(via booklover)

A few days ago, I attended the screening of a documentary called Baraka, which paid a great tribute to the spiritual rituals of humanity and the lives of living on Earth.

The MC quoted the following verse from the Qur’an at the beginning of the showing, which I thought set the most appropriate tone -

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things). [49:13]

I could go into what I thought of the documentary in light of this verse, but I’m afraid it’ll take me in to a greater tangent than necessary for a “quick” review.

So, first impressions. I was completely taken in by the visually stunning scenery and the seeming stillness of life in this world. It’s not often that I get to imagine this world to be “still”, especially as an urban dweller. The non-narrative aspect of this documentary was one of it’s finest features. I simply sat there and took in the delights of the most minute and the most grand, as it was brought to me. In a non-narrative film, you, the audience become the narrator and interpret what you see in ways that relate to your life. The movie might not be seen as a compilation of spiritual journeys by another person, but for someone who constantly looks through the spiritual lens, they’ll be hard pressed to miss the presence of the Glorious divine. Especially when it’s brought to us in such strikingly beautiful rendition of creation!

The documentary covered an array of ritualistic practices from all over the world, one of which was the Balinese monkey chant. I had never seen anything like it, and it was made all the more dramatic by the quick cut from the loud chanting segment to the serenity of a rolling mountain top, touching the clouds. The cinematography was stupendous! It featured many familiar locations, but there were also some amazing spots that I didn’t know of and really wished that these places were captioned on screen. One of which was this sparkly mosque-like structure, which I was lucky enough to stumble upon by randomly googling “sparkly mosque on Baraka documentary”. Turns out it’s a decked out mausoleum of an Iranian Shah. I was veritably bedazzled when I saw it the first time, still kind of am. 

The little that the documentary included of the life and sounds of contemporary life impressed on me the break-neck speed in which life is lived, and expected to be lived in modern society. It wasn’t impetuously making any grand claims against the “modern” ways, but I suspect such a critique would be entirely possible had it featured a narrator.

One the things that I didn’t have much care for about the film was the time-lapse. At some point I thought there might be some sort of a malfunction in the projector which seemed to be fast-forwarding the documentary, but then I realized that the effect was intentional. However, it didn’t take away from the experience of the film and it did help with the portrayal of certain realities - like the jarring contrast between the serene and stoic spiritual existence of the Buddhist monks versus the ever mobile and ever restless realities of life in the commercial centers, where the pursuit of the material is ritualized and idiolized. It’s these urban centers that a disproportionately high portion of humanity have come to call home, including me. No wonder so many of us are out of touch with the environmental concerns, except for what is spoon fed to us in the ads and labels of “environmentally sustainable” products brought to us by “socially responsible” but “ruthlessly profit-driven” companies. In this way, the documentary greatly contributes to the calls of the environmental movement, who are fighting preserve our precious eco systems.

The end of the movie was particularly awesome! After the whirl-wind visual experience of all these ritualistic practices – from the sacred to the material bound - it ends with a close-up of the back of a Monk’s head, looking out into a courtyard. The camera moves in slowly towards the back of his/her head & into darkness, where we finally see the end credits. It’s almost like saying that “it’s all in your head”. I mean the significance we attribute to any of these things, is our own doing. Either we choose to see the good in the world and preserve it or we dwell on all that is going haywire. We choose to see the divine presence in our lives or we don’t, it’s up to us and we’re responsible for the choices we make. Which incidentally reminds me of something I once read- “it is happening inside your head Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

Why is it when Dumbledore says something crazy like that, nobody really asks him what he means? Do not tell me because he’s magical. 

What the movie revealed to me can be summed up in this way - our rituals, whether they be spiritual or material, including the ritualized the slaving away at money pursuits, define our life and times. Being so enthralled in our day to day lives, we forget that there used to be, and still are, in existence ways that are a lot more attuned with the preserving of the sanctity of the environments we live in and can enhance the quality of the lives we lead. This documentary is a beautiful tribute to the diverse ways of life within humanity - the nourishing and the destructive, which - if you think about it - is some what reflected in the diversity we find in the environment we inhibit. What a blessing it is! (Baraka), to be different and similar at the same time - the verse mentioned above relates well here, I think. At the very least, this documentary makes a good case for us to get rid of the noise & clutter that we’ve built around ourselves and to see the world for what it is, in all its movements and all it’s stillness - Glorious.

L.I.

Edit: Forgot to mention the 1990s style clothing & hair cut! The documentary was shot in 1992 and it captures the bushy bangs, big glasses & the 3/4 skirts very well. This was an awesome, though completely unexpected, throw back to a styling way that I’m glad we’ve put behind us! .. oh wait, huge glasses phase still on. They weren’t all bad I s’pose.

(Source: thelittlephilosopher)