TRIUMPH OF SPIRIT IN LOVE, NATURE & ART

Posts tagged “Bollywood movies

Eye-Locks, Namaste and God


Namaste!

Namaskar!

Namaskaram!

The Hindu greeting: “I bow to the God in you.”

I love this form of greeting– so much better than a handshake.

Christians believe God dwells within our souls. Perhaps other religions do as well. It seems Hindus do also if that is not too simplistic of me to express. Please excuse me if it is.

In some of the best of the old Bollywood classics love is portrayed without so much as a simple kiss. It is shown by gazing into the eyes of the beloved and saying “I see God in you.”

Eyes are the window to the soul. For people such as my husband and myself who are on the Autism Spectrum, eye contact is fearsome. It is threatening. And yet eye contact is precious beyond all fortune. Eye contact in love is wondrous and life-changing.

I have seen God in my husband’s eyes for a fleeting moment of eye contact on a walk in the countryside when we were being loving with one another… and on precious contact when I come in to talk to him while he is on the computer in New York City. I have seen God in my husband when he is telling a joke and I am laughing at him and he is so happy to make me laugh. He is child like, God like. It seems I hit the jackpot in marrying him. Looking deeply into another’s eyes, the “right” other, one finds God is Love, God is Joy. This is nothing new– just new to me.

One time I looked deeply into another’s eyes with a person I worked with long before I met my husband. It reached down deep inside both of us and it changed my life forever. It led me on a road to a complete breakdown and a long road back rebuilding my personality slowly in therapy until I was whole. And then I met my husband. And eye-contact with him is precious. It is special. Not frequent and in its rarity, powerful and sacred.

Eye-locks are powerful, potent conveyors of love, joy, sadness and finally, and most importantly, they can be a vehicle to God.

Welcome to samples of my writing showcasing “Eye-locks and Other Fearsome Things.”  “Eye-locks” is a Bipolar/Asperger’s memoir in narrative form that describes the triumph of love over mental illness.


Beguiling Wiles


Though I write about meditation, spirituality, animal rights, mental illness and nature on this blog, I would be remiss in not sharing my passion for Indian dance and Bollywood movies.  Bollywood movies, like Western movies, are vessels of escapism, but Bollywood movies add morality, family values and frequently, religion, into the mix.  The dance and music is uplifting and, yes, sensual, without resorting to the blatant obscenity of Western films.

In this excerpt from the film, “Khalnayak,” Madhuri Dixit and Sanjay Dutt star.  Madhuri is the diva of Indian dance and, in fact, I am taking free online lessons with her just for the fun of it. And fun it is.  Madhuri makes no bones about using one’s feminine wiles to beguile.  If interested the lessons are available at http://dancewithmadhuri.com.  Sanjay Dutt is the handsome, irresistibly vulnerable heartthrob of the Indian screen and he dances as well.  Most Bollywood stars not only act but dance, too.

In this scene, Madhuri Dixit plays an undercover cop acting as a dancer to allure and apprehend the soft-hearted criminal, Sanjay Dutt.  They have great chemistry and the dancing is definitely an earthly pleasure, a blatant manifestation of Maya, to which I am attached.  But I think I must follow to see where it leads.  Experiencing writer’s block and artist’s block at the moment, perhaps dance is good for my soul. Critics might say my interest arises from a Bipolar mania or an Asperger’s obsession.  Perhaps.  I don’t know.  I am certainly not manic at the moment. All I know is that the allure of this form of Maya is powerful, and to deny its existence may lead to the necessity of pursuing this manifestation of it in another life.  Paramahansa Yogananda says that all life is Maya, a picture show.  Perhaps by indulging in Bollywood films, I may get a new perspective on so-called “reality” and see it as Yogananda did, as a film show of the earthly passions, a dream from which we will awaken one day.


Love, Dance, Sing, Namaste


(Don’t forget to turn on the English subtitles if you need English)

From the film “Dil To Pagal Hai” with Shah Rukh Kahn

*

Bollywood seduces

whereas Hollywood intrigues

Bollywood love

 a sensual, sensuous suggestion

more suggestive than

most of Hollywood’s crass sexuality

all without so much as a kiss

*

Bollywood dance

titillates

captivates

illuminates

a love

but always with morality

sensuality

with a vow

to chastity

and a bow

to the family

(often not obeyed)

and a touch to the feet

of the elders

*

Bollywood song

a musical conversation

between a man and a woman

not just lonely lyrics

flung into your ears

*

Bollywood love

acknowledges seeing God

in the loved one

God a rare

if ever guest

in Hollywood

*

Love, Dance, Sing

*

Namaste