I realised today that one of the films nominated for an Oscar is exactly the type of film that Shri Mataji is describing when She asks, “Why don’t they make movies about love after marriage?”.
In the case of this film, it is love after forty years of marriage. The film is Away from Her. It is a Canadian film. It is directed by Sarah Polley, based on a short story by Alice Munro and starring Julie Christie and perhaps this country’s greatest actor, Gordon Pincent. (Julie Christie is nominated for best actress and Sarah Polley for best adapted screenplay – a tough category.)
The film is about a married couple slowly distanced by Alzheimer’s disease. It is a
story of love in its deepest expression, not a story about infatuation or attraction.
“I never wanted to be away from her,” the husband remembers, now finding that he is, as her memory fades.
Anyone who feels that Canadian films are weak, anyone who feels that filmmaking is a superficial medium, anyone who has seen too many fighting pirates and so-called “romantic comedies,” should have a look at this. This is the real thing. Young or old, you will cherish the people around you.
Away from Her (released in 1997) is available on DVD.
Richard Payment
(Photograph: yorku.ca)
“Say I Am You” is a beautiful poem written by Rumi, a Sufi poet who was born in Takistan (now Afghanistan) in 1207. With his family, he travelled extensively in Moslem countries, finally settling in Anatolia (now Turkey).
An accomplished scholar, he was introduced to Sufism by a wandering dervish, Shamshuddin. Shamshuddin’s death heralded an outpouring of Rumi’s poetry. The underlying theme of his poems is the absolute love of God.
The Youtube video (link below) shows Rumi’s poem, “Say I Am You”, illustrated by a beautiful collection of photographs and accompanied by wonderful music. Please enjoy them.
(photograph: loc.gov)
The power of the Goddess that you have got within yourself has now to be deliberately projected….
The power of the Goddess is of love. Whatever She does with the whole world is through her compassion and love. The whole body, the whole being of the Goddess is made of compassion and love and nothing else. This power gives full understanding of the reality and also this enlightenment inside and outside.
For example, if you love somebody, you know everything about that person. It has nothing to do with money. It’s the highest, most valuable, very important power that you have. Even when you think about something noble, something benevolent, this power is filled into that thought and then this thought fills in, into the universe, into your country, into individuals.
The aim of this compassion and love is only one: to see everyone joyous – that’s all, joyous in the real sense of the word. This power cares for the collective as well as for the individual. It cares for the whole world as well as a particular nation. All the time this power works – especially in modern times – to better the lives of the people of the whole world …. So it’s like an ocean of love and compassion that wants to touch every shore. It wants to touch every heart but some are just like stones….
Thus, this love is the power of the Goddess. It is very subtle, silent, but it manifests…. It is this Goddess who is ruling this universe, who is in your centre heart, who looks after you and looks after the whole universe. It is nothing but the pure desire of love. It knows how to express. It knows how to act. You don’t have to do anything. It is spontaneous. What goes against it is your mental activity because the mental activity will say, “Oh my, how can you love somebody like this? It’s no use.” It’s a mental activity which gives you funny ideas. The mental activity is limited and linear. Everybody has different fixed ideas. That’s why they are fighting. That’s why they are having wars. But this power, which is of love, gives you the absolute truth. Then how can you fight? So what we need is this power because our power is very limited.
Shri Mataji, 1995
I sit; head bowed and enjoy the shower of pure chaitanya,
Golden, cooling and pure.
It washes every impurity in my being
As powerfully as the Ganges rushes from the Himalayas,
Yet as gently as a mother cleanses her child.
A witness to this event, I enjoy.
I raise my head and see Your face, Our Holy Mother.
One glance and all the cares and tensions are dissolved.
Yet this is not the miracle, Holy Mother.
I sit amongst thousands all over the world,
All who are being cleansed and cared for by You
As if they, not me, are the only one.
All are Your children.
All You care for, as You do me.
Yet this is not the miracle.
The miracle is You, Our Holy Mother
Who chose to come to us now in these days where we are at our worst.
You came to bless us and to bring us all home.
Lisa Barron
(Photograph: tripadvisor.com)