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Dissipating the Darkness: The Reflexes of Indian Culture In Brazil
The reflexes of the Indian culture in Brazil are significant, but contrary to common sense,
that culture wasn't brought by immigrants.
The number of Indian expats in Brazil is approximately two thousand,
a very low number in comparision with the total of the Brazilian population
estimated at 190 million people.
So, how to explain the strong presence of this culture in the country?
The soap opera "India -- A Love Story", from 2009, brought notoriety to the theme to the public,
but in truth, interest for this theme has been ocurring for decades in Brazil.
The branches presented here incorporate concepts that are considered separate in the occident,
but to Indian culture are interconnected.
This millenary knowledge combines to form the shared culture of India.
A figure widely cited by the interviewees is the guru, or spiritual master.
The guru is the person who transmits the knowledge of the culture's practices.
Gu means "darkness", and ru, "to disperse".
The guru is then the one who disperses the darkness in one's path,
enlightening the consciousness of the one who sought him.
Some questions guided us, but our main inquiry is:
Who are the people who uphold this set of ideas?
How do they think?
I remember seeing a devotee on the street once, dressed in orange...
that's what you think, right? A Hare Krishna is a guy in dressed in orange.
Oh, and there are also ladies who are Hare Krishna, they're also monastic?
Yes there are, but they don't dress in orange.
But there are, anyhow.
The pantheon of Indian deities is vast.
There are monotheistic, polytheistic and atheistic sects,
and views vary on who the supreme god is.
The Hare Krishna movement is monotheistic, following the Vaishnava tradition
or in other words, they cultuate Vishnu, Mantainer of the Universe.
Krishna is recognized as the 8th avatar of Vishnu,
being the pure incarnation of that supreme god.
The Hare Krishna mission started 500 years ago.
So, they look very New Age to the people in the occident,
but they are a New Age that is 500 years old.
In fact... they are from medieval India.
A great wiseman named Chaitanya Mahaprabhu founded a spirituality movement...
so the Vedic tradition already existed. It's the culture based on the sacred books, the Vedas.
And this wiseman, who at the end of the day is considered a divine incarnation,
he inaugarated a movement named Bhakti.
It was a movement that reached the entirety of India.
There were other representations of this kind of spirituality
that was centered in pure devotion.
So, he insisted on the fact that in our era everything is so decadent
that instead of focusing on extreme ritualistics or in dogmatism, it was better
to focus in the love for the divine, for the transcendent,
and try to reach this transcendency in a very personal way.
Most people know about this philosophy through the Hare Krishna movement.
I mean... the expression "Hare Krishna" became popular in the 1960s and 1970s,
... when an Indian leader, His Divine Grace Swami Prabhupada,
arrived in the West bringing some books on this phylosophy.
He met some westerns, such as The Beatles, and many famous people,
George Harrison being the most recognized of these people he met.
And they promoted this movement.
The Hare Krishna movement is good because while people try to help others in just one way
the Movement helps out in several ways.
They care for the people's well-being, that they remain sane,
that they don't lack food or shelter.
Many devotees left their homes... many didn't have a home.
I know devotees who once lived in the streets.
And when they became devotees, they came to live in the temple,
they have their own possesions, provide help to the place...
and help other people.
So, Prabhupada was the only one, after Jesus Christ,
that managed to make the world into a better place.
That's why we go to the streets with the books by Prabhupada,
and the prasada, it's not only for the money that mantains the temples,
but also for people to know Srila Prabhupada and try to become better, help others.
Because we live in a society where people are very ignorant,
they just want things for themselves and don't want to share. That's selfishness.
There are people with a lot of money, while others have little and others have nothing.
So, he wanted a world where everybody could be equal, and that was in constant peace.
Living in the temple means serving God integrally.
Only after Srila Prabhupada the female devotees started to live in the temples.
It was something revolutionary in India at the time, imagine... boys and girls living together!
But Srila Prabhupada always said: "Together, but separated."
If you look at our lives, they're very simple, we sleep on the floor, wake up early,
there's cold water in the showers... we eat what we have, it's not like we have
prasada every day, only in the festivals.
In this way, with this simplicity, we are very happy,
because happiness is inside us, we shouldn't look outside for it.
[Maha Rama prays]
When we interviwed Maha Rama Das in 2011, he was still a guy dressed in orange,
dedicating himself only to the temple, as a brahmacharya.
In our second contact, in 2013, he had gotten married, becoming a guy in white, or grihastha.
It's a very big change, because when you have a brahmacharya life,
your time is completely dedicated to preaching.
You sleep thinking about it, you wake up thinking about it...
You have an obligation. Not in the bad sense of the word, it's an obligation to yourself...
to wake up early, to perform the first celebration of the day... you are in constant prayer.
The practice of meditation is constant, as is the adoration of the deities.
I had a great responsability as the temple's president,
so I needed to coordinate a lot, and care about several diferent issues
that are part of the temple's routine.
All of that with the goal of mantaining preaching and the temple.
And nowadays I also have a responsability towards my wife.
I have my wife, my house... so I sell 6 hours and 40 minutes of my day to someone I don't know.
I work with computers, so I help people achieve their objectives... I do the best I can
to help them, but I'm not working with something that has to do with my purpose in life.
So, do I sometimes get frustrated? Yes, but this is my duty at the moment.
In this way I can maintain my house, fulfill my necessities, keep up with my duties.
And the perspective is that my responsabilities will increase even more,
because the grishastha life has the perspective of forming a family
in Krishna's counsciousness.
So, developing yourself as an external devotee is not easy.
You are constantly setting the example for people
because you are the person who lives outside.
It's good because this way people can approach a spiritual life, like in Krishna Counsciosness,
and see that not only monks approach Krishna Counsciousness...
people who feel natural living in a temple.
You can be someone who lives outside and also practice it.
This is something important that we see going on, as it makes people realize it is possible
to have a spiritual life without living in the temple.
Srila Prabhupada said that his mission wasn't to convert everyone to the Hare Krishna movement.
He wanted to strengthen the faith the person already had.
This is very beautiful. He used to say: "I want you to be good Christians".
Each with their own faith, "Be good Muslims".
Because we couldn't house everyone in the temples, it's a whole lot of people.
Krishna Counsciouness is a process in which we eat, sing and dance with much joy.
We want to bring happiness to people.
We want to bring love to people.
We want to stop being needy and selfish,
and start giving love!
In India, if you talk about Krishna Consciousness, few people know it.
They know it as Vaishnavism or Hari Naam Sankirtan.
Hari Naam is the chant of the holy names.
Even in the Bible, the Book of Hebrews says
"Happy is the man who chants the name of God because his is the kingdom of heaven."
It's a common practice, it's something that comes from the soul.
It's not something institutionalised.
So, the Krishna Counsciouness has this name, Hari Naam Sankirtan
"The congregational chant".
San, meaning congregational and Kirtan, meaning chant.
So, the chant, the invocation of God's name, is no different from God himself.
This practice simply brings happiness...
Anyone who took part in a kirtan, in this congregational chant
this praise in the temple, this ritualistic practice...
It is, besides a ritualistic practice, an everyday, common practice
to Krishna Counsciousness.
Kirtan is the constant chanting. If you gather two or three devotees,
two or three students... and soon everyone one is joyful in singing.
It's a practice of praising God constantly, right?
It's something that brings satisfaction.
We were invated to a kirtan in Paulista Avenue by the blithe monk Sudevi.
I even had the experience of selling arcticles during the kirtan.
We also presenced an interesting constrast, when two urban scenes clashed.
But São Paulo is bigger than Paulista Avenue.
We went to the Franco da Rocha municipality to get to know Bhakti School.
This Hare Krishna school was founded by the region's devotees,
aiming for the education of the community's youth.
Bhakti School groups the students into cycles, not grades
due to the disparities in their learning.
Working with cycles is way better than working with 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes.
Why? Because there are kids who are in the 6th grade and are not literate.
They can't read or write.
How is teacher going to give the child an activity, if the child doesn't have basic knowledge?
Chandra has been a member of the community since age 7,
and helped build the school she studies in.
I don't know if you noticed, but in our school the desks aren't like those in normal schools
they aren't individual. They're meant for groups, because if one person knows something
the person helps the teacher do his job, you see?
There isn't anything like "I know, I am the best".
It's "I know, so I'm gonna help, then you're gonna know too."
so everybody evolves together.
Acting as a group, united.
Everybody working together in harmony. It's really good.
There are several students who are catholic, charismatic...
and the children are here to express themselves as they are.
Our school is religious, but we don't require everyone to follow our beliefs.
There are many other opportunities.
It's not just a choice between being Hare Krishna and doing drugs!
And it's a bit different in here...
Being a part of a religion or philosophy that is different and out of the mainstream
you end up being discriminated, whether you want it or not.
Everybody thinks that only their own religion saves.
And that's something we work with the children a lot
that God is in everyone's heart
in every human being, and every animal too.
That it's wrong to think that only your own religion saves.
Every religion is searching for the same thing, with a focus in God.
It's a little delicate to work like this
because many children want to study here
but many mothers say "No, it's Hare Krishna, I don't believe it", you know?
She worships the *** Mary of Conception, and so doesn't want to enroll her children here.
However, many kids participate despite that.
There is a verse we speak chant every morning, which is...
[Chandra chants]
"You must be more tolerant than a tree,
every feeling of false prestige must be absent,
you must be ready to offer absolute respect to others,
in this state of spirit, one can sing the names of the Lord constantly."
That which is good, is not going to vary from what's Vaishnava...
for exemple, if I want to explain what virtue is
it's something universal, not exclusive to Hare Krishna.
I'm not here to make them Hare Krishnas.
I'm here to make them virtuous, enlightened people, right?
And if I can make a connection, for example, with the Bhagavad Gita
or cite an example from a different text... Now we are working with intertextuality,
between The Divine Comedy and the Bhagavad Gita.
There are similiar concepts in these Catholic and a Vaishnava works.
There is a connection, see?
But always using universal values, not something that is exclusive to a small community,
just a clan.
We have to show that we have a dialogue with society.
There are even more children than we anticipated.
So, they are looking for a new place
to make the school larger, so we can receive more students.
The tendency is to grow. The are parents waiting for vacancies to open for their children.
We're pretty different, not only because this is a religious school,
It's because they trust us!
I studied in other schools and I know how it is.
Many teachers just sit down and say "If you don't want to learn, don't learn, then...
I'm here, earning my money, you're the one who stand to lose".
But it's really nice when the teacher doesn't say these things
He shows concern, he wants you to grow together with society, you know?
He wants a better society.
Well, to start off, it's "yôga", not "yóga".
A lot of people mistake the pronunciation
the letter "o" in sanscrit has a closed sound,
so, there's no "yóga", it's "yôga", no accent, always starting with a "wye",
and it's a masculine noun.
In portuguese, many people use it as feminine noun, but in sanscrit, nouns that end in "a" are masculine.
It should be pronounced as such.
It's a word that derives from the sanscrit root "yujir",
which means junction, connection, union.
Fundamentally, yoga stimulates the union between the human being and his self,
with his mind, body, emotions... and finally the spirit.
When you have an alignement of all these aspects
you achieve enlightment of the counsciousness,
which is yoga's objective.
So, even if people see it just as a physical practice
or just breathing exercises, or a form of relaxation,
there's an objective behind it, which is to amplify your counsciousness.
Many people don't understand it, because it all came to the occident without tradition.
What does that mean?
"Is there an issue with not having a tradition?"
No, absolutely no problem. But tradition is very important in putting you on the right track.
It's a train, and we are like a train wagon.
If we don't have that track, which is tradition, the wagon runs wild.
And sometimes obstructs a person's path.
Tradition is useful in putting the wagon in the trail for it to move forward.
When this came to the occident without tradition, things sort of went awry.
I know of people who began their studies in the 70s, dropped them, returned in the 90s...
They stopped because there was no base to their studies.
There were only a few books, some mistranslated, others purposefully mistranslated...
to influence people's thinking in one way or another.
Every road leads to the same place, every river runs to the sea.
You want to achieve through transmission of knowledge, practice, health maintenance
the spiritual development of the student, and of the person, the individual,
as well as enlightment.
So, every serious path will lead to this development.
There is not a single path.
The missionary instructor Gustavo Mattos
talked to us about the main branches of Yoga.
Bhakti is the devotional Yoga.
One easy example for everyone are the Hare Krishnas.
Bhakti is the devotional.
So, they are more religious by nature.
Karma Yoga relates to the uninterested action.
It's the Yoga in which you work with no intention of reaping rewards.
It's more complex than that, but in essence, you don't expect rewards.
Neither rewards of recognition or of money.
Jnana Yoga, in which Vidya Yoga belongs, is the yoga of true knowledge.
By means of philosophical studies and through studies of the scriptures,
you achieve the enlightment by using knowledge.
So that's the base of the philosophical studies
and of the ancient scriptures.
Finally, Raja Yoga, also called mental yoga
it develops the mind by means of meditation
which explains why it's called mental yoga, controlling the mind,
it's the direct control of your brain waves.
And these branches developed as the four main branches
and they intertwine with each other in some branches, see?
Considering yoga and how it came to the occident, it reached Brazil mostly in the early 50s.
At the time it came very mixed with religion. Pleople were interested in secret societies...
so everybody wanted to be a part of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Elbiose, Theosophy...
The majority of people who practiced yoga were also connected with these schools.
They brought yoga to Brazil mixed with those ideas.
That was the starting point.
For a while yoga was limited to some closed groups.
From the 1980s to the 2010s yoga had a great boom.
Not only in Brazil, but also in North and South America, Europe.
There was a new perspective, but the world also changed.
Everything in the planet got easier.
So, the person, want it or not, just by practicing
they're already practicing the phylosophy, introjecting it somehow.
Yes, some want to learn more, to understand, know, read...
do a special course, participate on a retreat.
Other people don't, they just come, practice and go home
but I don't judge that person.
It's not like "oh, this person is not interested".
Because the person is absorbing the phylosophy.
And if the person's here, there's an affinity.
When the student wants to learn more, he comes after class to ask for a mantra
passed in class, or literature to better understand the words and such...
and the techniques, of course.
Then, you recommend a book, or some school where he can study more
because the lessons are practical.
So, there isn't much time to bring the philosophical theory to the classroom.
Though during practice you can exaplain some concepts...
For example, about an asana, a position that in the psyche is working an emotion...
The Mountain Pose, for example, the Tadasana
is a position in which you bring stability to the body, a sturdiness... but smoothly.
And this is going to reflect on your mind, and therefore on your actions.
That's the way you do it, see?
— Something we've observed gere in Brazil, and please correct me if I'm wrong,
is the women to men ratio, in any Indian practice.
— Exactly! — It's not half-to-half...
The latest data from out students indicates that
they are 70% female and 30% male.
Is there a big gap? Yes.
But there's also a tendency of increase in male students.
But why are the majority of them women?
In my opinion I think that women are... more engaged.
Men think that yoga is for women only, because they think it's something soft.
But when he attends a class, he ends up seeing it's not as he thought.
In Brazil, we have predetermined roles. "This is meant for women, and this is for men."
There's still a prejudice that yoga is for women, that it's not active enough...
but this has been changing.
You engage in yoga all the time...
The teachings of yoga.
Every second of your life.
As long as you have awoken to that.
Then, you understand that when you get outside of your home,
drive your car and become stuck in the traffic... that's the ideal moment to apply yoga.
In order not to get involved and become lost in the chaos of this system.
That's were most people are stuck, because life is indeed maddening.
That's where you get a chance to apply the teachings of yoga.
At that moment, a moment of crisis.
Because it's really easy to become isolated, go to a mountain, a cave in the Himalayas...
and there I'll find peace.
It's easy that way, right?
Or go to a hut in a desert beach... and then what?
The question is... it may sound cliche, but
you're going to have money, but are you going to be that money?
Will the it be so important that you'll transform yourself because of it?
Or are you going to use the money to transform things?
Which is the most important thing?
If you lose your money and everything you have, does it end up the same?
That's the internal question, you see?
I'm talking about money because it's the direct point of materiality, right?
Many people who lose a cellphone, or crash their cars... and then almost go crazy.
Why is that?
Either you pay the insurance, or pay another thousand Reais...
If you crash... well, with so many cars around, it's impossible not never crash.
So, this identification with small things is the real issue.
You need to use these material obstacles, which are not illusions, to develop your conscience.
It's surreal to our culture... how can a barbecue be a bad thing?
Can you think of something more relaxing than gathering friends
to drink beer and burn some meat, right?
When you go to these places once you are practicing yoga, meditating,
purifying yourself using mantras, pranayamas... you daily practice.
You understand, despite other people having absolutely no conscience,
that said action is bringing suffering to some life form on this planet.
The intention of driving a BMW, you know?
Sometimes you just want to feel the engine roar... why not?
[engine roar]
Feel the rorar. Once it's over, you can't become that.
You can't lose your identity if you don't have your BMW anymore.
Then it gets complicated. If you got involved, you're trapped in the illusion.
Is it clear this way?
Because you got involved with the BMW... involved with that beautiful car, and all that.
And if you don't have it anymore, it is if as people didn't recognize you anymore.
We know there are relations like that, but they'll break, leaving the person frustrated and sad.
But exactly in that sadness the person will understand he isn't the car,
and start thinking why they got involved with that.
Not in such a literal manner, but at some point the person will have to understand.
People come to practice yoga, maybe not here, but in any school,
"But... do I need a mat from Nike? A mat from Adidas?" any brand, whatever.
"Do I need a yellow or pink mat, because it's what's in vogue right now?"
"I'll use special yoga clothes." What?
And the main thing, which is yoga, people don't care about.
Medicine?
The first thing we have to understand is that Ayurveda is not medicine
it's not medicine within our context and rationally of what is medicine.
A person who considers Ayurveda a medicine, using an occidental mindset is totally wrong.
Because they use opposite and differentiated mentalities.
So, if you you want to analyze ayurveda with a western mentality, it's not medicine.
Using an ayurveda rationality, alopathy and modern western medicine are not medicine also.
That's why I classify it like this: alopathy, the western medicine, is a modern medicine
to the modern man.
Ayurveda is not a medicine.
Ayurveda studies the human being in a general way.
To us, what does being healthy mean?
It's to have body, mind and spirit in harmony.
According to our essence, to our individuality.
And being individual in Ayurveda is not a bad thing.
To an occidental person, being individual is being egoistical.
It's you thinking about yourself only.
To Ayurveda it's not like that, because the contexts are completely different.
Being individual is thinking about yourself and your individuality.
It doesn't mean being isolated from the world, thinking you're the best, no... that's dissonant.
But rather understanding how your body works. More important, you must respect other bodies.
Not thinking that everyone needs to be the same as you.
This basic context I just explained
makes ayurveda completely different from other methodologies...
So this scares people.
Ayurveda is a medicinal system with origins in the Indian subcontinent.
Its treatments are diversified, but nutrition and herbs are main components.
Let's say I'm going to treat a person with an ilness called migraine. Headaches.
I'm not going to give a medicine for "headache".
I need to know who this person is.
I can treat ten different people with the same complaint using different medicines and therapies.
Doshas are the "bodily humors".
Ayurveda recognizes three bodily humors.
And these combine with each other.
It's tridosha.
What is tridosha? It's Vatha, combining air and ether.
Pitha, fire and water.
And Kapha, water and earth.
Note that I just listed the five elements of the universe.
I can't treat a person and say that... see, I can't say it's good for everybody to eat nuts.
Magazines and even doctors say that it's good to drink a certain quantity of water or nuts a day.
No. Ayurveda doesn't work this way. It depends on the person.
To some people, it's good to eat two nuts a day. It depends on the biotype.
Another person should eat instead something else with the nutrients cointained in the nuts.
Why? Because people are different.
No two people are the same.
So, there are biotypes and constitutuions that should be respected.
There are people who should drink two liters of water a day,
other people shouldn't, they should just drink one.
For example, there are people who should eat fresh, cold food... liquid food, every day.
Others need to eat cooked food.
Should drink a certain tea that is best for that biotype.
So, the ayurvedic vision of food is very profound
and it's very different from the common sense, the occidental vision of food.
Also, to us food is a sacred thing.
Food must be praised.
There is no good or bad. There is your own personal balance.
So if a person is overweight... well, actually, the person isn't overweight.
But if all life the person has been considered as being overweight by society
and still all exams and diagnostics are always normal, it means that this person is in balance!
That's the person's balance, that's not abnormal, it isn't in dissonance, that's individual normality.
On the contrary, he is in harmony... much more than other people!
But this a shock to the an occidental. How can an "chubby" person
I don't like using such words, but you know... for the sake of explanation,
"How can this person be healthy?" Of course she is healthy!
"How can a really thin person be healthy?"
Wait a minute, you have to analyse a series of contexts
and if being thin isn't afecting her life
if there aren't health problems, etc... that is the person's balance, the person's harmony.
And here I'm talking about social things, like being thin or overweight.
But we can talk about other spheres.
The person thinking faster or slower...
No, nowadays in society everybody has to think fast!
So you see that society stimulates you to drink a lot of coffee, stimulating herbs and teas
Such and such isotonic... and all this gibberish. I don't know the names of all this stuff.
Because everybody has to live fast... No! No.
You need your individuality!
Why is being slow bad? No, that's the person's balance! There are faster people, slower people...
What's nice in ayurveda is that it respects not only that, but it goes beyond.
Everything in ayurveda deserves respect.
Starting with gender... men, women, trans, bi... and so and so... all genders we can have,
all the way to how a person thinks, how a person coordinates toughts.
And it has to be respected.
I always tell my students: when you stop respecting a patient's individuality, you're not doing ayurveda.
Plants that grow in wall corners, in wasted grounds... plants that grow in the fields...
Just so you have an idea, they wanted a book that showed the Brazilian native plants...
and since we're very poor, even more at the time, almost 30 years ago,
in phytotherapy literature... they found a book from EMBRAPA [research company].
Which was a long, thin, colored book...
that had pictures of the common plants that grew in the fields,
had both the botanic and scientific identification... all correct identifications.
And also the poison to kill the plants, because it was a book on harmful weeds and invading plants.
That was the most complete book on ayurvedic plants in Brazil.
It's amazing!
They really are plants that grow in the fields, invade gardens...
they grow spontaneously. And they're Ayurvedic plants.
Traditional plants from Indian pharmacopoeia.
I'm not even talking about spices here.
All the spices we consume here are also Ayurvedic.
This can be explained by the discovery route, the spice route...
when we talk about spices and herbs that we use in cooking.
But it I don't believe it explains why our native floras are so similar.
The flora that's in the fields, the woods and the lots... even ornamental plants.
So, we have a great privilege in ayurvedic terms, because our flora is very similar.
We can work with Brazilian plants using the ayurvedic method.
The people that come to me have already been to many other doctors,
they've already searched for different medicaments.
They're trying, most of all, to understand their illness,
to understand what's happening to them, physically, mentally and even spiritualy.
Even spiritualy... they're trying to understand the disease.
Why do I feel this? Why do I take a chemical medicine, went to a normal doctor,
he gave me a medication, I took it and haven't gotten better!
These people who look for me already went through this.
They already went to the stomach doctor, the head doctor... and are starting to look inside themselves
and understand their illness isn't in the stomach or in the head.
It's something inside them.
It's something missing, or self-awareness they miss.
And their body's trying to tell them: "I'm not fine".
Today, it hurts here... tomorrow it hurts there. So it's useless to take a painkiller.
You must look inside and find out who you are, what's happening to you.
So these are the people who look for me.
People trying to understand what's happening to them. They say: "I feel this, this and that..."
"...and it hurts here, here and there. But what's happening to me?"
Then it starts.
Our journey to Quatro Barras, in Paraná, was done in way most fitting for two students:
six hours from the Atlantic Forest [Southeast] to the Araucaria moist forests [South].
Our goal was to get to know the home of the Vidya yoga order.
This is a non-religious order based on discipleship, and reveres Shiva.
They're oriented by logic and freedom of action, seeking physical, mental and spiritual development.
We slept at the Ashram, a center for the community's practices.
We then went to meet the spiritual leader, thinking the day would start with mental development.
However, it was the time for the physical development.
It all started a long time ago, circa 1979...
When I finished my studies... in phylosophy.
And started studying theology and other such subjects.
But I already wanted to be a master.
Something told me that I should teach, that I should be... a teacher. A master in that sense.
I wanted to be a teacher... to teach people.
A master is, regarding the entire oriental structure of development
a title that needs to be granted when you achieve a certain evolutionary degree.
Master Vyaghrananda met me by chance in a square
at the time I was already 1st dan black belt...
I was already finishing my graduation in phylosophy...
So he met me at the square... and he wasn't in uniform, he was dressed in a suit and tie,
he entered the public square and said: "I want to have a lesson with you all".
That's how it all began.
He asked: "Who's your master?", to the boys you met here today. And they pointed at me.
I wasn't a master. I wasn't even a teacher. I was only an instructor.
They said "our master is there."
Then he stared and questioned if he could ask me to join in.
They replied that yes, and called me.
"Master, this mister..." — they didn't even know the difference between a Japanese and a Korean
"...this Japanese mister wants to talk to you." I looked at him: "How can I help you?"
— "My name is Hee Song Kim." — "You're Korean, then."
"I'd like to train with you."
I blurted: "well, enrolment costs this much and you pay this much as a monthly fee."
And he was a master. But he didn't identify himself as such... so I talked about the prices.
— "And how old are you?" — "I am of age."
"You need a medical exam to check your health. I'm not going to give exercises to sick people,
with spinal problems and such!"
I was a 19 year old boy... hm... almost 19 years old, that's right.
I was petulant.
And Hee Song Kim said "Thank you very much, can I do an experimental class, then?"
I said: "Yes you can, but be careful with the suit, don't rip your pants,
don't make too much effort." He thanked me and we started.
So, I told them to do the exercise, which was a split. He fell with the legs perfectly open.
I was giving the lesson, looked sideways at him and thought "damn".
— "You can do the exercise well, sir." —"Nah, not so much."
Then I gave them another exercise, a spinal flexion...
Everybody had a bit of a hard time
I lowered to the floor and returned...
And he flexed to the floor and returned.
I said "wow".
I asked if he was a practitioner, and he answer that he wasn't.
So I continued the lesson and we started practicing fighting.
I asked everyone to be careful with him, since he was 60 years old and all.
Since he didn't have a lot of skill, I put him to train with the instructors.
It was such a surprise... he did everything better than us.
At the end of the lesson he told me he had liked it very much,
my name is Grand Master so-and-so, I'm a retired Captain from South Korea's air force.
That he'd been in Brazil for a while...
The I turned white, pink, black, blue, every color... almost peed my pants,
and while I was still in deep shame, he told me he wanted me to train under him.
That's how it started.
That's the beginning of my story.
The couple Rajiv and Vinita formed a family within the Vidya philosophy.
Well, in the strict sense of the word, we are marginal to this society.
We live at society's margin. We make use of what it offers,
we make use of the social structure.
But I'm not included in this society, doing the things that are usual or common to it.
Be it related to eating, having fun, ideologies, or a belief in what personal realization is.
So we make use of society, which is something very related to tantra.
Using what the world offers without becoming involved with it, contributing to your development.
So I find it interesting to say that I'm marginal to society.
I live in it, but I'm not contextually inserted in it, doing what it proposes.
But I could not be outside of it either. I could not move my family to a cave
in the Himalayas and isolate myself from the world, living a life like that.
It's not the correct moment in my life to do that. We are a family, we have children,
so I have a duty to give my children a good standard of living, and improve myself
so that I can improve them.
But help them understand that what society proposes is not what a human being should do.
My master was very kind to me.
Because I've always been a very frugal person...
when he passed away, he called me in front of everyone and said
"I'm putting this in your pocket", he took a check, "but I want you to open it
only after I pass away."
I replied "yes, sir". It was one of those shirts with a buttoned pocket...
I buttoned it and forgot about the check. I was worried about him, not the check.
He passed away, and when I got home and took my shirt off, I remembered
to look for something in my pockets, and there was the check...
of what would be equivalent to one hundred thousand Reais.
That nowadays would but the same as... I don't know... three hundred thousand?
It was good money. Marvelous money. It was a bleessing.
It gave me incentive, helped out a lot.
And so I started building. My dream was to build an ashram in which
a master forms other masters.
In India, ashram means community. A community needs to have one director.
One main person. And then other masters. Like a governor and his assistants.
And everything needs to work well.
And here we did these little houses, the dojan, a refectory, therapy room, bathrooms...
We made all of this. We built a philosophical temple. All aimed at this way of life.
— So, you teach the philosophy to your children. It's what you pass on to them.
— Right. In our daily lives we always talk to them about the philosophy, transmitting it,
influencing in a practical manner.
We have two children. A boy of 13 and a girl of 5.
They are always involved in the direction that we take our lives in, in every daily step.
This is reflected in day-to-day discipline, way of life,
arbitrage of difficulties between them, their problems with her, with me...
So we use what the philosophy proposes for the management of family as a whole.
This is made easier, of course... because if only one of us thought that way,
that would generate conflict and some other additional complications.
As we are both involved, our way of life becomes more fluid, natural.
So, we have to escape from the wheel of Samsara while we still live, you see?
You need to be alive to reach liberation. In death it wouldn't matter! That's too easy.
It's not enough to say "rest in peace".
Of course you rest. When you die, you rest for a while, but then you reincarnate, I'm sorry.
I want to able to rest here, awaken and seeing that you are happy with him.
That you feel realized with him.
That he is realized spiritually.
Irregardless of the path he chose. Be it a jew, baptist, charismatic, hindu, sikh... anything.
But we have to be friends, and we have to feel realized. Then I feel happy.
Then I will awaken you to conscience inside of your own religion.
But how is letting go of everything in name of a philosophy seen?
Henrique graduated as an environmental engineer and took this decision.
... that's the way I'll take.
Then yeah, that was the reaction. "How are you going to put aside
your academic formation to dedicate yourself to a philosophy?"
That was my parent's first reaction.
And of course, everybody else in the family thought that also.
But as time went by, I went through my evaluation here, and they came to see it,
they saw it took dedication, that it wasn't simply a flash in the pan.
And there was a continuity. Nowadays I'm the director of a Vidya Yoga school in Curitiba,
it became clear to them that the work I was doing brought about positive things,
and that I was happy and had matured a lot.
So after that point they started to respect me more.
They accepted my position. Nowadays they respect and understand
my work. They already talk good things about it to other people.
So there's no more opposition. In the beginning, sure, you have to face it...
It's necessary even so that you can develop this maturity...
and say: "No, I'm gonna face it. It's what I want, it's my position."
It's a dream.
It's a very expensive dream.
I don't regret at any point, everything that I invested from my money,
courses I took...
Nothing.
This is my life.
The Art of Dance
Indian classical dances are sculptural,
they have a concern with the shape and the perfection of the body's silhouette.
So we don't know what came first, the chicken or the egg...
but the fact is that they bring about this strong sculptural element
and if you observe the sculptures in the temples, you'll notice many elements of the dances there.
So in truth there is a concern with shape, this precise shape
which appears in dances, sculptures, paintings...
For example, the Odissi style was practically restored from the engravings in the temples
a great master visited these places, studied them, and rescued movements from a style.
... and that was the proccess they developed. How to constitute that language?
Where do we start? That originated the ethnographic proccess of going out there
to interview the dancers from the temples, and observe the sculptures themselves...
I could show you a few books...
Then they could start building not only the stories, but the aesthetical elements too
because the feet and hand positionings were taken straight from the wall of the temples.
Indian dances do not have a naturalistic approach, on the contrary
they are very stylized, because there is a perception that art is aimed at transcendece
and naturalism doesn't transcend anything, it doesn't allow for that.
So you will see this construction of movements that is stylized, coded.
Very complex makeups that also have a meaning, especially in the Kathakali style
where you have an appearance for every character, colors have certain meanings
as well as the acessories you unite to them.
Nowadays we wear less makeup due to electrical illumination.
So you don't need much makeup. But still, there is the question of highlighting the eyes
because there is an understanding that a lot of communication is made through the eyes.
It's very important that the eyes are very visible, pronounced as far as the face goes.
This also leads the dresses to be very opulent and elaborate.
Its function is not only to be beautiful, even though it does bring extasis to the viewer,
but there are also philosophical concepts, for example...
it is believed that the dancers descend from the Apsaras, the celestial dancers
who live up above, in Indra's palace.
So they say that if we are the descendants of these deities,
we need to present ourselves to God in the same way that they do.
We have a very recent history of Indian classical dances here in Brazil
of approximately 20 or 25 years, essentialy that's the period.
Nowadyas I feel that with the economical and political approach between India and Brazil,
Indian culture has started to spread more,
but one or two decades ago it was very restricted.
It still is, but it has been expanding.
Indian dances are somewhat distant from our cultural and aesthetic universes.
This leads to there being a smaller number of interested audiences.
You have in truth a group of people that end up interested in yoga, ayurveda, dancing...
that's the type of person who ends up studying the dances.
So it's still very recent, in formation.
But to me the most important thing is that I am a Brazilian, and I always like to say that.
I constantly try to avoid stereotypes and caricatures.
Because when we work with something that originates from another culture
the tendency is sometimes to almost play dress-up with all that...
and I think differently.
I am a Brazilian, with a culture that in some ways is just as rich as Indian culture.
So I look at Indian culture with the eyes of the Brazilian that I am
and not the other way around. I don't want to turn Indian, be something I'm not.
This to me has always been a paradigm.
Not to allow myself to fall on this trap, to attempt to be something I'm not.
Using this perspective I trained Indian dances for many years.
From the start I wanted to do that, to bring the dancing into my acting,
as my fomation is as an acctress.
But of course it's not simply something that you wish for and it materializes...
It took me almost 14 years to do that.
Basically my research consists of this: using the technique from Indian classical dances
to tell tales from Brazilian folklore.
So I thought that sometimes for a Brazilian audience it is hard to identify
with the Hindu mythology, understanding who Krishna is... and these intricate stories.
And in a way, that generates a distance, a gap.
This also conncets with what I said about the audiences here in Brazil.
So a lot of things went through my mind as to how to help people approach Indian dances
appreciate them and understand that we in Brazil can also enjoy and understand them.
The results are very interesting. Something that people can really go:
"Oh, yeah, so this is what all of that means!"
"All those dances I watched but couldn't get, then that's how they are supposed to be."
I've had many people come to me and say that now they understand what I do.
How interesting it is to listen to the words and see what is being done at the same time.
But when you think of Indian dances, what comes to your mind is something else, right?
In reality the name Bollywood is a fusion between Bombay, the old name of Mumbai
with Hollywood. So it's the Indian cinema from the state of Bombay.
And "dance".
So they are the dances from Indian films.
Indian films back in the day, nowadays not so much, are musicals.
A lot still are, but not all, as a rule.
When a film is released in India, they put the songs on radio, TV, and everywhere else.
Sometimes you don't even like the song, you go "it's okay".
But it plays so much that you go "maybe I like this song".
So it's a fever. On cinemas everybody gets up and dances, I've seen it, it's surreal.
But they went wild dancing! And you look around, it feels like a Bollywood film
everybody knows the steps, they do it together. It's surreal.
That's Bollywood dance. So what we do is, we take the steps from Indian films
I develop a coreography, and use... specific steps.
Which are from that specific song.
So for example... let me think...
A recent one, called "Fevicol".
It goes "glue my photo on your chest"...
It's kind of funny.
So "photo", then "chest" and "glue". You glue.
And Fevicol is the brand of the glue product, but okay.
So this step is specific, and we do it in the coreography to be like the film.
Any coreography... if you look for different coreographies by several different people
there will be different steps, but one always repeats, because it's from the music video.
So there is this fusion in Bollywood dance.
Besides Bollywood, Iara also teaches Indian classical dances
and was one of the creators of the opening video for "India: A Love Story".
Dancing in particular in the soap opera... it wasn't that good. I don't know...
there was too much belly dancing, it had a lot of heads movements... it wasn't nice.
To me, professionally, it was good. Because there was a "boom"...
Before everybody would get indian dancing confused with belly dancing.
Later it became "oh, like the soap opera? Are baba!"
It created this notion in people.
So it boomed, we did many things for TV, we did "Dancing With the Stars"
we also did some big studio shows.
So we gained a lot of visibility and could show what real classical indian dances are.
Later, when the soap opera ended, just like it happened with "The Clone",
nobody could take indian dances anymore, just like with belly dancing in "The Clone".
In the end, nothing changed to me. There was a rise and a fall, and in the final balance
we ended up on the same level as always.
The only good thing that the soap opera brought was this recognition by people
that it's different from belly dancing.
But do these dances attract different audiences?
Indian classical dancers take longer to learn, and Brazilians don't like things to take so long.
If we were to do it like India, for a year people only train foot movements.
The next year, arms. The other years, eyes.
Here we do something more... "fast food". Even in classical dances.
We start out with a simple routine, just so the students can understand a bit what it's like,
to feel happy about dancing. That's how we do it at the Indian Cultural Centre.
Students over there in a year have three routines already. Simple ones.
In Bollywood dance, in one lesson you already learn a routine. This attracts Brazilians.
The person comes for an experimental class and already learns a coreography.
It's pretty cool, right? "Look what I learned today", they already know a routine.
And it's more... you sweat more, you have more fun, while classical dancing is much deeper.
So it's not about one being better than the other. They are just aimed at different people.
But what has been happening, is that people come looking for classical dances
but end up wanting to relax a little and start attending Bollywood classes...
which have a different nature.
There's also the opposite, though. People who are into Bollywood dance but
want to learn more. Especially the ones from my group, who want to do the mudras correctly.
So they end up on classical dancing, and one style helps the other.
There are these two sides. So for the person to really be able to be a classical dancer
the person needs to get into it. You can't act it out.
You can have any religion, but at that moment you have to understand Krishna
who he is, what he does... so that you can be Krishna and dance.
Inevitably when you get deeper into the dances, not in the begining,
but the deeper you go, the more connected you become with the culture
as well as the philosophy.
Fore sure. Not Bollywood dance! I tell people that Bollywood is meant to make people happy.
You just have fun dancing, you don't need all that. That's why some people prefer it.
The Art of Music
From the heart!
Sandro Shankara is focused on devotional music.
Singing is more accessible. You close your eyes, relax...
and if you're good in the head, you won't think about singing in tune.
You'll sing to God. That helps me, right? Because I sing to God
so I'm not worried about my voice. No, it's for Him.
I leave it to Him.
That's what music is. It brings you this powerful liberation.
It's like putting honey to your lips. Who doesn't want that? Such a sweet thing.
Music is already entertaining, and if it's meant for God...
There is a saying that is touching to me, from the Saint... Satya Sai Baba
he says that if you knew the power that singing the name of God has in your life
you'll go crazy and sing it all day long.
You need to reach all classes. I'm in favor of yoga in prisons
I often sing in the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, for the families in need...
It doesn't matter if it's Krishna, Exu, if it's Christ...
What matters is that people live a culture of peace, a culture of love.
When we sing sita ram, sita ram, jaya sita ram...
We salute this love, this rescue, this great union between our hearts and minds.
My work in Rio with Indian music started effectively three years ago.
I spent 15 years in reclusion, playing only in my spiritual community
because I didn't see the Indian music I produce as something commercial.
As a musician, I knew the start would be horrible. I would carry instruments around
prepare things, call everyone out... and what happened?
Nobody came.
I got a concert going, hired a dancer, rehearsed, got the equipments ready...
Saturday night... six people came.
We tried again.
Three years later, with much care, a marvelous team
great musicians always by my side, great friends
and with the public that is experiencing this, nowadays 80, 100, 150 people show up
all over Brazil.
I remember when I came to São Paulo 10, 15 years ago. I was so impressed,
because you could find yoga classes everywhere.
You'd see signs all around offering yoga lessons. I thought, "wow, here people are truly into yoga."
Of course they are, man. With this traffic, this madness...
In Rio one goes to the beach, takes a breath and they resonate an OM with the sea.
In São Paulo you need this escape. The massages, the classes...
I belive that — and this is something I do... I belive that life is a collection of happy moments.
I try to be happy in many different ways, so I sing, practice yoga, meditate,
study philosophy — which I love.
I congregate with the devotees, meet great beings...
I dabble in other religions too.
I sing other names... because this fills me and makes me whole.
It makes me realize that God is everywhere, all around nature.
So this discrimination of saying that "more is less"
to me it doesn't work so well, because then we start judging people
saying "oh, that's too much people". Let's just sing.
Let's organize Yoga For Peace? Let's gather ten thousand people?
Let's sing Om Namah Shivaya.
A little while ago I played in a festival here in São Paulo for ten thousand people.
Ten thousand teenagers into electronic music... if they even listened to the mantra's sound
something already changed.
It is said that if you sing Hare Krishna just once, even right now...
[Sandro chants the Maha Mantra]
If you sing this once, it will echo throughout your life, and all your other lives
maybe at some point you will say "I remember... I remember this sound. I will sing it."
Because that will be your moment.
Let's search for that moment. Without judgement!
I believe that Indian music comes from a mindset of love
so let's sing, let's practice asanas.
Let's connect ourselves, be together. Let's hold hands.
Practice together, look at each others as siblings.
Namaste.
The sitarist Krucis Khan and the tabla player Edgar Bueno notably make use of fusion.
They've played together for 25 years.
I had the luck of listening to some Indian music records through my brother's father
who was North American and had a few of them.
And I really enjoyed the sound of the tabla.
Immediately I liked the idea of singing the syllable that is being played
and the instrument's sonority...
which is something indescribable. It wasn't just groove, it was a language
something transcendental.
I began my studies with Zé Eduardo Nazário, who isn't Indian, he's an occidental musician
so he wasn't hinduist, but a great musician... that's what he is.
A great master. Master of masters.
So music is music. It is above my instrument.
I learnt tabla in a more musical way, without this aspect that involves culture as a whole.
That culture involves spirituality, of course. This I came to find later, moreso when I met Krucis
my partner of a lifetime of Indian music.
That was the point that I came in contact with these values from Indian religion,
its myhtology... I studied with deliberation, and started seeing the connections.
In India everything is united. It's a grand mantra, a rhythmic circle, a great mandala.
In ayurveda there is music, in music there is religion, in religion you have a way of cooking
preparing food for the soul. There's a science, a mythology.
It's all realated.
I studied tabla for a while already when I wen't to the planet's capital...
also, in my time there wasn't a Youtube. I couldn't watch the musicians playing
I had now idea about how it was done. Well, a few Indian artists came here,
I went after all of them.
Alarmel Vali, Kisham Ramdoka...
So I had a taste of how it was really done, and have a main thread.
I was studying with Nazário, but the tabla is a very complex instrument
at that point no Brazilian had gone to India to stay there and study the instrument
with all its technique and magnitude.
So I was studying one context of the tabla, but asking myself what the classic context was.
Anyway, there wasn't all this. There wasn't a Youtube for us to see it.
Yes, I'm of islamic descent...
but with a Christian faith.
I was going to be a priest... but then I found the sufi universe.
Later I came in contact with the buddhists...
Music to me is the centralizer of everything.
Through music I can get in contact with the umbanda, kardecism, catholicism, the temples...
My flag is music. My religiosity is expressed through music.
My spirituality is expressed through music, by singing, making sounds...
but at the same time...
I can connect with jazz.
With rock.
With Brazilian music.
I can remember things and transport them to my way of playing music.
In what way can I make the music that somebody else composed interesting without destroying it?
Without making it commonplace.
What can I learn from that song to adapt it to my manner of seeing the world... how?
That's how it goes.
People believe in trends. I believe in traditional music. The real one.
The authentic.
People believe in that vibe... "Now, that's the style of music".
This velocity, this thing... people learn a song in a very technical way, and that's all.
Too technical. "Will I able to beat that guy? How many notes per minute can he play?"
"Per second? How does it go? I have to do more."
It looks as if there is a greater sense of competitivity.
While in India what matters is how one presents that same raga, that same piece.
You can listen to the same raga being played by different musicians
with different instruments, from different schools and regions
you'll notice the individuality of each. You listen and recognize that specific raga.
It's not like here, where if you take the sheet away from the musician,
most of the time he'll get lost. He's not used to letting go like that.
... open to improvisation, it's a different concept, really.
There's something important to us which is that occidental music in general
uses chords.
Classical Indian music is a combination of melody and rhythm. No chords.
Because the chord is a template, when what matters to us is the blank canvas.
At each moment we'll paint it with different tones, but keeping the structure.
They reinterpreted the Brazilian folkloric song "A Lua Girou".
Our research was eased by the presence of the Indian Cultural Centre in São Paulo,
founded in 2011.
Every week various events related with the Indian culture are held in this space
and it was there that we met many of our interviewees,
as well as participating in the most diverse celebrations and festivities.
— Where does the idea come from? — Of having a cultural centre?
In truth it's an old idea.
ICCR, which is our main organ in India has 38 cultural centres around the world,
and the relations between Brazil and India grow stronger every day,
so it was very natural to think about this cultural relation.
There is great demand for Indian culture in Brazil, especially in São Paulo
which is the metropolis, the capital of culture. Here in São Paulo there is a bit of everything,
but for Indian culture, it seems, there is is a very special interest, a respect.
So... it's an old idea, really, from India's diplomatic mission in Brazil
to open cultural centres. In the future, as Brazil is so big,
there are expectations to open more centres in other key cities as well.
There are much smaller countries which have two or three centres,
so in Brazil it would be very reasonable to have another one in Rio de Janeiro,
another in Salvador... to reach other regions of the country
that also have touristical qualities and a great demand for Indian culture.
But I think that especially São Paulo.
— What has been ICC's impact in politics? With people that deal with that, how has it been?
— It's huge, not only politics... well, last month there was a visit from a very important
Indian minister, so we see this contact between governments.
And here in the ICC we have seen that by means of all these events we do here,
well, we send monthly reports to India of everything that took place here,
with photos, descriptions, schedules, participants, what went on, how many people came
a monthly report of everything that happened.
And the response is awesome. We already are, for sure, one of the most famous in India.
So they see some of our initiatives and find them unbelievable.
"How could a Brazilian have become interested in this?"
or "how come there were so many people"? They can't believe it.
They have no idea, really, how much their culture is sought out in other countries.
In some obvious places like London, yes. But in Brazil, especifically...
In India Brazil still is the land of Pelé.
I went to India and whenever I said the word "Brazil", their answer was "Pelé",
as an answer, a complement, almost as if it was "Brazil-Pelé".
Some...
It's funny, in Calcuta, the population is split between fans of Brazilian and Argentinian football.
But anyway, they still have these very stereotypical references of what Brazil is.
They think of the Carnaval. Some even know caipirinha, or "kaipeereenah" as they call it.
But then imagine that this land of Carnaval, caipirinha, Pelé, and all of that...
has a demand for a festival celebrating the birth of a deity
with an impressive attendance during a single night.
To them it's absurd, there's no other word for it.
Now even in a governmental aspect this is being recognized.
I can show you in the website of Itamaraty [Brazilian diplomacy]
In the decisions taken between the delegates of Brazil and India
the Indian Cultural Centre is cited.
There's a topic in the minute that states "we are certain that the establishment
of the Indian Cultural Centre in Brazil is a key factor in the good relations between
both countries.
You see, it's not only a cultural question anymore. It's really a matter of foreign affairs.
There are other factors to consider that can be very positive,
and they are already being recognized. Recognized and published.
Anybody can get on the internet and read about the ICC in São Paulo being mentioned
as something fundamental in the relations between both countries.
I compare India and Brazil in this sense... Brazil has incredible diversity,
so if somebody comes to Brazil and visits Rio de Janeiro and Salvador
we can't say that person knows Brazil, right?
Because the South is different, the Iguassu Falls, the Maranhão lagoons,
the chapadas [plateaus], Manaus, the Amazon forest...
I myself don't know all that... all the beaches in the Northeast and so on.
In India it's the same. Each region in India has different sights and beauties.
Back when I first visited India, I had a feeling of... strangeness.
Because I had created an image of it. Due to the places that I frequented
related to Indian culture, I was led to believe that India was a country
where mysticism was put above social differences.
Including the question of the caste system, which bothers people so much, especially
in the occident.
But when I arrived there, I saw a country like any other, with its differences.
And in truth, the strangeness I felt due to it not being what I imagined,
was due to an image that we created in the occident.
And the Indian people not necessarily aimed for this image to be built.
The occident saw in India what it wanted to see.
There is a foreign writer who lived in India who said there are various stages that
foreigns go through in India.
First they find it wonderful, then they realize it's not all that wonderful,
then comes a sense of scorn, rejection, and then it cycles and they love it again.
It's a humorous way of saying it, but it does hold a bit of truth.
You have several phases, it all depends on what you are absorbing.
The fact is that India, in my opinion, is the most complex country in the world.
Due to its religion, language, history...
In fact, its religions,its languages, its 5000 years of history...
It's very, very hard to understand.
To understand, you have to dive into its history, culture, books, personal relations,
and Indian life as a whole.
I went to Indian and asked questions about their culture that they didn't know,
but then I consider that if an Indian came here and asked me for full details on the
legend of the saci pererê, I also don't know it!
Or if they pointed to a statue of Our Lady of Conception and asked me
to explain if she became divided as she was taken from the waters of aferwards...
I don't know! I have no idea.
So there are many examples from my own culture, from the place that I was born...
altough, of course, São Paulo has already lost this regional characteristic regarding culture...
so, of course, if you go to a small village in India they will know very interesting
and specific traditions.
But in the big cities it's the same as here. Very little differs.
Delhi, Mumbai... if you ask about specific traditions, especially from a different region
they probably won't know.
When you say "in development" you are basically referring to a North American standard
but in my opinion India is much more developed than most countries, if not all.
Because a population that at this point in time still mantains its traditions...
with that many people living there like this...
You see, China, the biggest country in the world, was dominated by communism,
and whatever that people held of beauty, origins, their strong religion,
they had a strong faith. There was a successful attempt to destroy all of that.
But in India that didn't happen.
So to me they are much more developed, because they did not yield
to so many influences.
When I was there, I felt this connection between Brazil and India.
This ease with which these countries can absorb what comes from other cultures
India does it as well as Brazil. To accept what comes from outside
but make it into something of their own. Brazil does that as well,
and India does it all the time. In cinema, arts, culinary, clothing... everything.
So for example, one of the things that came to my attention in India
were the religious festivals, many of which reminded me of the street carnivals in Brazil
the way in which the people danced, pounded the drums, came to the streets...
reminded me of street carnivals in Rio de Janeiro.
For example, Holi, the Indian festival of colors, which is not even religious
it's a festival from Indian society, the festival of spring and colors...
People throw colored powders into each other, which reminded me of old Carnaval parties
in Brazil during the 20s or 30s... in which people threw water at others. It's very similar.
In 2013 there was not only one first edition of Holi in Brazil, but actually two.
— Was it worth coming? — Yes, very much.
— And you? — There's so much love and peace here,
it's really good, really. — What interested you the most?
Was it the colors, the people?
I think it was tre vibe, you know? Everybody feeling happy, united,
put everything aside and come have fun here.
— Was it worth it coming? — A lot. For sure.
Well... I always found very beautiful the way Indian culture celebrates... — spring.
Man... look at this, how colorful, how nice! This is so beautiful, because this is spring.
All these colors. So I was really happy when I found out this was going to happen in Brazil.
Culture has great importance to world order. It's an effective way to open frontiers.
India was open to Brazil in good measure due to its millenary culture,
with religion, art, music, dance and festivities.
This set of traditions changed in a definitive manner the life of many of our interviewees.
The reflexes of Indian culture in Brazil were not known to the general population not long ago
but are becoming impossible to ignore.
We tried to find a reason for this,
but in reality this movement has been natural. And as far as we can see, won't go away.