Short Cut to Nirvana
This amazing documentary by Maurizio Benazzo and Nick Day captures the sights and sounds of Kumbh Mela, an extraordinary spiritual festival attended by more than 70 million pilgrims (70 Million! That’s not a typo, there are 25 million people there at any one time, living in tent villages, sharing food, noise, dust and joy).
It’s the largest gathering of people on the planet (Woodstock Nation ain’t got nothing on this). Held every 12 years (for more than 2,000 years) near Allahabad, India, Kumbh Mela attracts young Hindu monks, wise old sages, honored guest the Dalai Lama and other Hindu and Buddhist leaders.
Maurizio is a fellow student in the the Pro-Track meetings sponsored by the National Speakers Association.
His colleague Nick Day shares a remarkable insight into cultural differences in an interview with the filmmakers on the DVD. Commenting on what it was like to make the film:
I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve spent time in different countries and I think that the basis of all our misunderstandings on the planet between humans comes from ignorance about other cultures and fear of other cultures and this sense that the other culture is the enemy. If we subdivide into little tribes it’s going to lead to problems. What Hindus do very well is they include everybody. Everybody is in there: Jesus, Mohammad and The Buddha. They’re all holy men. It’s not that you follow one and not the other. It’s a sense of one-ness and unity and I think we really need that.
Amen.
I rented the movie from Netflix.
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