It might come as a surprise to many of our readers that we are touching on the subject of movies but this is not a usual movie review or critique but we mainly intend to view these movies from the spiritual aspect.

PK & OMG Movies

Anyone reading this post would surely have seen either or both of these movies or at least heard about them. Both these movies intend to show the essence of being spiritual but not religious and rightly so. There has been lot of opposition to these movies also mainly from fundamentalists. But our purpose here is to stay away from fundamentalism of any sorts but just discuss a few basic but important questions raised in these movies.

Is religion necessary?

Both these movies seem to defy religion although not spirituality and we also did the same in our article mentioned above but the question when raised from the perspective of an ordinary person has to be seen in a different light. By ordinary people we mean who have hardly got any education, or finances or knowledge of sacred texts but are simple humble folks involved in day to day life facing their struggles and ups and downs of life.

The ratio and proportion of such people is huge huge huge especially in the developing world. With no religion and no knowledge of spirituality, where would they go. Let us take a simple example that a person who is well education might start to think that all elementary, middle and high schools are useless and only colleges and universities should exist. Is that a right perspective? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Actually there might be some drawbacks of religion as an institution but it is a necessary “good” as well. Without the formal practices of religion a person will not even move on to the first step of the spirituality ladder. So the idea to abolish religion is certainly not a good one.

The differences of various faiths

Even though the teachings and meaning of all faiths is the same at the spiritual level, i.e. to see the self, the outward differences do create tension between their followers. The facts about different religious group people fighting amongst themselves are known to everyone and we frequently hear such things in news every other day. Still the different religions were made by specific messengers of God at different times of history depending on the conditions of that time and the level of understanding of the people.

Like a good teacher teaches the same concept to different group of children depending on their nature and grasping power, similarly the good messengers gave the same message in different ways.

The religions or the practices which these religions tell can be said to be the exterior or external crux of the whole idea of spirituality which lies hidden deep within. We take away the elementary level of religion from these people and they cannot progress to the collegiate level of spirituality generally speaking.

The role of Gurus

It is a disappointing fact that nearly 90% of even more of Gurus are just there for sake of business as depicted correctly in the movies, yet does it diminish the role of a Guru. We cannot do without teachers in the material world and we cannot do without teachers in the spiritual world as well. Of course the quality and quantity of Gurus needs to be controlled but it is much more difficult than doing the same in the education sector. Till such time it is upto the sadhaks or seekers to be careful and also use their own brains along with following the Guru. However using reason can also limit spiritual progress because in some cases emotion and faith play a greater role than reason, even though the chances of exploitation are also equally high.

Conclusion

Finally we can say that although movies such as PK and OMG are good in the sense that they discourage blind faith and many bad things related to religion but to say that religion is totally useless would be like throwing away the baby with the bathwater. The best way out is to take as much good as possible from religion, trying to refine it to a certain degree so that it remains the first baby step for anything willing to climb the tall and arduous ladder of spirituality.