Sons of Gods: The Mahabharata Retold

Mythology and Religion "Indian mythology is like a mirror that shows their hearts' desire to all who look into it. So the Hindu in his shrine might greet you with : 'So you are a follower of this Jesus, brought his image with you! He is very nice too! Put him up there too in the shrine, there’s plenty of room!' "It is so because the original idea was never abandoned; it was merely enlarged, expanded upon for every imaginable taste. To this day though, in his heart, the Hindu really only believes in One ineffable God, creator of everything, to whom everything returns. Not the Christian father high up in heaven but inside us, everywhere, in all. Sometimes this One is known as Para Atman, whereas the individual soul is atman. Para means supreme: the Supreme Soul. "Our mind, our senses, separate us from that Soul. Our desires with which we shape the world around us distance us from the divine. So desire triggers the actions that shape reality but desir...

Archaeology (con'd) and Hinduism "The quintessence of India, her religion, has remained unchanged ever since the great poem was composed. No invader or coloniser was ever able to overcome it, and indeed many, like the Aryan invaders form the north, were overcome by it, absorbed into its generous complexities. "Jews were here since the times of king Solomon. India has the distinction of being the only country on earth where they were never persecuted. Almost every religions faith of the world was represented, like Islam in huge numbers, Christians numbering millions; and out of Hinduism have come reforms, movements like Buddhism that became major religions in their own right. But the Indian soul was never been conquered. Vedas and Mahabharata spring from an ancient and enduring civilisation, the scope of which we are only now beginning to fathom. " "The root of Hinduism is not just in the belief in one God, like the monotheism of Christ...

Film and Archaeology From the documentary: "Children in School, for example: if there is one child who is very strong or very fat they will say he is exactly like Bhima. And that is the kind of total liveability and contemporariness of the Mahabharata today." Mallika Sarabhai, as Draupadi in P eter Brook's miniseries, The Mahabharata . But a Bhima played by an actor from Africa? Director Peter Brook staged the Mahabharata with actors from around the world, making the Mahabharata accessible to people everywhere. "In all my conversations with Peter I have often asked him why he works with an international group and one of the things he has said is that if in a small group of mixed races and countries we can create something that is harmonious, then the world has a chance. The Mahabharata cuts across everything. It cuts across time, race, colour. It’s the same issues that have continue to face human beings over millennia." -- Mallika Sarabhai Fr...