Ayurveda: Art of Being

I was very impressed by this movie. I thought the narration-free documentary style was charming and allowed us to look through the eyes of patients and practitioners directly. What makes me sad are that some of the reviews don't believe in the power of this medicine and label some of the practitioners "charlatans". Some of the people I know and I have personally been cured of some serious illnesses, including some of those mentioned, by traditional Ayurvedic practitioners. While not all Ayurvedic practitioners are that skilled, there are truly good ones like those shown in the movie who can provide incredible results through this thousands of years old art form as compared with 150 year old Western medicine. That the power of Ayurveda is not well-known may surprise some viewers, who may be skeptical that any of these cures are even possible. They might think that Ayurvedic doctors would be billionaires if it was really true, but the attitude towards the practice may be hard to believe in a capitalistic world. Brahmanand Swamigal summarized it best: "...the Gurus taught us that if science is only followed for money, it is wasted. Wealth earned from medical science is always contaminated as it comes from the suffering of others. Thus, it must be practiced with compassion and humility."

I suppose there are an infinite number of coherent structures that pockets of men have invented to explain the world to themselves. All of these will be of deep sophistication. All will be constrained by the hard wiring in the human mind and what we can handle conceptually. Each will be further constrained by locally invented methods of abstraction. When one is viewed from the place of the other, it seems curious inept.

All of these, every one, ties itself to matters of birth, sickness and death, and often with physical features of the body. The amazing thing is that most of them work as functional medicine most of the time. It would be obviously patronizing to judge these here from this writers world. But it is worth noting that the effectiveness of these medical treatments is directly related to how much sense they make to the doctor and patient. And this is helped if there is ancient tradition that can be cited.

One such cosmology is the point of this film, a documentary. The actual matter of the documentary consists of small lectures from a guru about the ineffable wisdom that he possesses and which no one else could without his 50 years training. Ancient references are not to be exposed to the public because of their inability to understand, and yet, with each treatment the explanation bends to be simple, clear, obvious. And after a short while, incredibly tedious.

What's interesting about this is the relationship of the cinematic world to what the film is about. The film is about how the order of the universe, when you have the ability to perceive it, can be used to make individuals right. In essence it is about the practice of understanding cosmic order and the place of entities in that order.

Now, the actual words we hear are insipid to me a great wisdom to someone else, but that hardly matters. What matters is how the film appears. Each shot in another such documentary would be made perhaps with a hand-held camera with the therapy or explanation of the moment a focus. All else would be random: backgrounds, framing, color.

But in this case, every shot is perfection. Really, I really mean this. Every shot has the thing in the foreground that we are supposed to be watching. But every shot also has a composition and background that is so ordered, so composed and balanced, so obviously different than what we would see if we were there watching that it makes the point. The world has order. There are great works of art that make that order obvious. We literally see that at work.

And that practitioners can apply that order to individuals. We see that in a sense as well, because the order of the world Nalin presents contains the treatments we see. It is not the same of course, but we subliminally make the connection. This is wonderful film-making, and a deep understanding of the manufactured cosmos.

There's a curious scene in here. This old guy claims that his power is such that he can eat "raw" mercury and treat himself so that nothing untoward happens. He does apparently eat some. He seems unaware that the camera can catch him palming the poison though.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

It has been awhile since I last watched this film, but I've watched it several times from a standpoint that includes quite a lot of knowledge and direct experience of Ayurveda. Ayus is life and Veda is Knowledge - so Ayurveda is Knowledge or science of life. So called "modern" or "western" medicine is a relative newcomer - having really only been around for the past 150 years or so, while Ayurveda is thousands of years old. Even in the US there is still a LOT of traditional folk medicine, and increasingly Ayurveda is making inroads and being recognized as holistic and preventative and truly a system of health care - as opposed to "modern" medicine's fragmented (just look at the specialties) and disease care approach.

Writer/director, Pan Nalin, did a masterful job of presenting India as the custodian of Ayurveda and covered a lot of ground - both literally and figuratively. Maybe the Indian Errol Morris, Pandya seems to have a good sense of letting the camera roll and his subjects explain what they are doing and why. Like a great shirodhara (warm oil dripped onto one's forehead - very relaxing), Nalin's film is like practical Ayurveda itself - simple, soothing, and economical. The tranquil score evokes another aspect of Vedic knowledge - Ghandharva Veda - the melodies of Nature - maybe the subject of a future Nalin documentary? With "western" medicine - disease care - becoming less affordable everyday, "western" drugs costing so much and having so many harmful side effects, and an epidemic of obesity in the US, this refreshing look at a simpler approach is quietly reassuring and shows us the path to integrating the best of western medicine with the time tested Knowledge of Life - Ayurveda, and hints that the time will come again when the local village doctor - the Vaidya - will be well paid by all the people in the village, but only for keeping them well. In ancient times this was the case. If the people became sick, the Vaidya would not even expect payment - much less ask for it.

Pan Nalin's film is a great introduction to a deep well of knowledge. Help yourself to a refreshing drink of cool, sweet water. - Jimi

Being a fan of this unique Indian filmmaker, I could not ignore Ayurveda. I watched it twice in theaters and later at home on DVD. One of the most inspiring and thought provoking work. When the world was hit with recent Tsunami waves this film predicted it. How we are being taken away and further away from nature.

I am struck by its simplicity, we travel, meet people, they talk, they do their things and we watch. No added narration or no attempt to make an 'auteur' work. It is this simplicity and soothing sensation makes us feel good. When I stepped out in the streets of New York, I said wow? what have we become? do not miss it.

the film much like the alleged cures and treatments in the film is overall on the good side so long as you don't think too hard about any of it. i caught this film the other day while barely coming out of sleep and it's soothing tone was quite nice. but like the medicine in the film, all it does is soothe. When watched through the eyes of the western paradigm of skepticism the medicine in the film is obviously full of holes. The one medicine man in the film seems to have one miracle "cure all" root that he gives out to anybody regardless of what their condition is, and there is never any regard to how well it works, if at all. The tragedy is that if there were any medicinal qualities in any of these techniques and roots and herbs, there's little if any follow up to determine whether they work or not. The movie also makes the quiet assertion that western empirical medicine is a failure, which is quite backwards given the statistics on longevity in India vs The US. Of course all this doesn't say much about the movie which is quite harmless if viewed by a skeptical mind but can be considered dangerous by those easily fooled by the atavistic promises of charlatans. The film does work at getting a good look at how people live and die in the third world and as i said can be a somewhat peaceable film to watch in light of that. One point that i believe was lost in the film but could have been explored is how and why doctors in the west have such fallen status? One revered as healers, the modern doctor is usually regarded with fear more than anything else. IS fear the price we pay for knowledge and practical results??????