Urmila and Amish interact with each other so fluidly without any stiffness. You don’t see any jerky movements releasing nervous energy that you usually see in most Bollywood songs. The movements have a graceful relaxed flow that is fascinating. Well done by the actors, choregraphers and the Director. It shows how well they understood the spirit of the movie.

The Aspirations of Banaras expresses itself beautifully through Shwetambari and Soham, a love play between Shakti and Shiva. The Character of Shwetambari portrays the well developed Psychic Centers and bodies, and in Soham the Spirit Center Body.

MonaLisa is not a real woman, it is the beautiful soul of DaVinci. Banaras is not just another Bollywood movie, it is a painting, it is the spiritual essence of a soul that has dared to pour its delicate and intimate passions on the Big White Screen. That Soul is an instrument and a seat of the Divine. Time will prove Mr.Steve is right.

The last scene between Shwetambari and her Mother asking for forgiveness. I was in tears watching it. And Babaji and Soham standing behind Shwetambari in the end watching over her from the spirit world…..every mystic soul and perhaps all souls will relate with those scenes, it will strike a chord deep inside. Aum NamaShivaya! Aum NamaShivaya!

The movie and the characters and the places and the story – everything is now permanently etched in my memory. For now my dream to go, visit and see Banaras is fulfilled through Banaras movie. Someday hopefully I will be able to make it to the City. Do you have another story to tell about Banaras may be in Banaras 2 movie? Or perhaps a National Geography or Discovery type documentary on history, traditions, practices, etc of Banaras? Smiles!

Simple dialogues profound meanings: “Yeh Banaras hai! Yahan Soham Marate Nahnee!”

With Love and Respect,
Prem.

IFFI GOA Contd...

2006-12-10T13:43:00.000+05:30

As people assemble at the beautiful Kala Academy Goa.

Pankuj thanked the producers for giving the opportunity for making a film like Banaras and he thanked the audience who had come in big nos. to watch the movie.

I thanked him for translating the story into a reality. I also read some comments made by people who have written to me about the movie during the last 8 months. I read five quotes who are all on my blog.

1.Prem, A mystic :
I just can’t believe that “they” are making such movies with great awareness, in bollywood.

2. Ulrich Mohroff, Quantum scientist:
Banaras has potential to awaken a soul to higher realities and if this happens to a few, it has achieved more than any of the blockbusters.

3. Gangatreya Pandeya, 90 year old, the author of Nachiketa:

What is depicted in Banaras is revealing, morally soothing, spiritually uplifting, refreshing and elevating.

4. Prof Murthy, Scholar of Upanishads and advisor to TCS in systems and cybernetics:

Banaras is a poetry in celluloid

5. Anonymous (to maintain the confidentiality)

It’s a story of my life. I lost my husband on the 15th day of my marriage. Banaras showed me the way to a new life.

I then said that such were the response from people around the world, however what mattered most that day was, that, how they find the film.

Banaras screened at 37th IFFI Goa

2006-11-29T20:49:00.000+05:30

Banaras Screened at Kala Academy, 37th IFFI GOA
1600 strong audience enthralled,

29th November, Goa

Long before the show was scheduled a long queue formed at the entrance of the venue. Pankuj and I were invited on the stage before the show for a short address.

And as the titles began, there grew an absolute silence.

More than 60 to 70 members of the security and other administrative staff of the Kala Academy could not be kept away from the magic of Banaras as they chose to stand at the back of the auditorium.

Big no of people met us after the show and thanked us for making such a meaningful cinema.

Festival pictures would be posted in a while.

IFFI from November 23 Goa:

2006-11-20T16:37:00.000+05:30

IFFI from November 23 Goa:

The ten-day event will screen a total of 40 Indian films, 20 features and 20 non-features.

The Tamil film Srigaram by Sharada Ramanathan, Sonam by upcoming filmmaker Ahsan Muzid and Monpa will represent India in the Asian, African and Latin-American competition.

Mridul Toolsidas’ and Vinay Subramaniam’s Missed Call will open the Panorama section which has five Malayalam films that include Jessi’s Thanmatra, Eakantham by Madhu Kaithapuram, Biju’s Saira, Nottam by Sashi Paravoor and Drishtantham by MP Sukumaran Nair.

There are three Tamil entries—Sringaram, Aadumkoothu and Dhavamai Dhavamirunthu. K Sathyanarayan’s Hope is the only Telugu entry and Girish Kasaravalli’s Nayi Neralu the lone representative of Kannada cinema.

Also on show will be Assamese director Manju Borah’s historical film Joymoti and three Marathi films—Bayo by Gajendra Ahire, Chitra Palekar’s Maati Maay and Sumitra Bhave’s and Sunil Sukthankar’s Badha.

The Hindi films to be screened are Pankuj Parashar’s Banaras: A Mystic Love Story, Corporate by Madhur Bhandarkar and Rituparno Ghosh’s Hindi-Bengali bi-lingual Dosar.

Chairperson of the jury for the feature film section, Saeed Akhtar Mirza announced selection of just 20 films from the 102 seen. Other members of the jury are Aditi Deshpande, Pulak Gogoi, George Mathew, Vasanth SM and U Radhakrisnan.

Success,... where art thou?

2006-11-16T21:07:00.000+05:30

When I was giving the talk at the Colchester, someone asked me a question:

“LC, you seem to have achieved so much success and yet it looks as if you are seeking something. Can you explain?”

A similar question has been asked me by a no. of media persons during the last one year.

Answer?...........

I don’t believe I am successful because I am still chasing it. To me success is not fame, money or power. I founded Nihilent not because I was not “successful” in my earlier jobs, but because I dream of creating a company where people are not treated like robots, where people are not treated like slaves, where life is balanced with work, where customers are an extension of the company, where fraternity rules, where associates love to be there and where learning, innovation and excellence is a part of the DNA.

I don't believe I am successful just because I could make a film on Banaras. The mission yet remains. Though, I feel happy and enthused when I learn that “Banaras” made some difference to some few people’s lives, I yet seek to spread the message of compassion to many more…..to all of humanity.

There are so many things I yet, want to do.

I want to master making music. I want to write songs. I want to learn photography. I want to learn painting. I want to establish children’s school where the right values are taught to them right from the beginning, where love and not hatred is learnt. I want so many more things………

Success still evades me and that’s why I live..... and with so many passions. When I become successful my reason to live would be gone…. I would be enlightened. There would be no more deaths, no more births and no more life.

Until that success, to keep trying is my destiny.

And that is the truth.... Simple.

Making of Banaras, at the Colchester College

2006-11-10T04:31:00.000+05:30

My talk at the Colchester College, UK on the 6th Nov 'o6

It was a cold and foggy but dry evening that we traveled to the oldest city of UK. Colchester has a population of 150,000 and at one time used to be the capital of Romans.

The event was organized by the Chartered Management Institute, a professional body of distinguished professional managers and was hosted by Colchester College.

The evening program was around my talk on the “Making of Banaras”.

I talked about the genesis of the movie, my connections with Banaras and shared with the audience the intricacies of film making including the contributions of various departments. I went to great lengths to explain the contributions of lighting and cameraman, art director, costume designer, sound recording, background music and the actors.

They all wanted to know about my experience of dealing with the big actors which went in great details. I had no idea that so many foreigners were interested so much in film making.

Jay Pandya, who had just seen the movie along with his full family shared with the audience as to how his grand mother, generally an ardent critic of bollywood masala films loved every moment of Banaras and the whole family was in tears in the end. One could easily see the impact of Banaras on his face.

A section of the audience

In the end, as the president would share with me later, the audience gave its longest ovation, ever given to any such event in their history.

I am extremely grateful to Anton, the president of Chartered Management Institute for the opportunity to share my experience of making Banaras.

During the trip a copy of the movie was presented to the earl of Edinburgh in person.

The movie has also been officially invited to be exhibited during the Wichwick music festival in Cheltanam during ’07.

International Film Festival, Goa: Banaras: An official selection

2006-10-31T20:32:00.000+05:30

Banaras , A mystic love story:

Official selection for the International film festival, 2006, Goa.

I am pleased to share the news that Banaras is now an official entry for the forth coming International film festival Goa. Generally, the jury has a tough task selecting very few films from numerous entries from world over. Through this forum I would like to thank all the viewers of Banaras who have extended their unwavering support for the movie.

This is a time for celebration.

Fans of Banaras

2006-10-31T11:11:00.000+05:30

On Friday evening, I was to arrive in Virginia at my friend Vijay’s place and everything looked good until the cancellation of my flight from Chicago. I arrived Princeton at 2 am in the vee hours of Saturday. My friend and colleague Ashwini and his wife Archana very kindly drove me to be in time for the Saturday get together.

As we were reaching the destination, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of nature.

It’s autumn in US.

The leaves are gracefully turning yellow and separating from the trees reluctantly. Only a few hours back they were part of the tree. They were identified by the tree. Now they are on their own. The life is gone. The identity has changed. They are, now, the fallen leaves, waiting to be collected and burnt. Yet they look serene. There is certain grace to their extinction (?). As one of my friend states, “Wish I would depart with such grace” . Some times, I feel they are yet alive, for I hear them whispering to each other.

They remind me of Soham. Giving life for someone you love…going away so gracefully. No fuss. a simple act of submission to the iminent.

I am to meet PC Singh after 36 years. He used to be 3 years senior to us. He used to teach me thermodynamics. Vijai is a very warm and sincere friend. We used to be class mates and room mates. When I look at Vijai, I feel as if nothing has changed. I, yet feel like a novice, amateurish and vulnerable. Vijai is someone always in control. When you are in such presence, you simply let go.

I entered his beautiful house situated among the woods of Virginia on the tunes of Om namah shivay. He has some of the best selection of Hindi songs. As always his entire arrangement was flawless.

Standing to my right are Vijai and Indu,
surrounded by other guests.

It was heartening to meet a no of families who had assembled.

As the evening progressed and they learnt more and more about making of Banaras and my experience of making the movie, their thirst for knowing more kept increasing.

The foremost questions were about Babaji and Soham: How did I conceive the character? Did I know someone like Babaji? What did I think of Ashmit Patel? All thought Ashmit to be sweet and handsome. All thought that Urmilla was outstanding. Many thought her portrayal of Shwetambari was perfect and the role was her career best.

A few ladies specially quoted the dialogue of Shwetambari when she talks to her dying father telling him the reason for her moving away from Banaras.(…I went away not because I hated you but because I couldn’t see the guilt on your face….)

They all wanted to know the details of the locations and their significance. Once they learnt their significance, their impression about movie went up even higher. Many said that they would see the movie again.

The significant thing was that everyone a no of families were planning to include Banaras in their next itinerary while visiting India.

There was an all round praise for the songs.

They all wanted to know the plans for the next movie.

It was a wonderful experience being in the company of so many who all love Banaras.

Through this column I would like to thank Vijai and Indu for their hospitality and all the people who made my evening so memorable. May God bless them with all the happiness in the world.

Banaras, Banaras and Banaras

2006-10-22T01:01:00.000+05:30

Banaras, Banaras and Banaras

You may be pleased to know that Banaras has been officially invited to be screened in Delhi month during the Asian Film Festival. The even is scheduled in the last week of the month. I am traveling overseas but Pankuj Parashar, the director of Banaras, would be attending.

I have been invited to speak on Banaras, the movie, at Colchester College UK. The event has been organized around the film where a no of senior managers from the industry, faculty and students of mass media discipline would be present. It is scheduled on the 6th of Nov at 7 pm in the evening.

Also on the 11th and 12th of Nov, I am speaking in Singapore at the United world college, on making of Banaras. On this occasion, Banaras is being exhibited and the proceeds would go to AIDS benefit.

I am presently traveling to US, all around, and on the next weekend a friend is inviting a no of families, who, I believe have shown some eagerness to meet me. I am looking forward to it as well.

On return from the events I would be pleased to share my experience

Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya

2006-10-19T14:15:00.000+05:30

Let the festival of lights enlighten our mind and soul.

I bow to you for your enthusiasm which helped me to build this blog.

Raj Babbar, the improvisor

2006-10-14T23:04:00.000+05:30

Raj Babbar aka Mahandraji aka Mahanthji

Raj Babbar, as you know, plays a pivotal character in the movie and he was very keen to do the role as he comes from UP. In the original script he was referred to as Mahanthji ( head priest ) but to keep away from any trouble we changed it to similar sounding name Mahendraji.

Raj is very comfortable with the lingo of Banaras and also, as I would learn later, he is a master improviser.

Being a veteran actor, Raj Babbar, I would believe, had glanced the script and was worried that there were not many actions which were giving him some discomfort. Therefore as he came to the Ramnagar palace (the location of Mahanthji’s bungalow), he asked for Pankuj parashar to come and discuss the script with him. Our executive producer, however called me instead and there I was sitting in front of Raj ready to explain him the intricacies of the character.

To him, I decided to tell the story from his perspective:
“This is a story of relationship of a daughter with her father. For what he had done to her a long time back, he suffered for long 17 years without even having a glimpse of his beloved daughter. The movie begins with his cries and whispers…Shwetambari…and the same is heard by the daughter sitting thousands of miles away. Such is the bond between the two and yet….”

I narrated the script for an hour.
At the end of it, there was a smile on his face as he asked me to stop. He called the executive producer and told him to tell Pankuj that he was ready for the shot.

He is one of most brilliant actors I have come across. He improvises at will and with spontaneity.

Remember the scene where inspector comes to tell him the news of Soham’s murder.
Mahanthji (Raj) is busy in directing the servants to expedite the decorations as the marriage was only a few hours away. There were the usual dialogues about firing the servants. Instead he murmured…Kahna gaya wo nalayak Rati Shankar..Kuchh kaam nanhi kiya…We all laughed because Rati Shanker was the name of the local production manager.

There were several instances where he improvised the dialogues to some beautiful effects.

Mahanthji’s (Mahendraji’s) role was one of the most complicated ones and he made it look so easy. All credit goes to Raj for his outstanding performance in the movie.

An appreciation for Banaras

2006-10-07T18:51:00.000+05:30

I would like to share with you, a letter that I received today from Steve Spraitzar (California USA), a person, not personally known to me, who saw Banaras, and wrote to me asking for this blog’s url. He now writes me another letter, which I thought of sharing with you.

"Dear Mr Singh,

Thank you for providing to me the name of your blog. When I looked through the blog, I was amazed at how much material there is on your blog. Also, the way it is written clearly shows that it is a labor of love.

When I first saw your movie, I thought that you were fortunate to be able to get Urmila Motandkar, Ashmit Patel and Naseeruddin Shah. However, after seeing it the second time, I had different reaction. I thought, how fortunate were these actors to be a part of Banaras. I hope that in your blog, you will be able to include some reactions of your actors in working on your movie. I recall the emotional times that Ashmit Patel had in his hotel room after shooting the scenes where the Buddha crossed the river. Perhaps there are other moments that you could include.

My hunch about your film is that it will grow in greater popularity as time passes. The film “It’s a wonderful Life”, starring Jimmy Stewart and directed by Frank Capra, did not do well when it was released in 1948. However, as the years passed, the time-enduring values of the themes of the movie struck a chord with the public, and for many years, it has been probably the number one film shown during the Christmas season. It is my prediction that the same type of endearment with the public will happen with Banaras.

On another topic, I thought you might enjoy a DVD that was recently released on a towering spiritual figure who had some of his major work in your area, Avatar Meher Baba. He was born and went to school in Pune, and his Samadhi is located in Meherabad, close to Ahmednagar. The DVD gives a good synopsis of his life and the tremendous scope of his life’s work.

My best to you, your company, and your family.

Sincerely,

Steve Spraitzar"

I would like to humbly thank Steve for making the effort to write his appreciation for the movie and my blog. On such times as this, I consider myself blessed to discover the connections in our world.
I take Steve’s suggestions and would share other actors/ technicians experiences while shooting in Banaras.

Buddha's first sermon

2006-09-28T10:26:00.001+05:30

I was to write a detailed “thesis” on the first sermon of Buddha, instead I decided to write a summary.
Derived from the original text, is the essence of Buddha’s first sermon.

The First Sermon:

Life is suffering; Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Presence of objects we hate, is suffering; separation from objects we love, is suffering; not to obtain what we desire, is suffering. In short… clinging to existence is suffering.

The cause for all suffering is the craving for pleasure, prosperity and existence and the same may be caused to cease by giving up every passion and every desire.

The Truth of the Path which leads to the cessation of suffering is the eightfold Path: Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Endeavor, Right Memory and Right Meditation.

I was very tempted to replace the word “right” by “simple” from the above text which would have taken away the “judgment” part from the world “right”, but I leave it to my readers to do that, if they so please

Sarnath: The first sermon of Buddha ..contd

2006-09-21T14:23:00.000+05:30

Soon after enlightenment, Buddha sat in solitude when a thought occurred to him: "The Dhamma (Dharma) I have realized is deep, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, beyond mere reasoning, subtle, and intelligible to the wise but this generation delights, revels, and rejoices in sensual pleasures. It is hard for such a generation to understand the knowledge have I attained."

(Imagine, what Buddha said 2500 yrs back still sounds so true)

Thinking thus, Buddha became determined not to teach the Dhamma, but on surveying the world with his mental eye, he saw beings in acute pain and suffering. The Master then declared his readiness to proclaim the Dhamma in this solemn utterance:

"Open are the doors of the Deathless.
Let those that have ears repose trust."

Buddha then began his journey to Banaras (Sarnath) to give the first sermon to his one time ascetic friends.He ravelled 150 miles for 60 days to reach the dear park, where they used to live.

The five ascetics, seeing the Buddha from afar, discussed among themselves: "Friends, here comes the ascetic Gotama who gave up the struggle and turned to a life of abundance and luxury. Let us ignore him."

But when the Buddha approached them, they were struck by his dignified presence and they failed in their resolve. One went to meet him and took his alms bowl and robe, another prepared a seat, and still another brought him water. The Buddha sat on the seat prepared for him, and then delivered his first sermon.

First sermon...to continue

Sarnath, where Buddha gave his first sermon

2006-09-20T22:03:00.000+05:30

The stream of Buddha's teachings first flowed at this sacred spot in the deer park. For 1500 years thereafter, monastic traditions are known to have flourished at this sacred site.

In the 3rd. Century Emperor Ashoka is known to have erected the 15.24m high column, with four lions: symbolizing Ashoka's imperial reign and Buddha's religious rule.

Sarnath is home to the 6th Century "Dharmekha" stupa. Dhamekh stupa is a cylindrical tower, 143 feet x 93 feet. The stones in each layer were held together by iron clamps, the tower itself, dating back to the Gupta period. Sarnath was razed to the ground in 1194 by Qutbuddin Aibak. Dhamekha stupa houses a stone tablet, to mark the site where Buddha delivered his first sermon. The stupa stands tall at 31.3 m high and 28.3m. in diameter, with finely chiseled lotus wreaths, running over carved swastikas.

If you remember the movie Banaras, you would remember the visual importance given to this stupa. The most dramatic use of the stupa was done, when Babaji is shown playing flute, on the death of Soham, symbolising the liberation of the soul and complete Nirvana state attained by him.

We shall continue the ...first sermon....

courtesy... The history of Buddha....

The path to magnificence is paved with pain

2006-09-18T22:50:00.000+05:30

Life is synonym to pain. As long as there is life, there is pain.
Tulsidas said, "Janamat marat dusah dukh hoi",..meaning that living and dying, both are extremely painful.

It is certain that one who is born shall die. We all know it in theory. We understnad it intellectually, yet we never believe in it. We all would like to somehow evade it. Death is for others.... Pain is for others.... I am invincible. Somehow, for me everything would turn out diferently.

We are never prepared for the death.

However, one among billions, who have the courage to look into the eyes of the death and embrace it smiling, achieve the splendor of immortality.

Likes of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Sohams, choose to walk on the path of such magnificence even though in complete knowledge of the "pain".

I bow to such spirit.

The birds are now my neighbours

2006-09-12T21:18:00.001+05:30

Some time back, I mentioned about the pair of birds (bulbuls), who have been trying to speak to me.

Well finally, I must have communicated to them something that they have decided to trust me :) I say this because just outside my office window, in my roof garden, on top of a christmas tree, they decided to make their nest.I noticed that yesterday, when among a lot of commotion (between them), they began to build their nest and since my office has are very large glass windows, I decided to keep them opened. It was a beautiful sight just watching them accomplish the half way mark by the end of day, yesteday.

Today, they began the work very early and by noon, the nest was ready. My excitement was infectious as that must have affected others. Someone went out to actually see and touch the nest just to look at the marvel creation of this amazing pair.The birds were obviously not happy that someone touched their nest and decided to lodge a complaint with me.

The male (I guess) came and sat a feet away from me and said things. I don't think I have mastered their language yet, yet, I more or less understood the underlying complaint, and instructed all including the gardener, not to go near their nest.

The pictures were taken with my mobile.

It was a beautiful feeling that I was filled with for the whole day. What a beautiful life. All they have to worry is to build a nest and reproduce beautiful loving children not unlike themselves.

Upanishads Vs Science.......contd.

2006-09-11T20:42:00.000+05:30

Let's now turn towards science. Giant leaps have we taken in the last century. The progress in electronics, genetics, communications and cosmology have been of unimaginable proportions. Every now and then science discovers something so profound, that, our life transforms for ever.

Yet there is something which worries me and I am sure worries you.

Where are we being led to?

Among the expanding cosmos, billions of Galaxies, trillions of stars separated by billion light-years of distance, hanging on to the surface of an obscure planet rotating at a speed of 75000 miles' hour, what are we doing here?

Can science ever reach the truth?
Let us examine the limitations of science.

The very first law of thermodynamics says that mass and eneregy can't be created or destroyed, they can only be changed from one state to the other. It's a very profound theory of science. In summary it means that despite all the progress that we may make in future, we would not be able to CREATE or DESTROY even one obscure(?) atom.

All we do is discover and manipulate what is already inherent in the nature.

The beauty of the world is that it is not a result of some accident, but a well conceived and miraculously executed, intricately designed unfathomable reality
where evrything is connected in a manner that the whole creation is a single living entity. Every particle of the universe is aware, complete (Purnam) and alive (conscious) and the creator of this miracle, is none other than you (Tat Twam Asi).

The truth is that you are lost in your creation.

The whole world is created out of your intentionality only because you wanted to be
and thus the Shloka from the Upanishad .. Purnamidah purnamidam...which defines the whole creation and its relationship with you and God

Let's now put in context the reason that Babaji changed Sohan's name to Soham.

Sohan means what’s pleasing to the senses referring to this, idam.
Soham refers to I, the Brahm, that, Adah.

Thus, we see Sohan’s name being changed to Soham, signifying that the truth was to be found inside one’s own self.

Jab tum ho to yeh shrishti hai
Jab tum nanhi to kuchh bhi nahni

(Because you are, there is creation,
When you are not, there is no creation)

Here the first you is meant to be referring to the Brahm ( Thou Art That ),
meaning because of you ( the Brahm) there is creation (the corporeal world).
The second you refers to your physical existence clarifying that, when you ( equipped with your sensory and cognitive abilities) are not here (in the world), creation disappears, signifying the world to be a mere illusion.

The text above needs to be read very carefully and meditated upon.

Upanishads Vs Science

2006-09-09T11:12:00.000+05:30

Meeta asks me to tell more about how the Upanishads' gyan would be tomorrow's science, as stated in the movie Banaras.

Some people may have wrongly interpreted it to be my mere enthusiam towards Upnishads and now, fotunately for me, Meeta gives me the chance to explain.

I am going to introduce you to the first Shloka of
Ishavasya Upanishad, which is a kind of prayer, to demonstrate the deep understanding of the creators of Upanishads.Even though they must have lacked the research facilities of today to be able to make statements on their understanding of the creation, the Shloka clearly demonstrates their ability to have been able to overcome their limitations, by ways unfamiliar to us today, and understand the truth that we yet struggle to comprehend.

purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purnamudachyate
purnasya purnaamadaya purnameva vashishyate.

There was this Englishman, who was something of a scholar, asked a pundit to teach him the Upanishads. The pundit, agreeing, began the course of study with Ishavasya Upanishad, the text traditionally studied first by a new student. The text begins with the prayer verse: "Om purnamadah purnamidam….."

The pundit carefully translated the opening verse into English:

That is whole; this is whole;
From that whole this whole came;
From that whole, this whole removed,
What remains is whole.

The Englishman stopped his study at that point and did not go
further! He said that the Upanisads are the "prattlings of an
infantile mind."

The incident was not very unlike the movie Banaras. If you look at the mere surface and make a judgment, it too is “"prattling of an infantile mind."

The first two lines of the verse reads:

Purnam adah - completeness is I, the subject Atma, whose truth is
Brahman ("Soundles, touchless, colourless, immutable and also tasteless, timefree,odourless is that (which is Brahman)

Purnam idam - completeness is all objects, all things known

purnat - from (adah) purnam, completeness, which is limitless
Brahman, the content of aham-I, the efficient and material cause of
creation;

purnam - (idam) purnam, completeness, which is the known and
knowable objects comprising the world, idam jagat, the effect called
creation;

udacyate - comes forth.

Purnasya purnam AdAya - taking away purnam from purnam, adding
purnam to purnam
Puruam eva avashishyate - purnam alone remains

I am Purnam. ( Aham Brahashmi)

The reality of I is limitless purnam. I, as the observer of a stone, am
but an appearance, no more real than the stone I see. In reality I
am limitlessness alone, one nondual existent boundless consciousness -
purnam. Subject and object are nothing but passing projections
superimposed upon I; they neither add to I, nor take anything away
from I. I, unconnected to any appearance, am the one unchanging,
non-negatable formless reality - Purnam - into which all appearances
resolve.

I am Purnam, completeness, a brimful ocean, which nothing disturbs.
Nothing limits me. I am limitless. Waves appear to
dance upon my surface but are only forms of me, briefly manifest.
They do not disturb or limit me. They are my glory - my fullness
manifest in the form of waves. Though the Waves may seem
to be many and different but I know them as appearances only; they
impose no limitation upon me - their agitation is but my fullness
manifest as agitation; they are my glory, which resolves in me.

In me, the brimful ocean, all resolves. I, Purnam, completeness, alone
remain.

To be continued...

(ref: Swami Dayanand Sarswati's commentary)

To die for love:: To love for ever:

2006-09-04T22:17:00.000+05:30

"Respected Mr Singh,

There is one thing I want to ask. While, watching the movie I felt as if Soham knew that there is some threat to his life and still he accepted it the way it came.

Looking forward for your reply

yourblogger"

Yourblogger,
"Jo dil ko achha lage uske liye to jaan dena bhi achha lagta hai".

In the quest for the truth, there comes a time, when awareness transcends the boundary between life and death. On the scale of eternity, what is the significance of a few lives, especially when those are given away in the path of love!

Remember, Laila-Majnu, Siri-Farhad and Romeo-Juliet?
They all knew what they were doing and yet, they did what was the only thing they ought to.

Love is a feeling which dissolves our physical world giving birth to a new dawn of blissful reality, where death seems like a miniscule gift for someone you love.

Destiny of all:
The place where Soham was cremated

Urmila on the Premier

2006-09-04T17:20:00.000+05:30

That made my day:

On the day of the premier Urmila and Matondkar family sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers which said all that needed to be said. I feel like sharing that with all of you.

I would like to take this opportunity to laud her efforts and wish her the best in life.

A dinner with Ashmit Patel aka Soham

2006-08-26T15:50:00.000+05:30

On thursday night, Ashmit and I met up for dinner. We discussed a number of things and among them figured Banaras, an obvious bond between us.

We started sharing our experiences about how many people seem to be connecting with the movie and their responses. Some of them are already posted on this blog but many names have been kept private.

I showed him his very ardent fan “Meeta’s Blog (http://banaras-meeta.blogspot.com/) where she has put just his eyes.

Ashmit gave his usual very humble smile, when he read “Ashmit : good looking ???? Before this movie I wouldn’t have agreed, now I can’t stop at thinking him anything less than DIVINE.. lol

We sat on the dinner table as the food was served. After taking a glance at the laid out dishes, Ashmit looked at me and remarked.. “Sir Kaddu… again...”.

Let me relate to the story of “kaddu” before proceeding further. Being a minimalist simple vegetarian, most of the days during the shoot in Banaras, I used to have Kaddus (White Pumpkin) at the Taj. In the early days, once Ashmit came to the dinner table and asked me if he could share my dinner. For the next 40 days that sharing became a routine, so much so that even when I go to Taj-Ganges today, chef remembers to cook our favorite Kaddu dish.

After the dinner, I asked him the question that many of the viewers have asked me often, “ Will you please describe as to what did you really experience while shooting at Sarnath during the enlightenment scene?”

In Ashmit’s own words: (in quotes)

“I still find it difficult to explain and articulate what I experienced at Sarnath (sounded more like his own dialogue in the movie), but I have given it a lot of thought and have been trying to put some logic to it. For me it seemed like a natural progression that soham went through in his life and not unlike that, I too have progressed, though in my own little way. I say this because just before traveling to shoot for Banaras, I had been going through some very bad patch in my personal life, which had made me to question the purpose of life. And who I am?

While shooting for the film, the Soham’s character started resonating so well with my own inner self that I truly became “Soham” even though temporarily. I am not saying that I am enlightened like Soham was, but certainly I went through a “moment” at Sarnath which yet lingers.

As a child I have always been an introvert, reflective and loving, and would easily empathize with people so much that it would I would seem weak to others. The trait still lives in me, though I masquerade to look tough and independent in order to project a brave image. Today I am still a very soft compassionate and a connected human being and people who are close to me easily experience that. However there are people who have made up their mind to see me in a particular light and they continue to see me in their own image, irrespective what I am today.

Every movie that I have acted in, barring one or two, there have been a shade of me in all those characters, however with Soham I had a complete identification and also that I am influenced by what happened to me in Banaras and has huge bearing on my future. However I prefer to not to talk about those at this time but yes coming to the original question, Banaras did change me.

I believe that if Banaras the movie, can bring about change even in handful of people, which I know has already done so to more than that, it would have achieved its meaning and purpose much more than all the mega blockbusters combined have been able to.

In short, true Ashmit is much close to Soham than the image that people may have of me in their minds.

I have been lacking in use of simple technology like email, and I would like to apologize to my fans, but if you have questions for me, please post it on Mr. Singh’s blog here, and he has promised to send them to me using other means.

All the best and love you all.

Ashmit”

In the end, I asked a question as to which song was his favorite, as he replied "kitna pyar", though earlier it used to be "Ishq mein dil ko paagal".

He also related an incident when he travelled to US recently. A number of elderly people came to him and blessed him for his divine role as Soham.

Dadi: "The Super Woman"

2006-08-23T22:05:00.000+05:30

Dadi: The sweeper woman

In Banaras sweepers are called “Bhangi”. In fact we had shot the dialogues with the word Bhangi. Luckily, in time we learnt that censor board would have huge objection to that word (Though,if you have seen Omkara, you know how flexible they can be on these matters, if you have right pulls).

Any way we replaced the word “Bhangi” by “Kam jaat”

Dadi’s character was one of the earliest ones conceived.
She was to be an uneducated and a very wise woman who had seen life from very close quarters. She would have to be able to relate to the dilemma of the child, Soham, who was being persecuted in the school by the Brahmin teachers and boys, and be able to guide him towards the great path of the sages.

There were several scenes in the original story, highlighting how Soham was growing up under the prudent guidance of Dadi.

I will describe a scene that was not in the movie:

Soham is lying in a cot by the side of Dadi. They are seen in the dim light of a lantern. He is sad because of the persecution from boys in the school.. Dadi holds Soham’s palm and points out towards his five fingers.

“Sohan, (pointing at the little finger of the palm)…you are born here… you have to try harder…”

Dadi's role was an important one in Banaras and I was very determined to cast someone fresh. One day I went to see an English play in Bombay and as I watched the lead player perform, I was mesmerized. At the end of the play I met her back stage and offered her the role.

That was Meenal Patel, the veteran stage actor, whom we now know as Dadi.

Spiritual, Splendid, Saintly & Sacred, Banaras

2006-08-22T15:10:00.000+05:30

Greetings from New Media & myself.

At the outset, let me congratulate you and your team for making a wonderful movie ‘BANARAS’. The film reflects the true picture of vibrant and mystic city, where every thing is possible due to Lord Shiva’s abode and people name those things as spiritual, splendid, saintly, sacred etc.

After my retirement from the services of Ministry of Defence since June 1991, ‘BANARAS’ is the first movie; I watched it fully without any interruption. Reasons being bonding theme, melodious lyrics & music, magnificent performance by the actors, excellent direction, good camera movements and light effects.

I pray to ‘Lord Shiva’ to grant you requisite strength to produce more film like ‘BANARAS’, if you intent to continue the filmmaking.

With warm regards and wishing you all the best.

R K Prasad
Chairman
New Media Communications Pvt.Ltd.

"Heavy stuff", Banaras Album and other stories

2006-08-20T22:32:00.000+05:30

Today I visited Music world, an important retail store in Pune to buy some DVDs and Hindustani classical albums.

Incidentally I looked at the prominent display position for bestseller albums and was very pleased to find BANARAS album displayed. There must have been some 20 titles in all.
I also noticed 3 of them had special notes from the retail store. Among them was a bold note calling the album as "HEAVY STUFF".

It was an intriguing remark. Maintaining my anonymity, I asked the salesman as to what did they mean by heavy-stuff? His reply was swift:

"These days the store is full of funky stuff but when people who understand music come to the store, we don't want them to miss Banaras as it's real classy stuff."

Believe me, just to impress the guy, I paid 150 Rs and bought a CD of Banaras.

Another Story:

Today, I received a call from Ramakant, the actor who played Purnanand in Banaras.
He was really excited. Since I didn't recall his name, he reminded me that he was Purnanand. Though I was embarrassed, but it worked.

He said that he received a call from his Guru, who according to Ramakant( Purnanand), is a great sage.He informed Ramakant that he saw Banaras 7 times and at the scene where Babaji was revealed to be dead for hundreds of years, he cried every time, as he was reminded of his own Guru.

There are people more knowledgeable than we, who are able to connect with Banaras more easily than many of us.

Manifestations of God

2006-08-14T00:17:00.000+05:30

PiCture...Courtesy, Prem, Chicago

Today I was playing with my cat. The cat played for no other reason than for the play. It was totally involved while it played. It became the play. Its body, legs and the eyes were all in alert, as I was throwing the foam ball. It would every time intercept it in the mid air and deflect it back in my direction. I admired its knowledge of the rules of the game as it would not hit the ball second time irrespective of where the ball went. After hitting once it would assume the next turn to be mine.

I watched a flying insect that was carrying a piece of leaf, four times its size, and trying to enter a plastic cavity hanging from the roof in my balcony and attempting 20 times before succeeding. The insect’s persistence reminded me of “Krmanye Vadhikaraste...” from Gita and I smiled to myself that only humans have to be reminded of such common sense by no less than God, which insects know it all by them selves.

Then I saw a pair of very pretty little birds sitting two feet away from me and talking to each other. Later they both tried saying something to me. After a while, the two, carrying long portion of green leaves, again came and sat near me. I think, that, fed up with the recent rains, they were building a nest somewhere close by. I am not sure, but I think they were trying to seek some help from me…..I really do…

We live in a miraculous world but are so full of ourselves that we are unable to see the beauty in our lives and remain isolated from experiencing the presence of God.

People like Soham get connected to everything. They are never alone. They experience the beat of life in everything around them as they live a zillion lives in every alive moment transcending the boundary between life and death and experience the presence of God through his manifestations...

Location hunting: Babaji, Shwetambari and Kabir Muth

2006-08-09T22:17:00.001+05:30

Kabir is one the most esoteric sage- poets of Banaras. He lived in the during 15th century. He was found abandoned as a child, much like Soham, and was picked up by a Muslim weaver family.

Kabir was born with a burning desire to seek the truth. He would go on the Banaras ghats and look for anybody who could teach him the path to reach the destination. The Hindu Gurus for obvious reasons kept away from him. However Kabir was a very determined soul. There was a famous guru named Ramanand who used to go to Panch Ganga ghat to take bath in the vee hours of the morning. One day Kabir went and slept on one of the stairs of the ghats and waited for Ramanand to return after taking his bath in the Ganages. In darkness Swami Ramanand’s foot went over his body and he uttered “ Ram”. Ramanand accepted him as his disciple to the great opposition of the people of Banaras.

Kabir was an illiterate and he learnt only one word to read and write “ Ram”, which said to have become his mantra.

Legend says that he reliquished his body when he was about 120 years old. There is a famous legend about his death; When he died, his Hindu and Muslim followers started fighting about the last rites. When they lifted the cloth covering his body, they found flowers instead. The Muslim followers buried their half and the Hindu cremated thier half. In Maghar, his tomb and samadhi still stand side by side.

The social and practical manifestation of Kabir's philosophy has rung through the ages. It represented a synthesis of Hindu, and Muslim concepts. From Hinduism he accepts the concept of reincarnation and the law of Karma. From Islam he takes the affirmation of the single god and the rejection of caste system and idolatry. The basic religious principles he espouses are simple. According to Kabir, all life is an interplay of two spiritual principles. One is the personal soul (Jivatma) and the other is God (Paramatma). It is Kabir's view that salvation is the process of bringing into union these two divine principles.

Kabir is a very important figure in Indian history. He is unusual in that he is spiritually significant to Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims alike. Kabir openly criticized all sects and gave a new direction to the Indian philosophy. Kabir touches the soul, the conscience, the sense of awareness and the vitality of existence in a manner that is unequalled in both simplicity and style.

When we needed to shoot the ashram of Babaji, we were keen to show the Kabir ashram. We met the authorities of the Kabir muth at Kabir Chaura and they readily agreed. Since the Ashram is at the end of a narrow lane, we had big logistical problems while shooting inside the ashram. We owe a lot to the keepers of the ashram who allowed us to put a statue in the important place inside the ashram, even though Kabir always ridiculed the idol worship.

I am sure you remember the scene where Shwetambari learnt that Babaji had been dead for hundreds of years. That plcae used to be the abode of saint Kabir.

Location hunting: Krishnamurthy Mission

2006-08-07T22:40:00.000+05:30

We wanted to shoot a very important place where Buddha crossed Ganges.
Before giving the details of the shoot, I would like to give a little background:

It may be recalled that in 500 B.C, disillusioned with life, Siddhartha began his search for the truth as he left his princely state and wandered for six years but found nothing. Disillusioned again, was possibly on his way back to his estate, when he attained enlightenment in Gaya (Bihar) about 300 kilometers east of Banaras, and became the Buddha. He chose not to speak to people there about his experience, which he had in Gaya under the Boddhi tree, instead he began to walk west, which he did so continuously for the next 60 days to reach Banaras.

While doing research itself we got determined to show the spot where Buddha would have crossed Ganges while on his way to Sarnath (in the vicinity of Banaras). During investigations, we came across somebody who had put the same question to J. Krishnamurthy while they were walking on the bank of Ganges and Krishnamurthy had pointed out the exact spot where Buddha had crossed Ganges. J. Krishnamurthy clearly had used his mystical abilities and would have envisioned Buddha crossing the Ganges. We, therefore, decided to show where J. Krishnamurthy used to meditate under the peepal tree and in the same shot the place where Buddha crossed the Ganges.

Unfortunately that spot was inside the Krishnamurthy mission. I say unfortunately, because the mission never allows any shooting inside the campus. I approached the director of the institute Mr. Dalal, who along with his colleagues, went into discussion with me and my colleagues on the significance of shooting inside the campus. He was eager to understand the credibility of our research and the depth of our understanding of Krishnamurthy’s philosophy. After long hours of discussion, he finally allowed us to shoot on the very spot. We were and even now are very grateful to them for allowing us to shoot at such a holy location.

Remember the shot when Babaji asks Soham referring to a prince having walked 300 kilometers and crossing Ganges and Soham replying that he could see everything. There were visuals of the shadow and silhouette of Buddha and some followers walking on the bank of Ganges. Babaji meets Shwetambari for the first time and professed that she had the ability to overcome her fears.

While shooting, there was a large crowd of students from inside the mission campus who flocked around the scene. We were very proud we could show such profound personalities as Krishnamurthy and Buddha, though living in different times, but in the same shot.

Sohams Don't die in Banaras

2006-08-03T21:28:00.000+05:30

The final benediction:

Gayatri Devi was a mother. Just a mother. She acted in a manner of the most primitive instinct of a mother to protect its child. That’s why I never saw an evil in her character and that’s why, possibly, you never feel any ill will towards her even when you learn the truth and that’s also the reason why Shwetambari is able to understand her action so very easily.

Her act was her love for her daughter gone haywire, that’s all.

Imagine her pain she would have had to bear when she would be told that Shwetambari was leaving Banaras for ever.

Imagine the hell that a mother had to live knowing how she had ruined the life her only child. Imagine the pain she have had to bear all by herself, as she could not tell her tale even to Mahendranath. Imagine the days and nights she would have cursed her soul and cried for her daughter.

Imagine, the nail she would have felt piercing right through her heart, when she learns that Shweta knew all along what she had done. It is then, that she completely breaks down.

That was the moment of the truth. A point for complete transformation. No more struggle. No more fighting to conceal things. A total submission. A mother falling on the feet of her daughter.

“Tu kaun hai Shwetambari?”
That was the climax of the movie. The mother asking her daughter,” Who are you, Shwetambari?”

At that moment, mother gets ready to "receive", as she transcends her physical existence as Shwetambari is able to feel the true being of Gayatri Devi. It is then, that she offers her the grace by showing her the ultimate truth, that Sohams don’t die in Banaras.

"Soham must die": Gayatri Devi... contd...

2006-07-29T12:22:00.000+05:30

Gayatri Devi was obviously born in royalty. She was possibly the pampered child of the rich and aristocratic parents. Being a girl child, she would, however, have obtained up to only a middle level education available in the local town even though she would be a brilliant scholar. She would have cried for higher education, as the parents would have denied her sending to city in the fear of risking the honor of the family.

When parents would have found Mahendranath, the rich, well educated and honorable boy of the Mahanth’s son of Banaras, they must have considered their daughter extremely lucky. She would, no doubt, have brought huge wealth as dowry that would have given her a huge stature and social power in the city of Banaras. Mahendranath too, must have considered himself lucky having gotten a wife who was beautiful, intelligent and regal.

Time passed and the worries grew, as the couple didn’t conceive a child. They went to temples, worshipped the Gods and visited Godmen. When they had lost complete hope of a child, lord Shiva blessed them with the beautiful Shwetambari. She became the pupil of their eyes. They would both do anything to see their blessed child happy.

Shwetambari would remember how her mother would take her to temples and how people would bow in front of her very proud mother. She would always be in awe of her. She respected her mother immensely but grew closer to her gentle father, Mahendranath, who was much more liberal, tolerant and philosophical.

Shwetambari was an exceptionally bright child and got easily admitted to the local university. Since she didn’t have to leave the house, Gayatri Devi, though not entirely happy, allowed Shwetambari to continue studies. Gayatri Devi would have been happier if her daughter would have just learnt music, embroidery and cooking and been married early to a nice Brahmin boy.

When Shwetambari begins to take interest in music, Gayatri Devi becomes hopeful. She assumes the music teacher to be an old man and therefore never saw any risk in Shwetambari leaning music from him. However when she sees Soham on the holi day, she gets terribly upset. When she tries to talk to Mahendranath, he asks her to take things lightly. However, Gayatri, since alerted, must have discussed her doubts with Mahamaya.

Mahamaya loved Shwetambari as her real sister and felt extremely protective towards her. Therefore, no sooner than he hears of her being seen with Soham in Sarnath, that he comes to report to Gayatri and Mahendranathj

Things take a serious turn after the parents confront their daughter.

Imagine the state of Gayatri. She would have demanded Mahendranath to stop Shwetambari’s education and get her married immediately. Mahendranath would have promised that he would be able to talk Shwetambari out of this. Mahendranath’s words must have sounded hollow to Gayatri, as he knew her daughter better. She also knew the limits to which a “liberal” Mahendranath would go to sort things out, therefore she isolates herself and begins to prepare an alternative and independent plan to “protect” her “ignorant” child from the “evils” of Soham.

From this point onward she plays along with Mahendranath but begins pursuing her own path. She would not depend upon Mahamaya for the task because even though he was devoted to her, Mahamaya was in awe of Mahendranath. He would have never done a crime behind his back. After all Mahamaya knew that he was able to bend rules here and there to make a living only because of the mercies of Mahendranath.

On the other hand, Sevak Ram was much more devoted to her. She was a royal and she knew how to keep her servants loyal to her. Sevak Ram would do anything to protect the honor of the family. When she would have told Sevak Ram to get rid of the “ambitious monkey” who was trying to bring dishonor to the family, he would have felt duty bound to accomplish the task.

After the murder of Soham, Gayatri is nervous, not repentant. Nervous, not because “she” has done anything wrong but because she had not anticipated Shwetambari’s reaction to his death. She is nervous about the state of her daughter. Go and watch the movie again, she fiddles with her Sarees, looks here and there but never repentant. In fact we never had to try to shield her guilt to keep the suspense alive because she never had any guilt. Guilt would normally be associated with a murder done in a rage. The murder of Soham was done in cold blood. There was no wavering. It was a completely “rational” in the mind of Gayatri Devi.

Remember, the scene where Shwetambari overhears the parents talking about the plot of applying pressure on Soham to say “no” to the marriage, and Gayatri saying, innocently, ”What else could have we done? Could we have given our daughter to a sweeper?”

This statement summarizes the character of Gayatri. There is no malice in it. It is stated as a mere a necessity.

In Gayatri’s mind, she committed NO crime. What she did was merely to protect her daughter from the evil designs of Soham. Soham could not be allowed to be in love with Shwetambari. He had no right to be. Soham could not be allowed to live. He had to die.

Love, Betrayal and Compassion

2006-07-25T10:43:00.000+05:30

Gayatri Devi, the cultured and the aristocratic:

Gayatrri devi’s character was designed to represent the ordinary and the most common.

The character has a façade that we all keep in front of our true selves. Unlike Gayatri however, who was blessed to have a daughter like Shwetambari, to break her spell, most of us live and die in complete illusion.

Gayatri Devi is born in aristocracy with a feudal mind and is used to getting things done her way. In her mind, what she does is all good and what she despises is all bad. She is used to writing the rule book. Though her regal beauty and inherited royalty still rules in Banaras, she is ignorance personified... She is illustrative of the lives of the majority.

Imagine the paradox; a person who lives in Banaras in the company of the great masters remains full of fear, ego and lives in total illusion. On one hand you have Buddha, Kabir, Vyas and Kabir and on the other you have Gayatri Devi.

Just peek into the mind of a convoluted mother who actually believed that her action was to rescue Shwetambari out of the clutches of Soham. She convinced herself that her daughter had gotten completely insane in love and that she was incapable of knowing the consequences of her own act. This action of Gayatri Devi is also illustrative of how millions of parents interfere in the lives of their children with "insane" mind and impose upon them their thoughts that destroy the lives of their children.

On the other hand, Shwetambari loves her parents so much so, that despite learning the truth about Soham’s death, she is able to relate to the mind of her mother and forgive her. However there are millions of children who succumb to the wishes of parents but continue to hold a grudge against them for life time.

Shwetambari’s character depicts two vital points. First, that parent must listen to the children’s wishes, analyze and communicate to them their "wisdom" but never impose upon them; The second is that even if parents make a mistake, they may be forgiven, as their intents are seldom to harm the interests of their children.

In the next blog we will look into the psyche of a murderer who creates a perfect hell, suffers through and finally gets redeemed.

Gayatri's story continues.....

Gunjan: Touched by God

2006-07-23T01:57:00.000+05:30

Gunjan, the crook that got touched by the hand of God

Banaras is full of Gunjans. Inside the most famous temples, the narrow lanes and on the bank of the holy river Ganges. They are also called the thugs (crooks) of Banaras. To these wretched souls, making money in the name of God, riding on someone else's faith, is an opportunity to make a living. It's amazing that in the city which is said to be the abode of Shiva, there could be people who remain absolutely untouched by its great spritual energy. Gunjan was conceived to be one such character.

When he is caught red handed by Soham, his life takes a turn. It was not the Soham's words or the threat that caused to change Gunjan, it was his touch that caused the spell on him. The same person who was so selfish as to be exploiting and cheating people in the name of God becomes so selfless that he gives up everything including his city to keep the word given to Soham.

In life we do come across events which are capable of transforming lives even though not all of us get lucky enough to be touched by Soham.

Enlightenment and detachment: Dialogues contd.

2006-07-19T23:01:00.000+05:30

Viewer:

"Have you experienced (or been close to it) what Soham
experienced in Saarnath? Is it (enlightenment) a
journey that one can traverse gradually or a state (0
or 1)?
How about "Detachment"? Do you consider it a byproduct
of enlightenment or a separate exercise?"

LC

The experience that Soham went through at Sarnath was very personal one, that happened in the vicinity of a very high energy field (Buddha gave his first sermon after his enlightenment at the very spot). Ashmit experienced great vibrations during the shoot and even having been back in the hotel, kept crying for hours. My personal experiences of the truth has never been so dramatic as in the movie.

In my mind, enlightenment is certainly a moment. There are times before it and then the rest of the life after it. You are either enlightened or not. There can’t be stages. You may have started the journey, you may be closer to that moment but if you have not reached the destination, you may come back to the origin. So in a way it is either “0” or “1”.

However, Let me clarify that enlightenment need not be a “glamorous” event. You may be looking at the stars, you may be sitting on the bank of the Ganges or you may be in some kind of meditation, when it can suddenly happen.

Take the case of Shwetambari. Her trigger was, when she learnt about the secret of Babaji’s immortality though she didn’t get enlightened there.

When do you think was the true moment when Shwetambari got enlightened?

Detachment happens. You do not try and achieve detachment. With the knowledge of the truth, you experience the connections. You understand the nature of life and death. Your wandering mind suddenly siezes. Tranquility dawns. You may still remain active. You may still choose to be competitive. Yet, your act would contain that sense of detachment. You may still feel the pain and pleasure but they would never have the same impact again.

You suddenly understand the true nature of the world that it all exist strictly inside your mind and when you do that you are enlightened.

Neither enlightenment nor detachment are "exercises". There is no process which can be taught by anyone to you. This is a pathless journey. It begins with an investigation and ends with experiencing the truth. The path that you took is your own and may never be replicable.

I hope I have answered the questions raised, to the best of my ability.

Peace!!

Dialogues with the Viewer.. Contd.

2006-07-19T13:12:00.000+05:30

The remaining questions..Recap:

"I understand you come from Banaras and probably grew
up there. . . let me guess. . . your grandfather was a
very disciplined and spiritual being. Perhaps when you
have time . . .

Have you experienced (or been close to it) what Soham
experienced in Saarnath? Is it (enlightenment) a
journey that one can traverse gradually or a state (0
or 1)?
How about "Detachment"? Do you consider it a byproduct
of enlightenment or a separate exercise? Do you come
to US for any reason?"

Well yes, I have been in the vicinity of Banaras since the childhood and it's difficult for a sensitive ( taking the credit :)) mind not to be affected by it.

My grandfather had a very imposing persona. He was full time freedom fighter and gave up politics after the independence of India and refused to participate in the national politics. Though I do remember accompanying him in the public meetings of congress where he would be invited by the minsters etc as an honorable speaker. He didn't encourage us (my whole family) ever to enter politics and never allowed us to take favours from politicians, whom he knew very well. I distictly remember when the MLAs and MPs would come to take is blessings before taking the oath as ministers.

He believed in God in a very strage way. He never worshiped an idol but believed that we were created to accomplish our tasks dutifully to the best of our ability rather than wasting time in reciting God's name. He would often collect the idols from the small temple (which my father had buily for self) and throw them in a pond, saying that my father needed to grow on his own feet rather than walking with a crutch of those idols.

Much later, when my grandfather was no more, I asked my father, as to whether he ever resented his father? His reply really shook me.My father replied that quite the contrary he viewed his father as a saint. This dulity used to puzzle me for a long time. I wondered which was the right path?

Thus began my own investigation into the truth.

Today, as I write this piece my father, grand father and grandmother are no more in their body but in memory and in spirit, they live inside me. They all were noble souls who took very different paths but reached the same destination. My mother is now 92 but still meditates for 2 hours every day and is a follower of Kabir..

Banaras, therefore,is aptly dedicated to my parents and grandparents.

The answers would continue in the next blog.

Dialogues with a viewer of Banaras

2006-07-16T11:28:00.000+05:30

I am reproducing a portion of dialogues which I have had recently with someone I have not met personally. These would answer some of the latent questions which others may have in their mind.

Viewer:

Dear Mr. Singh,

I do have a few questions:
What was your process/reasoning behind selecting
Mr. Himesh Reshammiya for the music direction?

Is the story of Banaras an end result of trying to
weave the spiritual essence of Hindu mythology OR did
the story come first and then you wove the
spirituality into it?

Can you share your inspiration behind the story?

LC:

Himesh appealed to me as an engmatic young composer with good knowledge of classical music (his father is a veteran). I also loved his compositions in Tere Naam. My requirement was to have melodies in Banaras gharana of classical Hindustani with contemporary style. My brief was for him to create something which lasts for the next 25 years.

The story originated in my mind in 80s and the three characters who appeared first, were Soham, Babaji and Shwetambari. I was obviousy influenced by Kabir who fascinates me no bounds. Spirituality was not an after thought. In fact the love story and the drama came later. I would not say I created the story on Indian mythology. It is based on personal experience and my own investigations of the truth. I would obviously be influenced by some masters whose knowledge I must have internalized.

My grandfather and father were the biggest influence on the story as my inspiration. They walked on two different paths and yet they both were highly enlightened beings. My grandfather left a distinct mark on me. There is also some intrigue I am born with perhaps.

There is so much more to say but for now, I may stop.

Viewer:

Dear Mr. Singh,

Thank you for the answers - which in turn have
inspired even more curiosity on my part to learn more
about you, your experiences and the influences.

When I watched Banaras for the first time I wasn't
aware of the music direction. I was so awed and taken
by the music along with alll the other aspects of the
movie. When I found out that music direction was by
Himesh, I was shocked and a bit disappointed in
myself. it showed me how biased I was in judging him
only based on his popular video albums & commercials.
I hope Himesh gets to create more music like he did
for Banaras.

You are right - there is no mythology or religion- it
revolves around the quest for truth.
Just before watching Banaras, I had read "The Razors's
Edge" by Somerset Maugham and had liked it a lot. The
lead character is driven by his quest for truth and
eventually finds enlightenment in Southern India with
a guru. Consciously and subconsciously I have compared
Banaras with "Razor's Edge" and wished I could read
"Banaras" the book and grasp more details which may
have been difficult to portray in a movie.

After watching the movie several times, I am still
under the spell of "Banaras" - may seem like a kind
of juvenile thrill having experienced something
totally unexpected. There are lot of great movies and
books on complex topics. One of the (many) things that
impressed me about Banaras is that you've done it with
a very subtle, light touch rather than rubbing it in.
That’s why Razor's Edge is now a distant second (to
me)compared to Banaras.

I wonder what difficulties you faced in producing the
movie. Did you have any experience with the industry?
And the risk of investing so much capital -
commercially was it a successful venture or did you
end up losing money? What can people like me do to
help you?

I understand you come from Banaras and probably grew
up there. . . let me guess. . . your grandfather was a
very disciplined and spiritual being. Perhaps when you
have time . . .

Have you experienced (or been close to it) what Soham
experienced in Saarnath? Is it (enlightenment) a
journey that one can traverse gradually or a state (0
or 1)?
How about "Detachment"? Do you consider it a byproduct
of enlightenment or a separate exercise? Do you come
to US for any reason?

LC:

No, I did not have any experience with the film industry and yet to think of how I developed the courage? Destiny, must that be.

I put in every penny that I had made without any hesitation and have no repentance for it. There is not much return to talk about. It's not that It caught me by surprise.

I had taken no help from anyone except that probably I spent the money that in a way belonged to my family, who very gracefully joined me as producers,

It doesn't bother me to be reduced to where it all began. Of course I will have to wait again to make some more money in order to take next steps but that's ok for me because that's how may be it's all designed to be.

I run an IT company in the mean while.

Would answer your other questions later.

Kitna pyar karte... A poet's version

2006-07-13T23:00:00.000+05:30

I persuaded Suman Sharma from US (whose comments appeared under separate post earlier) to do another version of "Kitna pyar karte". Now look at the amazing thing Suman has done:

Here is a portion of her mail:

"You have created a wonderful
movie with a spiritual message and also subtly crafted
many more current issues within this movie.

It continues to amaze me - such simple, elegant way
like a feather brush gently removing the dust off of
various items creating a wholesome landscape that
soothes all senses. It is like "Jaaki rahi Bhaavana
jaisi, Prabhu murati dekhi tin taisi" - it is all
there if one wants to see it.

Issues like:

-Caste System and its ills
-Struggle of an "educated" mind in practicing what it
preaches
-relationship between a father and daughter in its
grandest form
-Materialism trying to find solace . .
-Inherent dilemma of an expatriate
one could go on and on but for now, the song:

English rendering of "Kitna Pyar Karte Hain"
=====
The limits of my love for you. . .
My heart only knows!
Drudging thru the pond of life with no water
My heart only knows!

Tales of love flowing with these tears
Cries of longing that no one hears
That tender bond . . . now broken
All those promises . . . yet unspoken

How thoses memories haunt day & night
My heart only knows!

You are the dusk and dawn of my life
Filling my nights with starry skies
When awakened from illusion
The despair and desperation

To have the colors and lose the sight
My heart only knows!

=======

Regards, Suman"

"Banaras, a saga of the spiritual evolution of Indian souls"

2006-07-12T17:28:00.000+05:30

Dear Shri L.C. Singhji,

Namashkar. I think it would not be out of place to first
introduce myself and then say what I have to.

I am a product of B.H.U., a freedom fighter, completing the 89th
year of my life, a retired G.O.I. employee, a poet, novelist, short
story writer and essayist, with 18 works published so far. My epic
'Nachiketa' was released (in 1993) and praised by late Dr. Shanker
Dayal Sharma, the then President of India.

Now about 'Banaras.' Like any other movie, Banaras, too, can be
evaluated from various aspects. But it is the message of Banaras that
demands and has generated thoughtful discussion.

It may well be argued that the mystic message of Banaras is
spurious, that the spiritual evolution of Soham and Shwetambari and
the Conversion of Dr. Bhattacharya are all just a fig of imagination.
And it surely is so far the Nihilists.

Those, for whom say realisation
is complete the moment a mirror is placed before them, are perfectly
right tin decrying the message of 'Banaras. Still Shwetambari, by her
conduct, testifies Krishna's pledge in Bhagwadgita:

"Yo Mämpashyati sarwatra
Sarvam cha Mayi Pashyati,
Tasyäham Na Pranashyämi
Sa Cha Mein Na Pranashyati."

Not only does she herself see the departed Soham everywhere, she
makes her mother, too, envision him. A realised soul sees Him
everywhere, in everything, all the time.

The notion of nothingness does not ever supervene self-realisation, the merging of the individual soul (Atma) with the absolute (Parmatina).

As Tulsidas says, "Janat, Tumanhi Tumanhi Hoyi
Jayee." And that is Guru Baba in Banaras, present all the time,
anytime, everywhere, anywhere at free will; and yet nowhere. No one
knows where his abode is.

Watching Shwetambari rescuing and consoling her mother- the
murderer of her love, reminds what Tulsidas says:

"Nij Prabhumaya
Dekhanhi Jagat Kehi San
Karanhi Virodh?"

So, it is not nothingness, it is Sat-Chit-Anand, the attainment-
the realisation of eternal spiritual bliss pulsating in every
particle. It is this that has transformed Shwetambari, making her
unrecognizable even for her mother who, in amazement, asks: "Tu Kaun
Hai?"

Thus for me 'Banaras' is not a love story in the sense most of
the love stories depicted in movies are. I take it as a saga of the
spiritual evolution of individual souls, not as a triangular of
multiangular conflict of carnal innfatuations. But a struggle there
is, the struggle inherent in the evolution of the material into the
spiritual, the gradual transformation of Sohan (that which appeals to
the senses) into Soham (the personal ego blissfully merged with the
eternal truth), as also in the transformation of Shweta from a normal
love stricken maiden into a saintly spiritual being.

It is this evolution that appeals most. This evolution, this transformation
brings to mind what Sant Kabir says:

"Jab Mein Tha Tab Hari Naheen,
Ab Hari Hain Main Nänhi."

It may, perhaps, be said that the process of this spiritual
evolution required a bit more convincing, deeper delineation. Still
what has been depicted is revealing, morally soothing, spiritually
refreshing, elevating.

My sincer Congratulations and ardent wish to see more like
Banaras coming from you, before my eyes are closed.

With Regards,
Gangaratna Pandeya
USA

Kitna pyar - English version

2006-07-11T09:34:00.000+05:30

Several people have been looking for an authentic translation of this song. So here it is:

Kitna pyar karte

Music: Himesh Reshammiya
Singer: Himesh
Lyrics: Sameer

How I adore you, oh,
That's only known to my heart
How I live without my life, oh,
That's only known to my heart

I wrote my entire life to your name,
and filled my dreams with the starkness of solitude.
Why has creation turned against me,
Why am I haunted by this separation,

How hard is it living without you, oh,
That's only known to my heart

Tears fall and tell the tale of love,
Memory tortures me with your thoughts,
Shattered, I feel, without your love,
How time becomes a burden of the mind,

How the cries of heart tyrannize my life, oh,
That's only known to my heart

How I adore you, oh,
That's only known to my heart
How I live without my life, oh,
That's only known to my heart

"Banaras: A proud example of Indian creativity"

2006-07-10T19:06:00.000+05:30

I would like to share the feeling of someone after watching Banaras. I applaud her for making the effort to send me this mail. I would also like to thank Suman publicly for her appreciation.

"Dear Mr, Singh,

I would like to share with you my delight and
gratefulness after watching this beautiful movie.

Banaras embodies a wonderful yet thoughtful
combination of spiritual understanding, mysticism,
mature acting and direction neatly wrapped in a
musical, suspensful drama. The whole movie is so
graceful and serene.

Here in the US this movie affords a proud example of
Indian creativity that we can share with other
american friends.

I do hope that you are planning more initiatives like
this in the years to come.

Best Regards,

Suman Sharma"
USA

" Banaras: A spiritual poem in celluloid"..Prof. Murthy

2006-07-10T15:52:00.000+05:30

Prof. P N Murthy on Banaras

"Prof Murthy is one of the world authorities in systems engineering and also a scholar of Vedas, upanishads and Shankarachrya's Bhasyam. To say the least, he introduced me to the concepts of systems engineering and taught me to look at things holistically. Prof. Murthy was my coleague at TCS for 17 years and he continues to be an Advisor to TCS.
Prof. Murthy is also a film critic"

Banaras: An entrance to the heavens

Prof. P N Murthy wrote:

Dear LC,
You are a blessed soul.

The film is a spiritual poem in celluloid.

The soft and serene colors of the chiseled frames and the soulful music blend splendidly revealing the spirit and substance of the story. The narration is riveting. The songs are like the beautiful shining ripples on the quietly flowing majestic Gangaji. The song and dance sequence of the HOLI revelry is a magnificent and meaningful expression of the ecstasy experienced in that festival celebration. BANARAS captures the real India, the land of spiritual foundations of humanity.

I enjoyed every bit of it. It is a daring exploration of the seeker in a human being. It is impressive, comprehensive in conception and execution. Baba seems to be a personification of the truth that the Divine is ready to help any one who is seeking.

The sets are colorful and luxuriously simple, ancient in architecture with a modern touch. The film is a glittering, classic mosaic of all that goes into film making. It requires a consummate and inspired artist to give shape to a spiritual theme of eternal significance. This should win you and the team an award.
Congratulations again
regards

PN Murthy
Tata Consultancy Services Limited

Illusion, mystic and the nothingness

2006-07-09T12:44:00.000+05:30

Billy comments..

"So, if to know the truth is to occur by knowing first the self, and to truly learn these things we must first be free of all previous knowledge (or limits), then are we to be free of all self-idealization? Do we need to be free of our "knowledge" about ourselves AND the world?

Is the connection between truth and ourselves the connection of the definition of truth: that which exists? Whereas the Maya would be considered: that which does not exist?

And lastly, is the nothingness that is the "(ultimate) truth" simply complete openness free from the confines of definition and limits imposed by categorization in the form of previously gathered knowledge?"

My comments:

Self idealization happens because of the presence of “I”. “I” is nothing but the ego, which in turn, is the result of memory; explicit and implicit around our fears. To feel secure, we idealize in us.

However, we are not just a bundle of ego but an object with fragmented psyche. Our knowledge has happened while being forced to think in terms of family, town, nationality, caste, race, color, religion, beliefs, language, etc and the same is “colored” because of our fragmented approach of looking at the world. We could not be ready for the investigation, unless we are able to get out of our “divided” psyche,

Our knowledge ( I am not referring to our knowledge of driving or typing or reading etc which is required for us to survive) about ourselves and the world, is so hardened, that we are not free to look at the truth without prejudice. By freedom from knowledge is meant, that, while we remain “aware” of it, don’t allow it to interfere in the investigation.

Take the example of a mystic like Purnanand. He is not surprised that Shweta had met Babaji because of his knowledge (the immortality) of Babaji. On the other hand, Dr Bhattacharya applies his “rational” knowledge and ridicules Purnanand and later Shweta, when they merely speak the “truth”.

Is Dr Bhattacharya right in making presumption that Purnanand is fake and Shweta is not telling the truth, when he has no direct knowledge of the truth?

Dr Bhattacharya is “educated” and has practiced psychiatry very successfully. However he has never known mysticism (except what he must have heard as a child in Banaras). Yet he makes a judgmental comment!

The (ultimate) truth is not something which can ever be arrived at, by our sensory perceptions and fragmented mind and what we learn that way is nothing but illusion. A true mystic drops his sensory approach to looking at the world and is able to “see” the “connections” through meditation and entering into an “altered state”.

Nothingness (the ultimate truth) may only be perceived by the absence of our knowledge, sensory organs and the (mathematical) mind and if a mystic is able to do that by some means, he is closer to the truth than we are

Illusion, Nihilence and God

2006-07-07T22:49:00.000+05:30

Knowledge of the self

“If you want to know the truth, you will have to understand yourself. But to do that, first you will have to drop your knowledge….”….Purnanand says to
Dr Bhattacharya

Why is knowledge a hurdle to learning?
Well, let’s investigate the statement of the mystic.

The mystic, however, tells us that no investigation (the work of inquiring into something thoroughly and systematically) would be possible unless we drop our knowledge. He is obviously referring to our bookish and religious ideas, sensory knowledge, experiential disorders and our common prejudices. The mystic wants us to empty ourselves and be ready to investigate and receive the truth. He would like us to begin from a state of mind with no conditions (call it nihilence).

In the state of nihilence and in such a state alone, we can understand ourselves.

When we understand ourselves, the mystic says, we understand the truth; implying a connection between self and the truth. The link, we then discover, is that the (ultimate) truth is nothing but nothingness or the SI (Super Intelligence), call it God if you like.

In case of Dr Bhattacharya, who seems in the know of everything, is “cleansed off” his “knowledge” when Shwetambari “throws” him out of her house and tells him to go and seek the truth in the dark corners of Banaras. Dr Bhattacharya walks in a state of shock, devoid of his knowledge,finally sees the truth.

"God is dead"

2006-07-02T05:24:00.000+05:30

Yet, we feel his presence in Banaras.

“……………………….The death of God is a way of saying that humans are no longer able to believe in any such cosmic order since they themselves no longer recognize it. The death of God will lead, Nietzsche says, not only to the rejection of a belief of cosmic or physical order but also to a rejection of absolute values themselves—to the rejection of belief in an objective and universal moral law, binding upon all individuals. In this manner, it leads to nihilism, and it is what Nietzsche worked to find a solution for by re-evaluating the foundations of human values. This meant, to Nietzsche, looking for foundations that went deeper than the Christian values most people refuse to look beyond…”.............a part of the article from Time magazine published in 1966

The truth is, that, our kind of God is nothing more than a concept born out of our innate fear which has been systematically nurtured by all the religious institutions.

Looking around ourselves it feels as if after creating the cosmos, God just disappeared from the scene leaving his identity to be interpreted by the religions. This way, the God, who is otherwise beyond description, out of the reach of the sensory perception and inconceivable to our mind, got confined to some printed papers and gullible utterances. In the mean time religions have been reduced to nothing more than some dos and don’ts, false beliefs, thick boundaries and pure dogmas, while the God has been forgotten as dead. No wonder, there is so much hatred, violence and suffering in the world!

Where is the compassion on which every religion was supposed to have been founded?

In Banaras, the movie, there is only one theme which has been pursued and those who have seen the movie know that.

Soham is picked up by a sweeper woman who raises him like his own child and asks him to follow the path of Kabir.

Babaji explains to Soham the meaning of true prayer (Bending in fear is not a prayer). He also explains him the true nature of the world (Thou art that) and why is it at the brink of destruction.

Later, after the enlightenment, Soham explains to Shwetambari that love is the only truth which binds everything.

Purnanand’s words (Truth is simple) are aimed to break the dogmas of all religious preaching and to give you authority to look at things with completely different perspective. It is also to give you the right to direct experience and to make choices in complete awareness...

Finally, Shwetambari demonstrates the power of compassion and gives a glimpse of her world that she could create not because of her religious beliefs but because of her direct knowledge of the truth.

It is in the end when we witness her sitting, in calm, in front of the serene water reflecting the stillness of her own mind, that we begin to understand the evolution of Shwetambari.

And suddenly, we feel the presence of GOD.

Mahamaya, the villain

2006-07-01T00:05:00.000+05:30

Or an expose of our own prejudices.

In the movie Banaras a mystic love story, Mahamaya played a “villain”. But was he really a villain?

Mahamaya, with his obvious limited intellectual faculty, is trying to run a home and maintain his social stature. He was not shown to be a bundle of all virtues but then who is?
All that he could be charged was that he loved his sister, Shwetambari. Yet, somehow, we expected him to be the murderer. Was it his black attire or long “tilak” on the forehead?

We make our judgments at a subconscious level based on the conditioning of our mind, which is a result of our previous “knowledge” through TV, cinema or direct experience.

Just like Mahamaya, we have people around ourselves. They could be nice people yet we have our opinions. They may have never harmed anyone, they may never have ill feelings towards us but because they are loud, they resemble someone who had hurt us in childhood, someone whose behavior doesn’t conform to our knowledge of him being a good man, makes us look at them suspiciously.

Conversely, just as in the movie, you see good looking “decently dressed” people and you conclude them to be nice people. You could never conceive that someone who looked so normal could be so convoluted in the mind. Someone so graceful and well dressed could murder someone.

This how we assign label to people. He is a good man. She is a bad girl. That neighbor of mine is a smuggler. The man in the beard is a terrorist.

Mahamaya was not created as a villain. The character was created to trick your mind and expose its own weakness to you.

If it's not music, It is not Banaras

2006-06-29T20:22:00.000+05:30

Music, Meditation, Mysticism and Banaras

Would you recall Dr Bhattacharya gasping for air and being pushed around by the Sadhus inside Lolark Kund? I bet you were preparing yourself for Dr Bhattacharya to collapse and possibly die any minute.

You may also recall the chorus of chants which was playing on the back of the violent notes of piano depicting the agony of Dr Bhattacharya.

That has always been one my favorite scenes ….and that background music was written as a part of the first draft of the script.

The background score of Banaras is the highlight of the film and is the key in creating an atmosphere of meditation and mysticism. We had put a huge amount of research in choosing the chants and the hymns.

Remember the vibrations of; Buddham Sharanam Gachhami…
Asato ma sadgamaya, Tamaso ma …

Music is an integral part of the mystical Banaras. We needed a voice which touches the divinity and yet remains human.

We chose the professional “ yet sweet and innocent” voice of Sanjiv Abhyankar (a protégé of the illustrious Pt. Jasraj) to deliver the classical notes that enhance the atmosphere to meditative levels. The enchanting female voice, which touches a chord in your heart every time you hear her, belongs to lovely Neha.

The flute was played by Pt. (young Rakesh) Chaurasia. Remember the scene where Babaji playing the hypnotic flute, when Soham’s body is being carried to the Mankarnika ghat?

There was the great debate of whether to stick to convention Tabla and Dholak for beats or use modern instruments. We finally used the later.

The background score was the result of some great efforts by Mr. Sodhi who was absolutely immersed in the color of “Banaras”.

Soham’s don’t die in Banaras

2006-06-27T14:38:00.000+05:30

(Mystics on the bank of Ganges in "Banaras")

Dear Mr. Singh

I don’t know if this comment fits in with the Free Will vs. Destiny discussion or the Mad Professor section. But here it is.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGG) has given us a new concept: Probability.

We are ALL aware and comfortable with the 3 dimensions of space. We are adept at traveling anywhere in the spatial coordinates. MANY of us are aware of TIME as the 4th dimension. Quantum physics says it is indeed possible in the sub-atomic world to do time-travel.

My posit is: Change happens when one makes a committed decision in one direction. At that point, there is a certain probability p that one decided one way and a probability p' that one decided the other way.

HHGG in its own inimitable way shows both worlds to exist; moreover, the characters in HHGG merrily travel from one world to the other along the Probability axis.

So, there is a world where Shweta and Soham live happily ever after, and a world which follows the script of Benaras the Film.

And somebody empowered like Babaji can easily visit both worlds.

How does this affect the Free Will vs. Destiny discussion?

Pravin Gandhi

Dear Pravin,

A lot happens or doesn’t happen to us because of own limitations in understanding of our ability. Our “knowledge-based” thinking and sensory approach to looking at the world is the biggest limitation of all.

A mystic must necessarily shed those limitations before beginning to look at the world to explore the truth.

So, are we ready?

Soham is dead. And with his death, the other possibilities of his being alive and being with Shwetambari disappeared.

In a normal world that is it. He is dead and Shwetambari is in despair. And that’s the truth. Simple!

But lo behold! Soon, Shwetambari says, Sohams don’t die in Banaras (Banaras being just a metaphor and represents the whole world). How could that be? Either he was dead or alive. Yet, Shwetambari (whose understanding goes through a major modification after being told about Babaji’s death), says that for her Soham was not dead.

When Dr Bhattacharya quizzes her as to whether she sees him, her reply was a negative and reasons being her own limitations.

However, between now and the time when she is able show Soham even to her mother, she overcomes of her limitation and goes through a transformation.

What was that transformation?
Essentially, overcoming her limitation.

As she begins to understand the truth about Babaji and his relationship with Soham, a revelation comes to her. When enlightenment dawns upon her she overcomes all her limitations and suddenly all the probabilities come alive.

You see Pravin, the truth is that there is no time and in the state Shwetambari, Soham and Babaji are in they all are dead and alive all the time.

Eric's reality vs the world of a virus

2006-06-27T13:16:00.000+05:30

A Question was raised by Eric reproduced below.

"Dear Mr. Sing

When thinking about the structure of the universe and our laws of physics I think that it is important to remember that our sense of logic is arbitrary.

Hypothetically, let's say that an all powerful god created logic, and all events that followed conform to this logic i.e. 1+1=2 and anything times 0 = 0. What were the rules before logic was created? Before the laws of physics and symetry were decided on? Could an all powerful god have made it different? By definition of an "all powerful god" the answer would have to be yes. What if he could have made air non transparent and allow conscious beings to be able to navigate through the atomosphere just as we do today? What if instead of 6 senses god gave us 10 or 12 or invented a universe where the idea of numbers or Euclidian geometry were null? An all powerful god could have.

Why only 3 spatial dimensions and one of time? Our meager human brains come up with the answer: that is the way it had to be for us to exist. For an all powerful god not bound by the rules of logic or physics, it could have been any way he wanted. We could have had 12 dimensions of space instead of 3. He could have created a world where we could know the differnce between good and evil without ever having to experience evil. He could have made us never have to experience pain to experience pleasure. I think you get the point here.

The only thing that makes sense is that an all powerful got made a random choice using his free will and poof...here we are.

Free will is a random jump out of our programing right? Creative thought has to come from something outside ourselves. When making decisions we take a random jump out of our own genetic programming and experience and open ourselves up to accept an idea that seems to come to us out of nowhere and instantly. Maybe the universe, laws of physics, and symetry are all the result of a random act of god's free will. An electron randomly makes a decision to wind up going through the left slit or the right in the double slit experience. Maybe god did the same thing.

The universe may not have been an accident, but to say that the way we perceive the universe to be is the only way that it could be for us to survive is just not true.

What do you think?

Reply:

(The Mystical Banaras)

Dear Eric,

The statements, you make about God (I prefer to refer to as Super Intelligence to avoid any overtones) indeed has ways and ways that it could have constructed the logic and physical laws and the sensory systems different than we know of and firmly believe that all the other variations that you talk about may exist right where we are.

The point I make is, that, we are “designed and constructed” in way that we see the world in a particular way and we deduce that to be the reality. That we experience the time and space and the curvatures the way we are meant to. And there could, in the same time and space as ourselves, be entities who are equipped to perceive the world totally different than us.

Therefore, I am deducing that the world, in fact, has no specific reality but the way it is perceived by the observer as per the design of its logic, sensibilities and the instrumentation.

I agree that we could have survived in infinite ways and could have been designed some other way. However in all other cases than what we are, our perception of the reality would have been different than what we perceive it as us.

I wonder, if a virus was to write about the reality of the world, what would that be?

Ulrich Mohrhoff, the quantum scientist and spiritualist, on Banaras

2006-06-27T09:01:00.000+05:30

"Dear Mr. Singh,

Yesterday my wife Vishwajyoti and I watched your movie Banaras-a mystic love story. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised, for I am generally not a fan of Hindi movies. Unfortunately I missed much of the poetry in the songs and dialogues, which my wife tells me that the subtlety got lost in the translation to subtitles.

I am not a film critic, so please expect no expert comments.

I was touched by the story and believe in the ancient Indian wisdom that the movie was trying to recall. It is certainly not a movie that will appeal to the masses, but numbers don't count in these matters. Banaras has the potential to awaken a soul to higher realities, and if this happens to a few, it has achieved more than any of the blockbusters.

.......

Affectionately,
Ulrich"

Ulrich Mohrhoff
Location:Pondicherry, India
Teaches maths, physics, and quantum philosophy at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry.

His blog can visited at:
http://koantum.blogspot.com/2006/06/disentangling-entanglement.html

Scintillating songs of Banaras: Created by the genius of Himesh Reshammiya

2006-06-25T18:40:00.000+05:30

I feel that the songs and music of “Banaras” by Himesh has got the feel to touch your soul. And I say that with conviction cause I was a witness to the efforts and its evolution.

The songs, like the movie have been composed to break away from the stereotypes that we normally associate to “Spirituality”.

With you, I like to go into the background of each song that was written and composed, keeping in mind, the contemporary style, relevance to the place and the ragas. The songs were created to conveying all colors of human emotions. Each song was so blended into the story line that while it goes on the film keeps moving forward.

For each song we have our own special name for it and they all are based on different ragas of Banaras gharana (school of musical style)

Purab se – Bhajan song
Rang dalo- Holi song
Ishq Mein Dilko-Love song “Pagal”
Kitna Pyaar Karte hain- Sad song ‘Himesh song”
Yeh hain Shaan Banaras ki-Title song
Bajooband Khul Khul Jaye- competition song

The first song that we recorded was Purab se jab sooraj nikle (Om Namah Shivay). Song writer Sameer, who also hails from Banaras, was briefed of the situation. The song had to introduce the visuals of Banaras, the context of its origin in the mythology of Lord Shiva, the ringing of bells which is heard at intervals in Banaras throughout day and night. Sameer, who himself is a devotee of Shiva, hit it in his very first attempt. Himesh who too is a firm believer, composed the tune with such passion that as soon we heard it in his own voice, we approved it.

The Holi song and the love song were created next. I hail from Banaras and I was keen to introduce the touches of Banarasi holi and therefore requested some grass root level of sounds. I also requested to begin the song with some popular Banarasi tunes. Sonu Nigam and Shreya rendered the catchy tune beautifully.

We wanted a little more ethnicity in the female voice, so we had the song sung by Shailesh, a folk artist in place of Shreya. In the CD of the film you will find both the versions.

The love song 'Pagal' sung by Sonu is as close to Rafi’s voice as possible. The way Sonu has captured and sung, it’s simply brilliant. The only reason that it didn’t become the #1 chart buster, because we refused to remix it and didn’t get enough time to promote it.
Let me mention here that Himesh always believed that is one of the best tunes he ever created. The song brings out the essence of being “lost” in love. Himesh got Sunidhi to sing the song in a “new voice” and nobody could get that it was her!!

Kitna Pyaar: We have a secret to share about the song. When we went for shooting of the film, the song was yet not ready. We were desperate to shoot the song since we had fixed schedules. A week before the shoot, Himesh sent us a song (we had told him we wanted something may be, in Sufi style, conveying the suffering of shattered Shwetambari).

We played the song and took shots of Urmila. Urmila, however, was not excited. She told me “Sir, in this song I feel like the hero has just gone to Pune leaving me in Bombay. That’s all. I just can’t feel that deep pain.”

Anyways when we came back from the shooting and asked Himesh if he could give another song. Himesh ( always cooperative) went back to his creativity and sent us another “scratch” in his voice. The minute we heard “kitna Pyaar” we all jumped!!

Himesh got some known singers to sing the song. As we heard them, we were disappointed. There was more pain in the scratch than any of the “big” singer’s voices. Himesh tried with them again but to no avail.

Himesh finally called us to say that if we liked the scratch, should he give it a try? He had just finished the recording of “Aashiq banaya”. We heard that song and told him to please do ours. Himesh took three days and came back to us with the song recorded in his voice.

We were enthralled.. So ours, in reality, was the second song he recorded after “Aashiq Banaya”.

Hats off to Urmila for having completed the shoot without the real song and thanks to Himesh for bearing us!!

The final song to be recorded was the Title song Yeh hain Shaan Banaras Ki.

The Shloka in the song is written by Ved Vyas on Banaras and the rest of the lyrics are written by Sameer.
Himesh recorded the song with my favorite classical singer “Sanjeev Abhyakar” ( a protégé of Pt. Jasraj), Initially the song was recorded with synthesized sounds. Pankuj Parashar, the director of the film is very good friend of the famous drummer Sivamani. He flew from Bangalore and spent whole day and night and gave authentic drum beats, sounds to the song. Sivmani visits Banaras every year and the first thing that he does is to take a holy dip in Banaras. That’s why in the whole song you will find different sounds of different instruments as is heard while being on the ghats. ….. bells… drums, … chants of har har mahadev. That’s how the song got that “Banaras” zing .

Himesh in his recent interview on TV said that Banaras was his best “Album”.

I thank Himesh and Sameer for giving us the songs which form the integral part of the movie "Banaras" and I believe that they will keep playing for ever in radio, television and our minds.......

"Heart warming", Banaras

2006-06-20T22:25:00.000+05:30

Suffering? Oh!..... It must be the life.

A few days back I received a call from a reporter of one of the top national dailies. She had Something to tell me person to person about Banaras.

Sometime back she had lost someone very close to her and because of that she was in total despair. Then she Saw Banaras. The movie gave a lot of hope and solace to her. She wanted to thank me for making a movie which brought her out of the anguish.

It is heart warming to hear that Banaras is making difference in people’s lives!

A Ghostly purposeless existence or a well designed (Quantum) plan?

2006-06-18T13:04:00.000+05:30

Kittu

A Ghostly purposeless existence or a well designed (Quantum) plan?

“Aisa Lagta hai jaise in paramanuon ne milkar ek saajish kee ho, ek aise sansaar ke rachanaa kee, jisme ham paida ho saken aur rah saken.

Aaaj science ke saamne sabse badaa prashna yeh hai ki, is there a physical reality?,..kya sab kuchh illusion hai?….kya kuchh hai hi naheen?”….…Dr. Karandikar in Banaras.

It looks as if they (quantum particles) conspired with each other to create a world where we can get born, live and are able unveil the secret behind our own existence…………….or is it all a random accident?

The Sun... Water ... Air !!.,
The fertile soil.. The plants and fruits.. The animals..The galaxies.. The stars.. The moon.. The gravitation.. The electricity.. The rotation of the earth… The rotation of the moon. The atomic force.
A miraculously caring earth.. A tolerant atmosphere.

Take a look at inside of an atom: The huge empty space inside, the miraculously balanced combination of forces and the apparent intelligence of each constituent!

Does it all look like an accident to you?

Take a look around yourself: Beautiful flowers, lovely garden, pretty girls( if you are a male) or handsome boys (if you are a female).

For a moment just imagine if air was black or dark blue?

What a misery it would be? We would be able to see nothing. No flowers. No garden. No pretty girls or handsome boys.

In fact no light would reach the earth. so no food for plants…. hence no food for animals…therefore no food for humans. And then Finito…..Finish….. End of every life.

What an accident? The two most abundant things on the planet are air and water and they both are transparent!

Think about it. Why are these created to be transparent? At the face it looks like a very intricate plan. As if someone had known that one day we would be coming on the planet. (Lets not get too excited and begin to feel important) The nature is cleverer than that. It doesn’t have to plan for so long. It simply creates a set of eyes which sees the air and water (irrespective of the reality) to look transparent.
Imagine the world now. It’s not that air is transparent. It looks transparent because our eyes have been designed to see through them, so that, we can live and survive.
Similarly, our sensory organs are designed to experience the world precisely the way we do. It has nothing to do with the reality of how the world really is. It is just the way we are designed to experience it.

That is why mystics, when they give up their sensory approach to looking at things, they are able to experience a world different than our perception and they call our world to be an “illusion”.

This is also the miraculous design of nature which has empowered us with the capacity to “see”( for the lack of a better word) the truth of the matter much beyond our normal self and understand the true nature of self and experience the Truth.

I have often wondered how does Kittu (she thinks I am her pet) perceive the world?

Why did we make Banaras the way we did?

2006-06-15T21:46:00.000+05:30

Dear Anonymous,

Three weeks back, while on travel, I promised to answer your question, sincerely.
So, first your questions and then my answers.

Anonymous said...

What I haven`t understood?

- Banaras - If the intention was to make a movie which can provoke people to think, why did you put commercial element like songs and dance. Now it is in middle, not fit for commercial consumption nor right for film festivals. Look at Deepa Mehta Water, its running successfully across world...

- If the intention was not commerical, why did you choose commercial actors, rather than actors who excel in realism acting. It could have provided more depth to the movie, isn't it? Urmila as mata doesn't sound right.

- If people has not seen movie (source:www.boxofficeindia.com), why would someone buy a novel? Doesn't it make sense to introduce novel simultaneously or before the movie to generate interest.

- Making movie is a dirty business. Why a person of your caliber and repute go into this line when you have a technology company to run?

Monday, May 22, 2006 2:37:05 PM

Answer

Foremost, let me admit that it was indeed a learning experience for me so I understand that all my appraoches may not have been most optimised.

Secondly, we could not fit the content of the movie in any known genre, so we decided to create one. As I had mentioned before elsewhere in blog, I am never scared to experiment. So you call it my "experiment" to mix the "commercial" and "art" forms together. I believe we actually succeeded in doing that, though, I completely agree with you, that, this did not suit neither the "commercial" nor the "festival" circuits.

To be frank, I had desire to see the idea thatI had in my mind, to be put on celluloid in a manner which was not "boring"; hence a difficult subject in commercial format with known stars.

Regarding its success?.... How does one judge the success of such a film?

There are thousands of people whose lives have been touched by the movie and I believe the message of Banaras will keep spreading though time.

The success of a "temple" is not measured by commercial success, I guess!

Regarding, my IT company, with all the new technologies, it was easy to manage both. My company Nihilent Technologies has continued to expand very successfully and I have no intention to be a permanent "fixture" of the commercial film indstry.

Hope I have answerd your questions.

Kind affections

The "mad" science Professor and Babaji ...contd.

2006-06-14T20:53:00.000+05:30

In response to Prof. Karandikar's question as to how are the distant quantum particles able to communicate instantly.... Babaji says:

"Every particle of the creation in connected with each other as there is no boundary present anywhere. The boundaries are only in our mind. That which we are able to understand becomes science........"

Let us take this statement and compare to what famous quantum physicist David Bohm( a contemporary of Einstein and his associate) has to say on the subject:

" The central underlying theme of Bohm's theory is the "unbroken wholeness of the totality of existence as an undivided flowing movement without borders."

Bohm believes that this "hiddeness" may be reflective of a deeper dimension of reality. He maintains that space and time might actually be derived from an even deeper level of objective reality. This reality he calls the Implicate Order. Within the Implicate Order everything is connected; and, in theory, any individual element could reveal information about every other element in the universe

Science is needed for progress of mankind and must be pursued relentlessly. However philosophy, mysticism and scripture must not be seen in a confrontational manner and be viewed as new sources of un-verified possible "truths".

Seeds of Banaras: Graduation speech at Harvard

2006-06-11T23:20:00.000+05:30

In the year 1996, I was fortunate to speak on the graduation ceremony at Harvard Business School. The seed of Banaras was already implanted in my mind.

I am reproducing the speech with some very minor modifications.

IN PURSUIT OF THE PERFECT SYMPHONY

Benares is the oldest city on earth. It is known as the spiritual capital of India. Benares is where Buddha chose to give his first sermon after the enlightenment.

Drawn by the mystique, a few years back I visited a “master” who lived in a tiny hut on the banks of river Ganges. It will be useful to point out that I am not exactly a “religious” person and I am against all fragmentation, dogmas and judgments.

As I entered the hut, I was overwhelmed by my feelings. There was a calmness, tranquility and serenity beyond words. As I looked at the master, a spontaneous smile flashed on his face. Time and space simply froze.

The other day I was walking in the lawns of the campus here. A child three or four years old was playing with his mother. Seeing me he ran, stopped and stood blocking my way, smiling. No purpose ….No reason. My response was not a thought but a flash. For few divine moments …there was no Harvard … no child … no mother … no “I”. I became the boy.
Experiences beyond boundaries, transcendental.

The master continued to smile. My ego soon took control. I came back to reality. In retrospect, I don’t know which the actual reality was: The moment of timeless experience or being back with the conditioned mind and all the thoughts?

I was again an intellectual ready to discuss and question. Looking at the master, I managed to ask,” Sir, why is there so much evil in the universe?

“Son, all the evil is in your mind. Clear it from there and you will witness a different world,” the master replied.

I felt offended and a little humiliated. I became aggressive, “sir”, I said,” I am a rational being and I have good control over my mind”.

He eyed me affectionately. “Go, in that corner”. He said,” sit inside the prayer circle for ten minutes in lotus posture. A revelation awaits you. While seated pray if you like, think if you like. You can think of all the evil in the world if you like”, he paused and added,” there is only one small condition. Do not think about a monkey.”

Puzzled, I went and sat inside the circle. As soon as I crossed my legs for the posture the first thought came … Guess what...?
Monkey, of course!
I closed my eyes…Monkey and monkey. The monkeys were everywhere. The whole world vanished and became a monkey.

I held my head and opened my eyes. Master was standing in front of me. His eyes were like eternity. His face was glowing with compassion, affection and love.

I got up and he embraced me. By now I was crying unabated like a child.

“Son”, he whispered,” You are born as a seed. Human life is not an actuality. It has some beautiful potentiality. You are not an Intellect. Intellect is competition and competition is primitive. An animal has these instincts by birth. A dog is born as dog and will die as dog. It has no other possibility. It is perfect as dog. With humans it is different. You are compassion, love and pure awareness. Abandon all your conditioning, fragmentation and fear.”
He looked at me for the last time and said, “Son, learn to think not with your mind but with your heart.”
With those words in my ears, the master went away. I never saw him again, ever.

Life is not the past, neither is it future.
It is only the moment, now.
Life is like a musical instrument. Music is possible. Symphony is a potentiality. Life is not keep repeating the same note again and again.

Life is longing for perfection.

Ravindranath Tagore, a great Indian poet and mystique, a Nobel laureate prayed his last prayer to God,” Oh lord, your world was beautiful and you gave me a precious life. I don’t want to disappear yet. I have to sing many songs; I have yet to paint many paintings. There is, yet, in my heart, which needs to bloom. Send me back. Please send me back.” This was his last prayer. He died praying this way. What a beautiful way to die. “Your world was beautiful. I wasn’t worthy of it but you made me. I am not worthy to be sent back but your compassion is great. One more time, send me back. I have to complete my song.”

A friend of Tagore was sitting by his bedside. He couldn’t stop himself,” Ravindra, You must be mad. Shelly is thought to be one of the greatest poets in Europe. He wrote only two thousand songs, you wrote six thousand. You beat him three times. You should be happy and contented.”

Tagore opened his tearful eyes—“I am not. Yes, six thousand songs I have sung but you don’t know the inside story. I wanted to sing only one song but because it was never possible… I tried once failed. I tried again failed. I failed six thousand times. Those are all efforts. That which I wanted to sing, my friend, is till unsung.”

My brothers and sisters, the pursuit of the perfection, let us begin, here and now. Pray lord, that this quest continues life after life after life.
In this journey my friends:
The pen is not important, only the poem is,
The brush is not important, only the painting is,
The instrument is not important only the music is,
The perfect symphony is not important, only the effort is.

Let us pray to the almighty to bless us to succeed in our pursuit of the perfect symphony.

God bless us all.

LC

Please tell that you visited this blog

2006-06-11T15:32:00.000+05:30

I would be pleased to find your footprints on my blog.

Banaras: A Mystic Love Story NY Times review

2006-06-11T14:40:00.000+05:30

Banãras: A Mystic Love Story
2006-India » Rate or Review 'Banãras: A Mystic Love Story'

Average Reader Rating

MOST HELPFUL READER REVIEW

A divine experience called Banaras, April 25, 2006

Reviewer: india3000

This film does not fall into a known genre and hence a lot of confusion around its reviews. Once in a blue moon an independent producer has conviction to produce something he/she believes in but doesn't fit into a genre. Banaras falls into this category.

Its a film which can be termed "art", "commercial" and "documentary" all wrapperd in one. Banaras is not a film you can go to theatres and enjoy with your friends. You can not keep your cell phone switched on or keep gossipping with your friends while the movie is playing. It's an experince just like meditation. It deals with Quantum as well as reality and rationality. It deals with the nature of "truth" and the nature of "fear" in our day to day bahaviour. By no means it's a religeous film. Its deeply spiritual. The story in the film is just like a prop. Just an example of what can happen to any of us anywhere in the world. There is no preaching and conclusions drawn in the film. It is all left to the viewers to deduce their own conclusion.

Banaras is certainly about evolution of human race and the interconncted world.I personally have nevr been impacted by any other movie before like I am with Banaras. Go and experience it yourself. In the past Tarkowski and Bergman have tried to touch the the nature of existence and God in some manner but never like what you may experience in Banaras.

A movie capable of transforming lives.

Banaras: A Mystic Love Story location snaps (Contd:)

2006-06-11T00:27:00.000+05:30

Contd.. The series of on location snaps:

Ashmit, Preparing for the shot when adult Soham appears for the first time in the movie in the meditation shot:

Urmila, preparing for the scene where she hears the devastating news about Soham.

Urmila & Ashmit :Preparing for the scene where Soham tells Shewta "I love you":

Urmila: Shweta returning to Banaras outsde the Varanasi airport:

A real yogi, who would still be found on the ghats of Banaras. (When uur auditioned actor failed to appear on the scheduled day and were desperately auditioning the local talent, came across this real yogi who looked exactly what we had in mind. In fact, we did not have to do any makeup before the shoot):

Banaras: A Mystic Love Story location snaps

2006-06-10T21:34:00.000+05:30

It’s time that I introduced the team which worked behind the scenes to make “Banaras” happen. The pictures that you see were taken on the location in Banaras and Mauritius where most of the film was shot.

Director: Pankuj Parashar
Chief Assistant Director: Bablu
Assistant Director: Yash

Pankuj & his assistant Yash and with his other crew members while shooting the scene, where Buddha with his followers walks on the banks of Ganges in Banaras.

Chief Asstt. Bablu with his assistant preparing to shoot the ghat scenes.

Script & Dialogue co writer: Javed Siddiqi
Executive Producer: Inder Kumar
Lyricist: Sameer
Director of photography (dop): Nirav Shah

Pankuj, Sameer, Javed & I, at the mahurat recording of the songs

Nirav in Mauritius enjoying dinner at Le Meridian

I & Inder Kumar on location hunting for the movie.(camera has been clicked by Pankuj Parashar)
In front of “Mahendranath's Bunglow” ( Ramnagar Palace)

Some other behind the scenes shots of : Urmila, Dimple, Ashmit & Naseer

Bold Urmila:
Scene where she is informed about her father's illness: standing on a cliff with a very big drop and she was standing right at the edge.( Uncomfortable with the risk) when I told Urmila that she should stand away from the edge, she shrugged her shoulders and said that “If it is needed, it must be done”. Now you know those were real fearsome tides which were hitting the rocks and rising hundreds of feet (the tides were for real, not computer generated)

Urmila preparing for her opening scene:

Dimple - Mother & Urmila-Daughter Bonding:

Thoughts behind naming the characters in the movie

2006-06-09T23:51:00.000+05:30

Soham: A lot of discussion has already happened around “Soham”. In short Soham stands for “I am that” or “Aham Brahmashmi”.

Shwetambari: Shwet (white) stands for the divine and pure. Ambar (sky) stands for infinite vastness and openness. Shwetambari is meant to communicate someone who is pure and has a very big heart. Someone infinitely compassionate.

Gayatri Devi: Gayatri is a powerful mantra. The name was meant to create an effect of royalty. Someone regal and unalterable.

Mahendra Nath: Initially we wanted to name the father as Mahanth Mahendra Nath Mishra. A Mahanth is the religious head associated with the temples and denotes glory and power. However, to avoid any controversy around any association being drawn with certain individuals, we decided to call him Mahendra ji. Or Mahendra Nath ji.

Babaji: Babaji’s character was certainly inspired by the great ever living seer mentioned in “The autobiography of a yogi”( Translated in more than 17 languages and an international bestseller), by Yogananda. His disciple, therefore who informs about Babaji’s immortality is named Purnanand.

Similarly every character was named to fit the role he/she was playing in the movie. Mahamaya, Gunjan Dvivedi, Chaturang, Satya Pal Shukla were all given their names to look credible in the role they were playing.

Please feel free to comment

The "mad" science Professor and Babaji

2006-06-08T08:04:00.000+05:30

Dr Karandikar and his dilemma

The world of science, especially the quantum world is strange (or even mystical…with due respect to scientists). The idea in the movie, was to illustrate the limitations of science despite the gigantic strides it has taken in the past century. Banaras Hindu University has produced some world class physicists, like Dr Jayant Narlikar and it was only appropriate to bring forth some of the dilemmas of science and explore the answers in the mysticism of Banaras.

Since Babaji represents the mystics of Banaras in the movie, we thought it appropriate to discuss both in the same context.

Dr Karandikar is teaching Shwetambari (through his lecture in the class) and Babaji is educating Soham.

“Two (quantum) particles get separated and travel in different directions from a distant galaxy. After millions of years they are separated by infinite distance… yet they can communicate with each other instantly...According to science this is impossible...Yet it happens...How?” This is the observation Dr Karandikar makes n the class….

If one has no background in quantum phenomenon ( I suspect a lot of audience would be in this category and would be lost right here..) but let me quote John Wheeler, a world renowned theoretical physicist discussing this in a television interview and captured in a book called “ The ghost in the atom”

“…Let us say fortunately there is a quasar (a bright shining star ) by chance situated in space ( some 5 billion light years away) in such a way that its light comes to us by two different routes-each on a different side of a intervening galaxy which just happens to be in the same line of sight in the sky. The two beams are bent by the gravitational field of the intervening galaxy so that they converge on the eye of an observer here on earth………….

The photons (the constituent of the beam of light) reaching us start out more than 5 billion years ago- that is before there was anyone on Earth. Waiting here on Earth we can cast a die and at the very last minute decide whether will observe an interference photon (that is a photon which has come, as we jokingly describe “both ways”) or change our method of registration so that we will find out which way the photon has come. And yet the photon has already accomplished most of its travel by the time we make this decision.”

So despite that photon has already traveled either one way or the other, depending on our choice of the instrument to determine as to whether we want them to have come one way or the other or both ways, they change the evidence of their travel. This is really bizarre and perplexing. When the event has already occurred how can they change the evidence of their travel depending on our detecting measurement? There behavior seems to suggest as we deployed a particular device they seem to have communicated back in time the route that they would take while traveling. This also illustrates that the way we decide to look and view things changes the nature of reality itself.

This is an extremely puzzling phenomenon and not easy to explain. I have tried to put in simple form so that it could somewhat be understood. At the same time let me state that what goes on around us at micro level is far more bizarre than what I have just described above.

Now let us see what Babaji says...

“Every particle of the cosmos is connected with each other. There is no boundary or separation. The separation is only in our mind. What we are able to understand becomes science what we have not understood yet, is mysticism that’s recorded in scriptures.”

We will discuss this detail using the discussions of other scientists as well...

But for now let’s try and understand the first part.

Please leave your comments.

Finally, The song of Banaras......(first two chapters)

2006-06-01T00:45:00.000+05:30

The song of Banaras

A novella by Kiran Khalap
after the movie, “Banaras, A Mystic Love Story”

Shwetambari, Anita, Mauritius, Now:

Sea and Wave, Water and River

The wave rises on its hind legs, unsheathes its white claws, pauses before pouncing.

The rocks hunker and brace themselves, dig their feet deeper into the sand, draw a deep breath.

Then the attack: The water rushes into the crannies of the rocks, enters their nostrils, smothers them, growling and hissing.

Wave and sea, sea and wave.

Two words, same thing.

There was water in Banaras too.

But no waves.

Just a tranquil liquid languid wall, gliding towards the sea.

Water and river, river and water.

Two words, same thing.

I stand there on the cliff overlooking the sea, on the brink of the second biggest decision of my life.

I walked away from the man I respected the most in my life, now he is on deathbed, crying out for me to return before he slips away from everybody.

I had felt his anguish even before they informed me of the phone call.

Inside an hour, the quiet river of consciousness within me has been transformed into a broiling sea.

“Didi,” it’s Anita, standing behind the translucent petals of the curtains.
Anita, my shadow, my friend, my secretary for the past decade.

“Yes?”

“If you don’t mind my asking, Didi…” Always tentative, not wanting to intrude even on territory that’s rightfully hers.

“Didi…you ended the meditation session abruptly, you didn’t have your evening soup, you haven’t gone to sleep…I am worried…”

“How does one worry about what is inevitable, Anita?”

“I don’t understand, Didi…”

“For that, Anita, we have to return to the beginning…to a man called Soham, who died…to another called Babaji, who apparently never dies…to a mystery called Banaras.”

Sohan aka Soham, Banaras, Past.

On the tips of a trident

In the beginning was a city called Banaras.

Balanced on the tip of Lord Shiva’s trident, balanced between history and mythology.

The only city on the left bank of the mighty river Ganges, the only city facing the East, opening its eyes, every morning, to two suns.

One in the sky, one in the river.

I imagine that the stone steps that led to the river must have been cold at dawn. Daadima told me I was wrapped up in a blanket, the unwanted son of…who?

All my life, as I grow up, I made up stories about my mother to myself.

Who was she?
A young unmarried woman seduced by a local rake?
A farmhand who had been called upon to warm the bed of the drunken landlord?
A careless prostitute?

And what about my father?
A rich Brahmin who couldn’t convince his parents to get him married to a low-caste girl, the girl he said he loved?
A powerful politician, who miscalculated the tenacity of his mistress?

Whoever she was, my mother had placed a good luck charm around my neck, a metal Om.

That’s who I was.

A bawling baby armed with the first sound in the universe. Armed to take on whatever fate had in store for me.

Daadima adopted me and named me Sohan.

This is the way I climbed up a ladder.

From being an illegitimate child to being the adopted child of a low-caste sweeper woman.

One humiliating rung at a time.

Daadima insisted I join school. “Learn to read and write, my baby, it can change your life”.

I remember her rough hand, rough with so many years of holding the broom and sweeping the streets, on my back, as I buried my tears in her embrace after the first day.

“Your highness Mr Sohan, stand up on that last bench. Now tell me why do you want to sit here instead of being out there keeping our lanes clean, that’s your job, isn’t it?” the teacher had said. He was a thin man with thick spectacles, always in a crisp white dhoti and kurta. When he spoke, saliva as foam collected at the corners of his mouth.

One boy sniggered. Another tried to look up my shorts.

“He’s all dirty and unwashed, like all sweepers’!”

I was staring at my toes. My ears were burning.

“What happened, your mother told you not to speak to us high caste people?”

“Doesn’t have a mother…or father!” giggled a third boy.

“Sir, I just want to learn to read and write.” It’s difficult to speak when you actually want to sob.

“And do what…teach Brahmin boys how to do pooja, is it? Come here, let me remind you that you were born to hold a broom and not a pen.”

The cane whipping made my palms bleed. I could not make out what hurt more, the welts on the palm or inside my head.

“Daadima, if I had a big strong father, he would not be afraid. He would have gone and spoken to the teacher… and then the boys wouldn’t tease, and then when I learn to read…”
I slipped into sleep, dreaming of a father with a curled moustache and big muscles, clutching my tormentor by his neck, while I sit giggling, drawing a sketch with my pen, a man holding a squawking chicken.

Sin

2006-05-31T23:08:00.000+05:30

Q....(meeta)
dear sir,

so accidents, murders,careless driving ...are all destined ?i get the part about destiny , but i dont understand intent.is it akin to : shweta saying to her mother that she did not commit any sin. i can understand forgivness but i dont understand how its not a 'sin'....intent?

A...
An accident, a murder and careless drving are outcome of different "causes" e.g. reckless driving, revenge, retribition, anger, frustration and drinking etc. At the same time, there are events that are absolutely beyond our control at the time they take place, e.g. the big bang, the floods, the famine, the hail storm (though we have evidence that some of these events too, are results of our actions). We need to remember that human psyche is really one and we need to be prepared for the actions which we allow others to take on our behalf. We must remember that all our actions affect the collective psyche of humans and the happenings around us.

I had used the word "intent" in the existential context. It must not be misunderstood to be a justification for some one to harm someone.

When Shweta talks to her mother about she not having committed any sin, she is, in a manner, taking responsibility of mother's actions and empathising with her. She is able to see( relate to ) her up bringing and psyche and is able to "appreciate" how she could have taken that action. She understands that her mother, in her mind, genuinely believed that she would be happier without Soham, so much so that she arranged to eliminate him.

This is what Shweta refers to, her not having committed any sin, as she is able to see the reason for her mother's actions.

Affectionately.

Review of Banaras from a mystic

2006-05-29T03:58:00.000+05:30

Here is a review, I am reproducing verbatim.

Love. LC

Dear Sir,I am a mystic. I thought you might be interested in reading these commentson your movie.With love and best wishes,Prem

: Saturday, May 27, 2006 9:49 AMSubject: Banaras - a mystic love story>

Hmmmmmmmm! Bang(intoxicating drink), Holi(festival of colors) and> Urmila(Bollywood birdie!)! A combo meal is a good deal!>> I watched this movie "Banaras - a mystic love story" - a tapestry of> mysticism, forbidden love, enlightenment, death, murder, social evil of> casteism, scandals, the human drama of guilt and forgiveness, etc. The> movie is set against the backdrop of the ancient mystic city> "Banaras/Benares/Varanasi" - temples, fortresses, princely estates,> burning ghats, Ganges river, rituals, sages, masters, and even comedy> twists with charlatans.>> How they portrayed the enlightenment process, truly blew my mind. The guy> has a romantic conversation with the girl in the gardens of Sarnath -> place of Buddha's first sermon - when he collapses on her lap as the> Kundalini erupts inside and the garden begins to flower.>> I was stunned by the awareness of the director, he definitely sounds like> a mystic.

They are sitting on the banks of the Ganges river under a> treee, where the river winds around. He mentions about J.Krishnamurti's> experience of Buddha there on a passing note. I was stunned!>> Every scene when Babaji walks or rides on a horse back into Soham's life,> it is like a fairy tale. The way they bring in statues, temples, flowers,> plants, musical instruments in to the picture - wow! the art form truly is> really impressive.>> The cinematography is really a treat to the eye. The songs and dances> have an ethereal quality. The music has good beat.>> The climax I thought was building up like an anticlimax.

But I realized I> was just expecting a human end to the human drama. How silly I am! Among> the thousands of movies, where good guy kills the bad guy and gets the hot> buxom chick(I have no complaints! aahaha!), Banaras is certainly a rare> one among the few of those exceptional movies. My salutes to the people> who did it!>> It is a simple and beautiful movie, the Truth is always simple you know.> I just cannot believe they are making such movies with Great Awareness.> Is the whole world getting enlightened and expanding awareness? Wow!>> Dont worry the DVD has English subtitles, I could follow. You dont need> to know Hindi!>> http://www.banarasthefilm.com/>>

In some moments Urmila overacts, and Amit Patel doesnt act. ahahaha! But> you know, when one dish is messed up, do you complain about the whole> spicy and juicy buffet, a lunch with the Gods!>> Soham means the meeting of the masculine and feminine energy, or the> junction point of Ida and Pingala nerves! There are some mystical> elements that you may not understand, if you are not a mystic.>> Albert Einstein: "The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity> in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. "> "When the solution is simple, God is answering.">> Happy Memorial day weekend!>> Cheers,> Prem.

The Seed, the plant and Soham

2006-05-22T19:11:00.000+05:30

The Seed, the plant and Soham

In the movie Banaras the seed as a character appeared fairly early. It came because of my spontaneous relationship with plants. Being one of the most meditative, peaceful and nonjudgmental beings on the planet they have always fascinated me.

Try looking at the leaves, flowers and the petals, their delicate patterns, unbelievable shades of colors and incredible designs. It has ability to transport us to a completely different dimension.

I used to have a very small garden (some selected plants in my balcony, really) when I used to live in Mumbai. These were plants that I would choose by visiting a few nurseries in the suburb.

One day I brought a plant with no leaves. I have no reason why I selected this plant except, that I felt, it needed my attention.

I would personally water the plant regularly feed it with some “growth tablets” and give a lot of attention without any “intention” really. It was like feeding a child without any anticipation.

One evening when I came back from office, my happiness had no bounds. Two little green leaves were breaking away from its delicate stem skin.
Three days later many leaves had come out and the whole plant had come alive. The plant in this state seemed to be radiating life. When I sat on a chair next to it, I transcended the boundary around the plant and could feel its “being”. In that moment, filled with complete joy, overwhelmed, I got up and kissed the plant.

A divine connection.

Two days later the plant dried up.

I shuddered. An inner voice emerged: ".......The plant achieved its purpose. It no longer needed to be in life….. The kiss was its destiny."

Babaji hands over a divine seed (every seed that you see is divine) to Soham and tells him that it had the potential to flower and become a tree. Soham is in unison with the plant.

After the enlightenment, soham has understood the nature and interconnectedness of all beings. He knows that the plant itself was a manifestation of him. Therefore when he sees his own death approaching, Soham gives another manifestation of himself (the plant) to Shwetambari.

The plant continues to be with Shwetambari as a passive reminder of Soham (Since she is very afraid and unsure of what had happened) until she is reveled upon the truth about Babaji, and therefore the plant.

When Dr Bhattacharya directly attacks the existence of the plant and ridicules its true nature of being (…..“The one who died hundreds of year’s ego don’t come and distribute seeds, even if that place is Banaras”….)

Notice, in the film, when Shwetambari goes to play the piano after telling Dr Bhattacharya to go and seek the answers, camera has the “blazed” plant in the foreground when dazed Dr Bhattacharya walks out of her room.

In that moment, all the separation vanishes as Shwetambari and the plant (therefore Soham) become one and Banaras opens the doors of mysticism for wandering Dr Bhattacharya when he truly becomes a seeker.

Please tell that you visited this blog

2006-05-22T01:47:00.000+05:30

I would be pleased to find your footprints on my blog.

The life of Dr Bhattacharya, not unlike our own

2006-05-18T22:17:00.000+05:30

There was a request from some of you to talk on how some of the characters were conceived.
In that series I begin first with Dr Bhattacharya....

please do read and raise questions and also please give your own views. In all of us there is an element of Dr bhattacharya.

The rationalist, Dr Bhattacharya

Who is Dr Bhattacharya?

He is educated, suave, successful and one who seem to have all the answers.

He was born, like many of us, among believers. He was also, as most of us , eager for recognition, hungry for success. He was also restless enough to follow his dream relentlessly.

In the process he makes sacrifices but succeeds. Makes a name for him and lives a very satisfying life, a kind of life we all aspire to.

I was very comfortable with this character. We all can see the reflection of our ambition in Dr Bhattacharya. We admire the way he would have overcome his handicaps and succeeded in America where excellence thrives.

And then suddenly without a warning, life changes its color to turn gray. Dr Bhattacharya is diagnosed with lung cancer. This takes a heavy toll on the first system of which he is a part of, his family. His wife decides to detach herself from this suffering and leaves him to deal with his own destiny. This is what breaks Dr Bhattacharya. He was scientifically trained to accept death and therefore was willing to cope with it but he was not prepared for the dark response from someone who was an integral part of himself.

By contrast, his daughter, Anjali, out of sheer love for her father abandons her studies and ambitions and accompanies him to Banaras when Dr Bhattacharya returns to connect with the soil where he was born. This act of his was not rational, not even emotional but more like a spiritual quest unknown even to him. In the film we have tried to demonstrate the colors, life can take and our non preparedness to face them.

In Dr Bhattacharya’s life we see peaks and troughs of love and self pity, devotion and betrayal, rationality and faith.

It’s a role which was created to show us all a mirror to reflect, provoke and prepare for what can come to be faced in any one of our lives.

For, remember, we can not absolutely control what happens in our lives but we can certainly control our response to face whatever may happen. It is for this reason that the mystics talk about living and loving the life with a sense of detachment.

It is in that sense, that, we alone hold the key to the destiny of our lives that we create a heaven or hell.

Banaras : The Novel (Coming on this blog)

2006-05-15T20:22:00.000+05:30

Dear friends,

This is to inform you all, that, based on the film Banaras, a mystic love story, Mr Kiran Khalap ( Author of "Half way to the mountain", Creative director Chlorophyll, thinker, philosopher and a close friend) has completed a novel titled " The song of Banaras".

In order to give a more elaborate perspective to the reader the author has given an unique approach to his narrative.

He writes the book with the point of view of the film's main characters. They write their own point of view and happenings around them and with reasons why they chose actions that they did.

Within the next few days you will view the first chapter of the novel on this blog.

This will the first view of the first chapter of The song of Banaras that anyone would have seen it anywhere..

The destiny of Banaras the movie

2006-05-11T15:24:00.000+05:30

Banaras the movie is an intent. It had to happen. And so it did.
The idea chose me rather than the other way around.

It implanted in me, a lot of passion and the right amount of madness so I could ignore the "rational" commercial aspects while undertaking the venture. I trust thats how these things happen. I know that a lot of people must be laughing at my "madness" and even ridiculing my efforts but the thrill of being a medium of something like Banaras is a blessing that a few would comprehend.

I remember, one day, Pankuj Parashar, who could obviosly see the risks of making such a movie more than I, being a friend told me to consider the idea to abandon making Banaras in favour of an "erotic thriller". This, according to him, would be a far sensible commercial proposition. I think, I took less than a second to tell him that I was not making a movie for the love of Bollywood or money but through me Banaras wanted to be reborn and thats what I was going to do.

For years I was consumed with Banaras. I have kept awake at nights thinking about the plight of Shwetambari. I lived with every character to know, to understand and to empathise with it. Notice, that every character in the movie, evolves; be it Soham, Shwetambari , Gayatri, Mahendranath, Mahamaya or Gunjan.

The movie is about individul evolution. It's about having flaws and overcoming them. It's about making the right choices; e.g. reacting to other's actions or responding in compassion.

I learnt screenplay writing that taught to create drama and pull for the next scene, in every scene. ( I was aware why Sanjay Leela Bansali chose to make Devdas so loud!). I debated a lot in my mind. I knew the risk of depending upon the drama of mind which demands attention and was also aware that the average moviegoer of today goes to theatre for recreation and not to apply brain, but something in me remained admant not to compromise the simlicity and purity of narration. What could that be?

This movie could not be anything but what it is because it was created to look like this and not like anything else. Whatever may have been its fate on the box office it was born with its own destiny.

The destiny, that is its own.

Free will vs Destiny

2006-05-06T14:04:00.000+05:30

meeta said...

how much is destined and how much is free will?. soham says to gunjan that it is all destined.can destiny be changed by hard work/prayer/penance?
were soham and the psychatrist both destined to die. but miracles do occcur and the psychatrist was saved???
when one brother killed the other in anger was it both brothers destiny or was a life cut short?

11:42 AM

Dear Meeta,

A simple answer would be that free will and destiny are as a double helix intertwined
.
We get born to particular parents; we never had a choice. We were born in a particular country; we had no choice. We were raised in a particular way; we had very little choice. The truth is that all of the above on which we had very little choice have good bearing on how we make our choices.

A lot of events that happen in our lives that we have no control, yet how we deal with them are certainly our choice.

How we act and how others act collectively within a society or how others react to our action has also got a bearing on how shall we act in future. So each “system” that we are a part of, also has a significant bearing on how we make our choices.

This is not the place to discuss the systems and cybernetic influences while exercising a so called “free will”, but it’s enough to say that, many times we merely believe to have made a choice out of our free will, where as the truth is, that a person in fear (which we all are under: fear of some kind) does never make a choice out of free will.

That was also the context in the movie when Babaji tells Soham what he wanted to hear. He was in love with Shwetambari and at that time, to be with her was the only thing that mattered to him. Yet he was afraid to admit it. A “free will” he exercises only when he is enlightened and decides to continue being with her. I say it a free will because that was done, not in fear but in complete awareness.

However what happens to Soham was indeed the destiny.

Let’s now look at a totally different example of destiny and free will.

Taking a particular road is your choice, driving at a particular speed is your choice but a drunk jumping in front of your car and getting injured is the destiny. Again running away from that place and not reporting to police is your choice (i.e. if that choice did exist J ). The most important aspect of this accident, however, would be as to how you deal with it. You can act responsibly with compassion or act like an irresponsible being.

But the question would be, in making that choice, how free is your will? Like if you were aware of the area where accident took place and knew of a case where a driver was lynched for causing an accident, you would possibly run away even though you had real intention to act responsibly.

In a circumstance that you have the option to apply a free will, see if you are free of all prejudice and fear and then make a choice.

To your other question, let’s face it we all are destined to die. But to an aware soul death draws no fear. Soham had gone far beyond death and fear. In fact Shwetambari reflects on this when talking to Dr Bhattacharya that “Sohams” don’t die in Banaras. Dr Bhattacharya seemed to have answer for everything yet under a deep trauma when he abandons all his knowledge, his own mind creates a reality out of his own latent faith.

When one brother kills another it’s a collective response of a system of which they both were a part. Don’t blame one brother alone. He only pulled the trigger. As far the Supreme intelligence, life and death, time and space they are just intent.

Worship

2006-05-05T13:01:00.001+05:30

meeta said...
sir, i was drawn to the diffrent paths to worship of god of soham and shwetambari can you elaborate on the idea behind it

Answer:

The destination of attainment is a pathless journey.
We have to have our own path.

When someone asked Guruvar Rabindranath Tagore why there were thousands of Gods for Hindus, his reply was a revelation. He said that it was most unfortunate. There should be as many Gods as people.

Soham' upbringing is one of a mystic. He has been told the true meaning of a prayer right in the childhood. He understands the meaning of vibrations (chants, music and meditation). He worships in his every act.

Shwetambari, on the other hand, is a Brahmin girl from Banaras, the abode of lord Shiva. She believes in him and worships him with complete faith. When she sends Dr Bhattacharya to seek the God, he lands up at Lolak kund (believed to be the forehead of lord Shiva) where he sees a miracle ( or may be he "self creates" that reality).

My own father used to worship lord Shiva and later Krisna( only he knew the reason for his shift). But my grandfather hated idol worship because he was a follower of Dayanand Sarswati's pilosophy. So much so, that he used to often throw away the idols which my father used to keep in a small temple he himself had built.

What was even more amazing, that, my father, yet had the highest respect for his father until his death.

Incidentaly my mother follows Kabir and meditates for 2 hours everyday and engages me in intense spiritual discussion whenever I am with her. And by the way, she is 92.

Thou art that

2006-05-05T11:29:00.000+05:30

Deepti said...
hello Sir,I've been inspired by swana's & meeta's discussion about banaras to put forward a question to you... I asked few more people & nobody gave me an answer... may be they felt I'm not on that level yet to understand (which is possible!!)... could you please kindly express your thoughts in the simplest possible way...if 'Aham Brahmasmi' (I am Brahman) is true for everyone, then why are we affected by Maya... if we are 'Him' then how can The Creator be affected by His own Creation... why did He/we cause this veil or separation at all...?
7:32 AM

Imagine (though not easily conceivable) there to be "nothing", only supreme intelligence (SI) filling the whole void.

Then an "idea" (for the lack of a more appropriate word) appears in form of an intent "to be".
With that the matter, time and distance gets created; and thus the "separation". But in order to feel the separation ( i.e. to be) a "part" of the SI appears.

However since the "part" is in a physical world it must follow its rules. The "fear" is created to help the "part" to indentify itself in order to survive. And the "design" is for the "part" to be able to "see" this, in time, in its life. And when it is able to do ( which is the destiny of everyone), the "part" is said to be enlightened. This is said by Soham when he describes his experience at Sarnath.

After that awareness the "part" becomes aware of the "absurdity" of time and space and separation. Hence as the "part" becomes aware of the truth, it develops a detatched view to the "illusionary world".

The question arises, therefore, that in the movie why does Soham cry while embracing Shwetambari for the last time?

The answer is simple. He doesn't cry because he is afraid of dying. He does so because he is aware of the pain, Shwetambari has to go through after his death. He cries thinking about her pain. It was created as a beautiful thought for people who would get it.

Your question was not a simple one. Upanishads as well as science have dealt with it in much detail. However, what I have mentioned here is what I have understood after studying everything including science, religeon and philosophy.

Hope it is useful to you.

The path to enlightenment

2006-05-02T23:06:00.000+05:30

Last week-end, the director of Banaras, Pankuj Parashar was invited to a show of the film. At the end of the screening the audience gave a standing ovation. And that would probably be expected as common courtesy but what happened next ,really embarassed Mr Prashar. Two ladies from the audience approached him and actually touched his feet.... ....

There was also an interesting question raised by one viewer which is what I would like to discuss here.

Q..Is the path to enlightenment always so painful? ( An obvious reference to what happens in the movie)

"Attachment" is said to be the biggest hurdle to attainment. Attachment to wealth, stature, success, siblings, father, mother, spouse, children, home, vehicle, pets, plants and life. There are prized possessions to hang on to. There is so much comfort in clinging on to them.

Breaking away is never going to be easy. All our sensory systems are programmed to feel pain even at the thought of separation. Hence we feel stuck.

Stuck, because we seem incapable of even being aware of the world around us. This is the dilemna Soham faced when he asks Babaji if Shwetambari was his destiny. Once Babaji explains that love can not be touched or known it could only be experienced, Soham goes ahead and expresses his feelings to Swetambari.

He now realises that her love is not physical. It has no limitations. His physical desire for Shwetambari is overcome by his spiritual quest to completely unify with her soul.

Enlightement is not separation. Its true unification. Its attaining a state of complete awareness and unity with everything.

Some pain in the path of attainment, therefore, seems a small price to pay : )

What is the Truth?

2006-04-29T08:54:00.000+05:30

Satya Kya Hai?

Swetambari, in the movie, is an enlightened soul devoid of common insecurity and fear. She tries to put a perspective to religeon by asking this question.

The question (Satya kya hai?)is meant to provoke us to think outside of the boundary of our religeous beliefs.She invites us to explore the "nature of God" we believe in.

..Our mind is full of insecurity and fear. And to fight that fear we create an imginary "concept" called God...( She calls God, a concept)..... Not happy with the mere imagination of the mind, we begin looking for him( the God) outside of ourselves...As a consequence, disappointed having not found him we continue to be consumed in fear.

Then what is the truth?

And thus the search for the truth becomes the journey of Banaras the movie.

The Genesis

2006-04-24T22:43:00.000+05:30

whenever I look up in the night sky "I" shrink to nothingness. What remains is just an awareness of some kind filled with only one question; what happens to me when my body is no more? Will there be a continuation of some kind or a complete termination of my existence? Will I continue to have some role in the cosmic dance of the future or the death will bring a complete extinction?

I always shuddered at the thought even when I was a 10 year old.

The seed of "Banaras" was sown in those very moments.

2006-04-23T12:09:00.000+05:30

Banaras, a mystic love story

The Intent.
Banaras is not a destination; it’s only a journey. A journey, full of hope and faith.

I took up the project not to offer a packaged solution to the problems in our lives but to initiate a walk on the path that we are generally hesitant to explore.

It was never my intention to undermine science or deplore rationality but to explore the limitations of our knowledge and look beyond the boundaries of our normal thinking. For no knowledge ever can be obtained unless we keep an open mind. Thus, Banaras is not about flaunting knowledge but about seeking knowledge.

Many critics of the film were unimpressed with the content of philosophy because in their mind, the content was too “elementary”. However let me point out that the philosophy in the film is so advanced that it resembles elementary. Inspired by the nature, we have made huge efforts to hide the complexity to give an exterior that has aesthetics and simplicity. Try and peel a layer and you may get a profound experience.

Try watching Banaras alone with a non-judgmental mind and you might have a totally new experience.

Banaras, a mystic love story

2006-04-22T18:46:00.000+05:30

Hi,

I am LC Singh. I am the writer of Banaras.

I am going to begin a blog on Banaras : A Mystic Love Story, the movie which seems to have touched many many souls of this planet.

Over the time I will be sharing with you various aspects of the movie; its genesis, making and learnings.

I sincerely invite all of you to make comments, put forth your questions which in all sincerity, to the best of my ability, I will try and answer.

With a lot of love and affection.

LC