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'Hare Krishna' is an English language movie on the story of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada , the guru who started ISKCON ( International society for Krishna consciousness ) and was responsible for introducing his unique brand of Hinduism in the west . His brand of Hinduism consisted of worship of Lord Krishna , an avtar of the Hindu God Vishnu .
The movie shows his early life in short , and he was born in Calcutta in British ruled India . His father wanted him to devote himself to spiritual pursuits rather than materialistic pursuits and he got his own idols of Krishna and Krishna's platonic friend Radha since childhood for prayer . Yet he spent much of his life as a successful pharmacist who had a wife and children . During the Indian independence struggle , he was a follower of Gandhi .
His own guru Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati however advised him to follow the spiritual path rather than political path and asked him to follow the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu , a guru who had lived and taught in the fifteenth century . These teachings asked followers to spread the message of Krishna by chanting the Lord's name and dancing on streets singing verses praising the Lord . Above all Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati asked him to spread Hinduism in the west rather than India .
It was in 1965 at the ripe old age of 70 that Prabhupada decided to renounce the world and become as ascetic spreading the name of Krishna in the west . He decided to forsake his ties with his wife and children who had grown up by now and could take care of themselves . Above all , he took the incredible decision to go to America and spread his brand of Hinduism there . This , even though he had no contacts there and no means of survival except his own stupendous faith in his own beliefs .
On arrival in USA , he distinguished himself by not being a hypocrite like other Indian gurus who had come to US to live in posh houses and travel by luxury cars . Instead he lived in nondescript housing in New York and his first targets were drug addicts . In fact it was these drug addicts who took pity on this old friendless lonely man and offered their help . But it was they who got helped instead .
Prabhupada asked them to spend their time in singing the name of Lord Krishna as a way of reaching out to God . As the drug addicts began to do so , their entire time was spent in this and their entire attention was focused on reaching out to God in this manner . And a miracle happened ; the hippies were soon off the drugs . They had found a way of channelizing their energy and time and stopped using drugs . Indeed soon they were off meat and alcohol and began living the life of orthodox hindus .
Soon the august guru Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada decided that his disciples should now dance on the streets chanting the name of Krishna and singing hymns in the Lord's name just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's followers did in the fifteenth century . And the western world awoke to the phenomenon of westerners dancing chanting the name of a hindu God from the east on the streets of American cities .
Some of the more enterprising American converts decided to rope in American music stars to spread the message of the swami , and various bands like the Grateful dead and others began to chant the mantra given by the swami to his followers in their concerts . The mantra was ''hare Krishna hare Krishna , Krishna Krishna hare hare , hare Rama hare Rama , Rama Rama hare hare''---Rama being another avtar of Vishnu .
To contact the Beatles and bring them in their fold , the members of the newly registered ISKCON went to London . To stand out among the Londoners , the devotees shaved their heads and went bald and began to wear yellow robes of hindu ascetics . George Harrison was so impressed that he cut an album in honour of the Hare Krishna movement .
The heart as well as leader of the movement was Prabhupada , who at the age of seventy plus still danced tirelessly and sang the name of God for hours on end . He worked till late night , writing commentaries on the holy book of Hinduism ( Bhagwat Gita ) . In the age where young people were disillusioned by America's defeat in the Vietnam war , he gave them a spiritual path to lead their time and not waste their lives as hippies doing drugs and free sex .
He also went to the Soviet union to spread his message in the time when it was controlled by communists and the godless marxists created numerous difficulties for him . But he gained followers who spread the message by underground means in Russia and translated the swami's works into Russian . Back in America however all this was creating a backlash . The swami was accused of propagating a cult and using mind control techniques to enchant America's youth . Young people who had joined his movement were kidnapped by people hired by their parents who did not want their children singing and dancing to the name of a strange eastern God wearing outlandish saffron coloured attire . A court case was launched against the movement .
But the courts declared that the movement was based on spiritual beliefs that had been practised in the ancient land of India for 5000 years and that there was nothing wrong with them---a triumph for the swami . And he decided to take his movement where it had all began , to India . When they landed in India , the Indians were simply astonished at the sight of westerners practising their religion of Hinduism more fervently than themselves . Indians could not bring themselves to believe this and tried to rub off the white colour of the skin of the devotees in the hope that rubbing it off would expose brown skin .
By the time the swami died , his movement had become firmly established in America and numerous beautiful temples had been built in the new world . After his death the movement had further expanded with new temples being built . This whole story is brought out by numerous interviews of the western disciples of the swami , who speak emotionally about the holy man in the movie which is more like a documentary . One disciple goes on to say that when Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada spoke , it was as if it was the Prime minister of an entire galaxy speaking . A touch hagiographic perhaps....
The movie has good music and good photography with clips of the swami speaking . A fine effort by ISKCON to advertise themselves . Critics would find flaws but the movie will energise the faith of believers . That's what it has been made for .
Verdict---good .
Three stars out of five .
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