Advaita?
This movie is showing here in Hartford this weekend. At first it struck me as yet another addition to the recent surge of new-agey impersonalist feel-good propaganda that seems to be popping up everywhere recently. On closer inspection I discovered that it features an interview with a certain "B.T. Swami".
You can watch three previews for the film on their website, two of which briefly feature His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami. In the first preview Maharaja is awkwardly injected into a very crafty and unsettling bit of editing. Taken on its own, his soundbite is realtively noncommital - "fear is like a plague, it's like a disease, and it has its way to infiltrate people's minds" - but taken alongside the barrage of soundbites, it is clearly chosen to give the viewer a distinct impression if not message, as is the rest of the trailer. That impression is nothing new, this is standard fare for the new-age set: no one can really definitively know anything about spiritual reality, there is no conclusive truth, religion is bad, individuals are never to blame, God (or should I say god?) is a vague and indescribable warm fuzzy energy - more or less what you would expect from a film called "One". In the second preview, there are two silent images of Maharaja. In one he appears to be preparing for his interview. In the other, he is shown in a still photo with the filmmakers, flashing that classic radiant smile.
I don't know what to say about this, especially before seeing the film. Since the screening this weekend is $10 a pop, and since I'll most likley be out-of-town anyway, I think I'll wait for the DVD. At this point I only know two things: seeing Bhakti Tirtha Swami grinning ear-to-ear like that still gives me a little jolt of ananda, and that the whole talking-soft-and-saying-nothing thing dissapoints me to no end, but always makes me grateful for the True wisdom contained in Srila Prabhupada's books.
P.S. You might notice a new moniker down there. Much to share about that, but I'd like to get my hands on some pictures first. Effusive post about my recent initiation ceremony coming soon...
You can watch three previews for the film on their website, two of which briefly feature His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami. In the first preview Maharaja is awkwardly injected into a very crafty and unsettling bit of editing. Taken on its own, his soundbite is realtively noncommital - "fear is like a plague, it's like a disease, and it has its way to infiltrate people's minds" - but taken alongside the barrage of soundbites, it is clearly chosen to give the viewer a distinct impression if not message, as is the rest of the trailer. That impression is nothing new, this is standard fare for the new-age set: no one can really definitively know anything about spiritual reality, there is no conclusive truth, religion is bad, individuals are never to blame, God (or should I say god?) is a vague and indescribable warm fuzzy energy - more or less what you would expect from a film called "One". In the second preview, there are two silent images of Maharaja. In one he appears to be preparing for his interview. In the other, he is shown in a still photo with the filmmakers, flashing that classic radiant smile.
I don't know what to say about this, especially before seeing the film. Since the screening this weekend is $10 a pop, and since I'll most likley be out-of-town anyway, I think I'll wait for the DVD. At this point I only know two things: seeing Bhakti Tirtha Swami grinning ear-to-ear like that still gives me a little jolt of ananda, and that the whole talking-soft-and-saying-nothing thing dissapoints me to no end, but always makes me grateful for the True wisdom contained in Srila Prabhupada's books.
P.S. You might notice a new moniker down there. Much to share about that, but I'd like to get my hands on some pictures first. Effusive post about my recent initiation ceremony coming soon...
posted by Acyuta Dasa at 9:12 AM
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