Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, with all affectionate reverence and a hope to please you on this day of your glorious appearance, I offer you this short meditation on what could be a “trailer”-in-progress for a film introducing the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:
Off-camera Narrator (extreme close-up, looking straight into the camera, eyes only, then pan down to just the mouth): They tried everything–every in-your-face thinkable and unthinkable so-called pleasure. Trying just once— then a thousand times. It is called sense gratification. A thousand times not enough, a million times they try and try and never ever ask why. They failed yet again to become the greatest personality, almost there, but where? Didn’t get a minister’s post though they think they should have, could have, if only….
Director (always in silhouette, pacing back and forth): CUT! That’s okay, but look, you need to get to the point, or you will lose your audience…
Set Manager (always in silhouette, seated): Yes. No worries. This is where the Greek-style chorus comes in: First, one off-stage cold, official voice: “The defendants shall rise to hear the verdict. The wise shall now pronounce the verdict.” Then the chorus (several voices in unison) speaks: “We find the defendants guilty as charged—they are rascals. (silence). (louder:) Rascals…. RASCALS. (A single voice..) to the full extent, through and through, having tried and tried again and a million times to enjoy sense gra-ti-fi-ca-tion. And now, even though they are fed up, what do they want? (chorus, singing…then laughing) brahmā-varcasa-kāmas tu —(single voice) to MERGE (laughter; sound of cymbol sizzle) into the effulgence of the (chorus, loudly) Absolute, (single voice) the grand blur of luz incognito! Hence we announce, we pronounce…. (more softly with a soft drumroll, repeated whispers of ‘rascals, rascals, rascals’ and the sound of moaning).
Director: Okay, okay, but where does this film trailer go from here? There has to be a clear sense of direction, not that you keep your audience guessing… It has to be fast-moving, give atmosphere and…
Set Manager: No, no guessing. Now we quote Śrīla Prabhupāda. (Śrīla Prabhupāda’s voice, speaking in a stadium to tens of thousands): “The more human society engages in the exploitation of undeveloped material resources for sense gratification, the more it will become entrapped by the illusory material energy of the Lord, and thus the distress of the world will be intensified instead of diminished.”
Off-camera Narrator (in the tone of a friendly, helpful teacher): This is the world guru speaking, addressing all of us. You see, he’s explaining a kind of mathematical linear function: as “x” increases—as exploitation increases, so also “y”—distress—increases, exponentially. The “y”, the distress of the world, appears as the disinterest in each other, (including rapid succession of fitting images…, sound of explosions, sirens…) the fear behind the eyes, the vomit-laced bombs planted within the skyscraping tower of cakra-vortices, the blind and blinding criminality going by any and every other name, thinking to get away with finely tuned anonymity. Hence the judgment: “rascals”—posing as righteousness, but way short of the base-line of being human: a proto-human, really…
Director: Fine, so then what? You quote the Swami. What more does he do or say? There’s gotta be some drama, not just judgments and pronouncements.
Set Manager: Of course. The Swami will appear; actually he is always present, was always present…. This is the point: The drama begins and ends and begins again, with you and me and all of us always on the threshold of death. This is what the Swami calls us to grasp. But now the scene shifts to ancient India. A young brahmin boy shouts to the wind (camera from behind, boy faces out from atop a cliff into a vast gorge): “I hereby curse this so-called king to die in seven days!” Abrupt silence. Then: (Narrator…) Parīkṣit, the king cursed to die, is now on the bank of the Ganges, questioning seasoned savants, “My end approaches. Kindly guide me how to prepare.” (Sound of upper Ganges flowing).
Off-camera Narrator: (Close-ups of the books, the Sanskrit text, illustrations…) It is a stirring story, a great, moving story, a story of love, loss, world upheaval, social and class conflict, of inner searching, of worlds beyond worlds. It is called the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—“The beautiful story of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” The king meets one special sage, Śuka, who answers the king’s question so well that when his appointed time arrives, after seven days and nights of listening intently to him, listening with every fiber of his being, seven days and nights of questioning the sage for deeper understanding, he becomes fully prepared, completely fearless—an enlightened soul.
Set Manager: Next, we see Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the world guru, the modern translator and commentator on the Bhāgavatam, in a dimly lit room sitting cross-legged at a low desk, reading a large Sanskrit Bhāgavatam and speaking into a dictation machine: “On the other hand, that literature which is full with descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, form and pastimes of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a transcendental creation meant to bring about a revolution in the impious life of a misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though irregularly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.” [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.11]
Chorus, now in an upbeat tone, recites: “…a revolution in the impious life of a misdirected civilization.” (repetition, as echoes, of the key words “revolution,” “impious life,” and “misdirected civilization”). Visuals—scenes in rapid succession—of people reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam— individuals, pairs, study groups, classrooms, lecturers in large lecture halls, judges on court benches, workers on construction site lunch breaks, projected on screens in hospital waiting rooms, etc. And then: scenes of slaughterhouses deserted and boarded up, of military installations being dismantled, prisons being emptied, car factories closing down; of people walking, riding horses and ox-carts, farming with hand implements, cows galloping in slow-motion down a hill (as in the original Hare Kṛṣṇa film), oxen pulling carts and plows; people smiling and laughing.
First softly, then with increasing volume, the sound of kīrtana, and fading in over the previous scenes, masses of people joyously chanting the mahā-mantra… As this sound fades, fading in we hear Śrīla Prabhupāda saying, “Then I started this Back to Godhead magazine in 1944, on this very birthday of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and I was looking forward for the opportunity how to implement this order of my Guru Mahārāja. Then in 1965—before that I was translating Bhāgavatam—and when three books were published, then I prepared myself to go to America, singlehanded…” [SP lecture, Feb. 11, 1974, Vṛndāvana].
Director: Cut. This is a take. With this footage, make the trailer. Now let’s get working on the Bhāgavatam film proper…. The time is long overdue to popularize the Bhāgavatam. Long overdue. Having begun this documentary film project recently, with your blessings and for your pleasure, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we—myself and some of your granddisciples—may complete a film on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to assist in your mission of giving your monumental work and message to the world.
Always aspiring to be your servant,
Kṛṣṇakṣetra Swami