Samsara - The Movie

Samsara is a westernized word for Sansar, which in Hindi means – World.

Samsara is a movie by Pan Nalin that is centred around the life of a Buddhist monk Tashi. In this blog, I am going to discuss the whole story and especially the very interesting climax (before discussing which I will give a spoiler alert), as it gives a good food for thought for the material and/versus spiritual life.

The movie starts with a scene where Tashi’s fellow and senior monks go to Himalaya to awaken him out of a 3 year meditation. On their way, an eagle picks up a stone from somewhere and drops it in the sky on one of their lambs, which immediately dies due to the strike. After waking up Tashi, they take him back to their home, treating him slowly on the way to bring his body and senses back to normal. On the way, Tashi reads writing on the stone – ‘How can one prevent a drop of water from ever drying up?’

On return, Tashi is honoured with the status of Lama because of his discipline and outstanding achievement of rigorous meditation. While Tashi and his fellow monks are happy with this, Tashi suddenly stars to feel a sexual surge in his body and cannot avoid stealthily noticing women in the day and inadvertent ‘bad’ dreams in the night. On the senior monks, Apu, realizes this but continues observing without saying anything. On the other hand, a junior monk is filled with grief and horror because of the sexual inclinations of his ideal.

On one of their trips to a village, Tashi accidently comes across a very beautiful lady, Pema. Pema sees the deep desire that Tashi is suppressing under his Lama-hood and decides to give him some comfort by just sleeping by him (Tashi takes it for a beautiful dream). On return, Tashi cannot forget Pema and cannot justify his celibacy. Apu tells him he should follow his own way and that what Tashi thought of as dream happened for real. And thus Tashi sets back to meet Pema – towards a material life. This change is beautifully dramatized by him entering a river as a Lama and coming out as a normal man and his dog Kalu declining to recognize his Master.

After some more drama, both get married. While sexual desire was his launching pad into material life, Tashi starts experiencing other aspects of life such as greed for money, enmity etc. While he and Pema continue to love each other heartily, they differ in their approach to life. Pema believes in natural living, living with resources in hand and in harmony with neighbours. Tashi on the other hand starts gets into profit maximizing (retrenchment) and modernizing with some exposure to the city life. He also starts falling prey to temptation of another woman.

After yet some more drama, he is suddenly on loss with his inability of coping up with the material life, guilt of infidelity and the bad news of Apu’s death, who writes in his last letter: “I know I am coming back to this world [i.e. not liberated yet] and I am sure I will meet you in my next life and then you can tell me what is more important –satisfying one thousand desires [material life] or conquering just one [liberation, which is also a desire]”.

*** Alert - spoiler begins***

Tashi suddenly has a ‘realization’ and he decides to leave his family material life with a heavy heart to go back conquest of his pursuit. He again enters the river and comes out in his Lama clothes – his dog is not there but the sound of his barking is there! One would think that the story would end here or would continue on the subject of liberation. And Lo – Pema is back. Seeing Tashi – bald, in his Lama clothes (which she had expected), she begins:

Quote
You know Yashodhara [Buddha’s wife]? Everyone knows Gautama, Buddha, Siddharatha, but how many people know Yashodhara … he left them when they were sleeping [like Tashi does] … Who can say if Buddha owed his Enlightenment to her? … How can we know if she fell victim to anger, bitterness and loneliness after Siddhartha left him … how could she answer the eternal question of their son Rahul, ‘Where is my father?’ … only a man can leave his child in the middle of the night … Tashi, if your thoughts towards Dharma were of the same intensity as the love and passion you have shown me, you could have got liberation in this very body, in this very life…
Unquote

Tashi asks for forgiveness to return to the house but Pema leaves him. With the whole drama happening in such a small time, he is heartbroken and cries like a child in the open sun. But once he has cried, he gets up, quiet and serene again [supposedly free of the heaviness – this chapter has passed]. Not knowing where to go, he finds the same stone there - ‘How can one prevent a drop of water from ever drying up?’ On the back it says – ‘By throwing it into the sea…’, which has at least two interpretations:
1. The only way peace is possible for man is by his merger with the absolute.
2. Man’s real place is in Samsara – the ocean of which he is a drop.

And then our lovely eagle comes. Totally blank, he watches up, closes his eyes, expecting a stone to take him out of his misery. But the eagle is gentle this time and the God not so benevolent – he has to continue with life, probably because he has more to learn. And that is THE END.

I guess the storytelling was very important for this blog to discuss some aspects.

First, man’s search for ultimate should be in the middle of the world. It is easier to meditate in Himalayas where there is no noise, no disturbance of any kind, no temptation – nothing. But to be able to meditate deeply in daily life is a quality. Additionally, as Master says and the as the movie rightly shows, there is a danger of the world hitting you hard if you are even accidentally exposed to it as all that which was suppressed in a quiet environment will come out in this mad environment.

Second, material life is indeed imperfect and difficult. While Pema is more stable and content, there are things that bother her too (though less). So happiness in total sense is probably impossible and the only way it is possible is when we don’t depend on external sources to keep us happy.

Third, a man has to fulfil his duties. I am not in a position to comment on what Buddha did but I understand that every action of ours has a purpose and a reaction (on both parties). Leaving one’s family or duties for some attainment in most cases may not be justified. On the other hand, if we are aware of both (purpose and reaction), a conscious decision can be taken even though it might hurt someone else. It might sound odd when I say this but I say this in light of the fact that good and bad are decided by the society we are living in and if something that is consciously good for a person, but bad for somebody else or according to the society, we cannot always judge in favour of the latter.

Last, but not the least, life has to continue till it is ‘completed’. To continue to walk is very important. Many a times, people don’t find ways just because they are too lazy to walk [pun intended] or because they are afraid. Here, I remember what Master says [and what Gurdjieff also says] – if you are not going up, you will come down. You cannot continue to stay at one point.

Leaving all the mind-full stuff aside, the movie’s direction [pointed and optimally dramatized with a stunning climax], background score [very natural, deep and soothing] and cinematography [full of nature and colours] are excellent and worth a lot of praise. At times it is slow but for a good reason and it always keeps you glued to the screen. For people interested in the subject, but also for people interested in a good movie, this would be a very good watch.