Loving Bollywood & SRK

I am experiencing a fascination with Indian movies these last few months: the music, the movies, the culture displayed therein, and Shahruk Khan, the person. I am downloading soundtracks and dancing my workouts to them. I had a party the other night, and it was all Bollywood music for my guests. I showed them my favorite dance number Maurya Re song from Don the movie showing a devotional dance for Ganesh; I am floored by the percussion, SRK's amazing agility and dancing, the choreography, the devotional aspects of it all, and the group dancing in the surf, so moving!  I can't believe how much I am moved/awakened/inspired by so much Indian music in general.

The movies? There is a lot to say. Mostly I love how so many of them are hopeful, uncynical and innocent. Some people accuse them of being "cheesey" which to me is a complement because cynicism is the opposite of that. Cynicism is the opposite of open, vulnerable and willing to risk yourself. I notice many American movies and series leaning toward valuing the cynical, sarcastic, and competitive, and these movies offer a nice break.

The continual reminder of the color and richness of Indian culture with ritual and spiritual attention in their lives, is stimulating and beautiful. Welcoming people home, blessing the young, honoring the gods with lamps and offerings, spending days at a time in festivals with food, community, dancing and music make me long for more ritual and community celebration here.

Many of the movies show me how painful some of the traditions can be, like arranged marriages, the caste system, and keeping family honor at the cost of individual happiness or matters of the heart. Honoring a parent, no matter how wrong or unloving, sometimes comes above honoring a lover or friend, but can lead to lifelong internal pain for many involved. Keeping up appearances seems to be paramount sometimes, and I love that these movies highlight this as a way to help people see the pain it might be creating for people. 

One aspect that has annoyed me is the lack of a voice that I see in many of the female characters. In moments of high emotion they wait for another to make a decision or express feelings. A refreshing exception Paro express her anger and hurt in Devdas recounting exactly what her lover had done to create the painful situation that they now were in. I yelled "right on!" being so happy she spoke her mind instead of looking helpless and frozen not daring to speak her feelings or wishes but waiting for the whims of her man or family to blow the winds of her destiny.

Shahrukh Khan is a force of nature. His on-screen presence combined with his accessibility, openness, vulnerability, humor, intelligence, accepting-ness, daddy-ness and "yes" energy visible in interviews, has me fascinated and smitten.

Jesus in India

I watched a documentary by this name, and I was awestruck and encouraged and inspired, and I came to love Jesus more, believing that he did explore the east and their meditative and puja practices. There were 18 missing years (from age 13 to 30)! Some say he just lived with his family and learned the craft of carpentry with Joseph... but we all know deep inside that a boy who at the age of 12 was discussing cosmology and God with the elders in the temple is not going to be making furniture with his dad all those years. Even my devout catholic mother does not belive this and is open to the idea that he explored and traveled east.

What did he come here for? To spread the good news, as I learned in catholic catechism classes. So it would make sense that when be became an older teenager, and suffered the societal pressure to get married and have a family, he would go in search of other people to talk to. He would want to explore the human race, especially those people with deep spiritual lives, right? The silk road provided the route, it was well traveled at this time. He went to some hindu temples, and stayed at one for quite a while. He learned meditation, tantra, mantra, bahkti, but also practiced some of these things naturally from his own gnosis of how to be with his own inner light!

In the bible it says Abraham sent his younger children "east to the East" Perhaps they went to Kashhmir? Are these the lost tribes of Israel? It is known and accepted that St. Thomas the apostle lived, preached and died in India. A pope went to visit his shrine and church in India this century. So it makes it likely that Jesus would also have gone.

This website does a great job of tracking the evidence that Jesus spent time in India and Tibet, so read it here:

This illustration from an old Tibetan thangka shows Jesus talking to Tibetan monks (19th century).

I experienced the catholic church as a body with dogma that to have a relationship with God, you must go to church every sunday, you must repent your sins, you must confess those sins with a priest and you must participate in all the other priest-mediated sacraments of the church. There is no catholic practice that I know of that encourages a search within oneself for divinity and light. Prayer is more about asking for things, and asking forgiveness from a forgiving compassionate God that will decide if you will go to heaven or not.

But there are words that reflect the meditative aspects of hindu and buddhist practices. "Search for the divine within yourrself." "The Kingdom of God is within you." "Within a man of light, there is light."

Jesus was known in India as Issa. There is a tomb there with the name: Yosesaf (Youza Asouph) meaning the son of Joseph. The tomb is in the East-West direction, in jewish burial style. The Sarcophagus and scrolls were removed some years ago. The people of that town insist it is a prophet from Egypt who is there and are insulted by suggestions that it is Jesus of Nazareth.

The film suggests that Jesus survived the crucifixion, and went back to India with Mary to escape persecution and live in peace and to spread good news to people there. There is a tomb that is in an islamic region, that is believed to be Mary's tomb.

see also http://gnosisseeker.com/movies/jesus-in-india/