Kalki movie – Making sense with Bhagavad-gita

Transcript

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The Kalki movie making sense with the Bhagavad Gita.
The Kalki movie has had an overwhelming response at the box office. How can we make sense of this movie with the lens of the Bhagavad Gita? I’ll talk about three things connection, concoction and conception. Connection.
It is good that a connection with the tradition is being made in the popular culture today which is what reaches the masses. Through such depictions in the popular culture the themes and characters from the tradition are introduced to the people in general and even for those who were introduced to these characters in their childhood these characters come back again within the horizon of their consciousness. So any kind of connection that is established is at a basic level positive.
The scriptures explain that somehow or the other if the divine, if Krishna enters into our consciousness even if it be through depictions in popular culture of themes associated with the Lord that is a good thing. So here the story of Ashwathama and how he was cursed by Krishna for his heinous act of attempting to kill Uttara’s son later to be parikshit. That is depicted even the idea of Kalki coming in the future, the 10th avatar of Vishnu that is of course the core theme of the movie although of course Kalki doesn’t appear in this movie at all and there is going to be a sequel where that may happen but this connection is good.
The Bhagavad Gita 326 states that the ways of the attached are different from the ways of those who are detached. The ways of the ignorant are different from the ways of those who are wise. So those who are detached and wise will be ready to understand the wisdom of the tradition as it is given to dive deep into the sacred text like the Mahabharata and the Bhagavatam and to embrace and be enriched with that wisdom but many people who are not ready for that will need depictions through popular culture of the kind that are being done over here.
Now while the fact that the connection is established is good, a matter of natural concern would be that there are concoctions which is the second point. So when these concoctions do come up for example, the future that is depicted over here is involving some kind of mishmash of characters taken from the epics and interacting with or blended with characters and scenes and ideas from western popular franchises like Mad Max or Matrix When such concoctions are done there are many others the question comes up is it good or bad? Broadly speaking within the tradition itself there is room for artistic license we all have been given imagination as a gift by God and some people have this gift of imagination far more than others. The Gita 7, 8 states that all abilities come from God and ultimately all abilities are meant to be used to serve God So worship the Lord through your work Krishna talks about this in 1846-48 So those who have the power of imagination can and should use that power of imagination to depict in a way that will be appealing and relatable to the masses themes from the sacred tradition and to give those with imagination some leeway there is an aspect of artistic license So for example, in the past when dramas would be written, the dramas every single dialogue in the dramas need not be an exact replica of what is told in the original scriptures.
But as long as the essential mood is retained and the essential message is conveyed then the artistic license is accepted So when does a concoction go to off and when does a concoction not turn out to be counterproductive? That depends on the last part that is the conception When the conception that the makers of the movie and the conception that the audience gets about the sacred themes and the sacred characters therein are broadly in alignment with the conceptions that are taught in the tradition and the scriptures then that is the best result Of course, popular culture can’t be expected to have conceptions exactly aligned with philosophically precise reasonings in the scriptures and their commentaries That is not the function of popular culture Krishna described that there is intelligence in goodness passion and ignorance and these three intelligences will actually see things differently as explained in 1830, 31 and 32 So the intelligence in goodness and intelligence in passion which is what popular culture is generally going to be if not intelligence and ignorance things will be somewhat different So drama, action romance, conspiracy these will be prioritized much more than the conveying of philosophically precise notions However, if the overall conception is not violently in disagreement with what is given in the tradition then such popular depictions can both open their minds of people to read more to want to learn more about this In the Gita 7.16 Krishna says one of the four kinds of people who approach him are those who are curious How do people become curious? One of the ways could be they see something depicted in popular culture Now when such popular culture depictions occur at that time it is the opportunity and the responsibility of the tradition and its teachers to tap the curiosity that arises and to provide more holistic conceptions of what is being taught in such or what is being depicted in such movies If we look at the history of movies in the west there were movies about Jesus like The Passion of Christ which became quite popular although the depictions of Jesus in those movies were not necessarily very accurate as per the Bible and many traditional scholars of Christianity panned such movies but many mainstream movie producers saw that such movies were economically viable and thus they started making movies more and more intended for a Christian audience and now there is the TV series Chosen which has been hugely popular among the masses hugely commercially successful at the same time it is presenting a picture of Jesus which is humanly appealing and scripturally faithful so with the Indian tradition on the ascent in its assertiveness and its influence after the inauguration of the Ram temple we can also hope that the popular culture in India starts depicting more and more of these traditional themes and if the popular culture and the traditional culture and the teachers and the representatives of traditional culture they can join together then India can experience an unprecedented cultural and spiritual elevation through the medium of traditional spiritual themes being taught through popular cultures that is what we can hope for through the success of movies like Kalki Thank you