{"id":40,"date":"2010-01-05T16:19:38","date_gmt":"2010-01-05T16:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/2010\/01\/review-avatar.html"},"modified":"2010-01-05T16:19:38","modified_gmt":"2010-01-05T16:19:38","slug":"review-avatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2010\/01\/review-avatar.html","title":{"rendered":"Review: Avatar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Avatar_Movie_Poster-James_Cameron.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>What does the new James Cameron film have to do with Hinduism? Quite a lot, hoped many Hindus, anticipating the next <\/i>Matrix. But would the film denigrate Hinduism’s sacred teachings about the descent of the Divine? At least that was the fear of some community activists, gearing up for protests and boycotts.<\/p>\n

It turns out that <\/i>Avatar is neither. But it is, as this Hindu movie review points, an opportunity to reflect on what the term has to tell us about civilization and human (and divine) value.<\/i><\/p>\n

Avatar’s reversal of fortune<\/h1>\n

by Maxim Osipov for The Age<\/a><\/p>\n

With the dazzling 3D-vortex of colours, actions and emotions, James Cameron’s Avatar<\/i> seems to have given everyone something to rave about.<\/p>\n

But let’s get it straight — Avatar<\/i> is a downright misnomer for this latest new blockbuster.<\/p>\n

No,
\nnot because, sadly for Hare Krishna moviegoers, the film’s got nothing
\nto do with Hinduism except its Sanskrit name. And some Hindu activists
\nwho habitually frisk all new releases for concealed sacrileges also
\nneedn’t worry — there are none in Avatar<\/i>, or at least not more that in those little digital icons they hide themselves behind on their own e-chats.<\/p>\n

It’s because the movie reverses the very concept that the term “avatar” is based on.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leave
\naside the fact that Hindu theology reserves the use of “avatar”, which
\nin Sanskrit literally means “descent”, almost exclusively for
\nappearances of Vishnu on Earth. The key point here is that an avatar
\nalways descends from a higher realm into the lower, restores
\nprosperity, wisdom, and happiness — and moves on unchanged after the
\nmission is accomplished.<\/p>\n

However, the “avatar” Jake
\nSully — and we the viewers along with him — shortly after his descent
\ninto the world of Na’vis sees the “higher” realm of earthlings rapidly
\ngrow pallid and repulsive in comparison to the pristine world of
\nsupposed savages. The “civilised humans” turn out as primitive, jaded
\nand increasingly greedy, cynical, and brutal — traits only amplified by
\ntheir machinery — while the “monkey aliens” emerge as noble, kind,
\nwise, sensitive, and humane.<\/p>\n

We, along with the Avatar<\/i> hero, are now faced with an
\nuncomfortable yet irresistible choice between the two races and the two
\nworldviews. And invariably, along with him we cannot help but lean
\ntoward the far more civilised insides within the long-tailed,
\nblue-skinned, and technologically infantile exterior.<\/p>\n

So
\nmuch for a descending “avatar”. Jake soon admits to himself in his
\nvideolog: “I realised that I had it backwards, I wasn’t sure what was
\nthe dream and what was real.” Having regained through the avatar body
\nnot just his legs, but his dignity, his freedom, and his brethren whose
\nlove and trust he struggles to earn, the rescuer becomes the rescued,
\nthe benefactor becomes the benefitted. The “avatar” becomes . . . well
\n. . . a refugee among the aborigines so content inwardly that they
\nwouldn’t trade their tree for whatever the savvy “sky people” gods have
\nto offer! Contrary to The Matrix’s<\/i> Neo, Jake plugs into a
\nsupposedly illusory world to discover it to be much more tangible,
\nwholesome and true than his own — and wants to stay in.<\/p>\n

This makes us ask the question: Why? And what on Earth (or on Pandora) do “culture”, “civilisation”, and “human” stand for?<\/p>\n

Not
\nsuccumbing to the stock trifle of sci-fi genre, James Cameron makes
\nthis question the fourth dimension of his movie — and answers it most
\nconvincingly: It’s the qualities of kindness, gratitude, regard for the
\nelderly, self-sacrifice, respect for all life and ultimately humble
\ndependence on a higher intelligence behind nature that qualify one as
\ncultured, civilised, and human.<\/p>\n

The other alternative is summed up by Jake Sully: “This is how it’s
\ndone. When people are sitting on something that you want, you make them
\nyour enemy so that you can drive them out.” And “They have already
\nkilled their mother”. Here you have it, the savage — give or take his
\nspaceship, touch-screen and a rifle.<\/p>\n

And getting
\nback to the Hindu theology, Bhagavad-gita (16.1-4) echoes this
\ndistinction: “Fearlessness; cultivation of wisdom; charity;
\nself-control; austerity; simplicity; refrain from unnecessary violence;
\ntruthfulness; freedom from hatred; renunciation; tranquility; aversion
\nto fault-finding; compassion for all living entities; freedom from
\ncovetousness; gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigour;
\nforgiveness; fortitude; cleanliness; and freedom from envy and from the
\npassion for honour – these are qualities befitting real civilised
\nhumans.<\/p>\n

“Pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance are qualities of barbarians.”<\/p>\n

In
\norder to descend — that is, to be an avatar — one first ought to be
\nabove. Unfortunately for our civilisation, epitomised by the human
\nconquistadors on Pandora, from the place where we are happily getting
\nourselves into, we can only climb.<\/p>\n

Maxim Osipov
\nis a student of Sanskrit and Indian philosophy and a follower of the
\nHare Krishna movement since 1991. Mukunda Goswami contributed to this
\narticle.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does the new James Cameron film have to do with Hinduism? Quite a lot, hoped many Hindus, anticipating the next Matrix. But would the film denigrate Hinduism’s sacred teachings about the descent of the Divine? At least that was the fear of some community activists, gearing up for protests and boycotts. 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He is a Hindu Chaplain and the Coordinator for Hindu Life at Princeton University, and serves as the North American Director of Communications for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a worldwide organization representing the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. In previous incarnations, Vineet has been a New York City prosecutor, a cable TV show host, and a hospital chaplain. In his free time, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and his new baby, attending classes at The Bhakti Center, and teaching himself photography. As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}