Lost TV series

[Pankaja_Dasa]

Anybody watched this series, it has something to do with 'Dharma Project' (fictional) and they have to press this button every 108 minutes.

[Guest guest]

 

Anybody watched this series, it has something to do with 'Dharma Project' (fictional) and they have to press this button every 108 minutes.

 

What's Dharma project? And how is it related to Hinduism or spirituality at all?

[Pankaja_Dasa]

Don't know, but in the show they have to press a button and the countdown timer goes down to 108. If they don't press it then the World could be destroyed.

[Guest guest]

I thought this tv show was about a group of people who were in a plane crash, that landed them on an deserted island?

 

The 108 is an important number in Hinduism, and of course we all know the meaning of the word Dharma. Hmmm. Wonder what this is all about in their storyline?

[Pankaja_Dasa]

Dunno, but i saw whole series 1 & 2.

[Guest guest]

They're devotees and they don't know it.

[Gauracandra]

Millions of Srila Prabhupada's books have been distributed. I wouldn't be surprised if Hollywood types have come across these ideas, been influenced by them, and felt like incorporting them as little details in their scripts and stories.

 

For instance, I am fully convinced that Clive Barker read Srila Prabhupada's 5th Canto when he created Hellraiser. A devotee told to check it out, maybe 10 years ago, and the similarities are striking. Yes its a horror film (not really scary, but very gory) but it actually has some philosophy behind it. For instance, people who do bad things in this life are taken by the Cenobites (Yamadutta type characters) to hell, where they are tortured. There were a number of philosophical ideas about karma, lust for the body etc....

 

I have also had a friend tell me he spoke with the writers of The Never Endnig Story, and it was based or inspired off of Radha Krishna. I don't recall the movie real well.

 

Here is another one that is a possibility. I have never seen this cartoon series. But there is a series called "Avatar: The Last of the Airbenders". Check out the picture:

 

 

 

Notice anything interesting? First the name Avatar. But he wears a shaved head and a marking on his forhead. Here is a quick write up:

 

"Aang is a fictional character who was originally voiced by Mitchel Musso and later voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen, the eponymous hero of the American animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Twelve-year-old Aang is an Airbender monk of the Air Nomads' Southern Air Temple, and the current incarnation of the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form, who can control all four elements and whose job is to keep the Four Nations in harmony. With friends Katara and Sokka, and pets Momo and Appa, Aang journeys on a quest to master the elements, defeat the Fire Nation, and bring peace to the war-torn nations.

 

Aang is marked as an Airbending Master by his bald head and blue tattoos striping along his head and limbs, terminating as arrowheads on his forehead, the backs of his hands, and the tops of his feet."

 

So Aang is marked by arrows on different parts of his body. Forehead, hands, and feet. I'm not saying the creator is a Hare Krsna. But I wouldn't be surprised if he came across Hare Krsnas and while thinking of ideas for a new show said "Hey they mark their body with this symbol, let me change it a little and make it an arrow."

 

Who knows? We can't tell, but like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if...

[Pankaja_Dasa]

The theifts we should sue for copyright infringement.

[Gauracandra]

Whatever little elements make it into popular culture is fine by me. I just checked up on The NeverEnding Story. I saw it once but didn't remember it very well.

 

So the story follows the hero Atreyu (clearly Sanskrit) to save a dying princess from the Nothingness. Its coming back to me a bit, I think this could be symbolism for individuality vs. dissolution of the self (personalism in the hero and princess vs. impersonalism).

 

Another one I just remembered. There is a rapper named KRS-1. The KRS comes from Krsna. His mother used to hang out with devotees in Chicago I recall (maybe it was New York). I don't know anything about rap but one day saw a magazine with him on the cover and so read through the article. His lyrics basically are positive, and are about defeating demons (drug dealers, criminals etc...). The interviewer was asking him about his use of descriptive words, and I specifically remember him asking about all the references to demons, and what they meant etc....

[Pankaja_Dasa]

Hell raiser used to be my favurite film I watced it when I was 11 I think. I remember climbing on a rooftop shouting 'HELLRAISER'.

 

It's all good yeah. I'd love to see them give Credit though to Vedic Sciptures, I think they like to make use think it was thier own idea.

[Guest guest]

 

Hell raiser used to be my favurite film I watced it when I was 11 I think. I remember climbing on a rooftop shouting 'HELLRAISER'.

 

It's all good yeah. I'd love to see them give Credit though to Vedic Sciptures, I think they like to make use think it was thier own idea.

 

Uh, no, that's not true at all. For instance, the Matrix trilogy is unabashedly based on the Hindu religion. In fact, Rama even makes an appearance in the second and third parts. There are many Hindu characters featured in there, and there are discussions of karma, and at the end of Revolutions, there is a song that has lyrics right out of verses from the Upanishads. Clearly Sanskrit verses being sung during this epic battle between the main character and his "Ego". The trilogy is based entirely on the Upanishads, the Ramayana, and the Bhagavad-Gita. The creators even acknowledged this several times, and the main star, Keanu Reeves even references Hindu philosophies such as the Blink of Vishnu in his interviews. However, no movie can truly say in the movie itself that it is about Hinduism or whatever. That's just bad filmmaking as it deprives the audience from making their own conclusions and connections about the film.

 

By the way, even the main character in the Matrix is implicitly a Vishnu avatar, Parashurama, transitioning to the 7th avatar, Rama. There's a scene that's a direct parallel of the Ramayana where Rama and Parashurama meet. Also, the bad guy, Agent Smith is supposed to represent Shiva, and on another level, the Ego. The Matrix movies are ultimately about the conflict between Ego and Atman, but it also works on these Hindu mythological layers.