This is the quote that is shown in the beginning of Vikram Gandhi’s film Kumare. In this documentary film, Vikram challenges the ideas behind religious leaders as well as the followers they gain. As part of his investigation into this, Vikram changes himself into Kumare, a Guru from a small, made up town in India. Kumare establishes himself in Arizona, where he begins to spread his teachings of embracing illusion in order to find one’s truth. Throughout this experiment, Kumare gathers a small following, where he establishes personal relationships and opens doors that they never realized existed. While thy credit this to Kumare, his teaching is to show that they are their own gurus and that they must be their own guides in the path to happiness.
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Throughout the film, Vikram believes that he is helping people through his “experiment”. His dharma is to share with people that they do not need religious figures in order to find the happiness and peace they seek. This dharma is the power behind Kumare’s mirror theory, in which he proclaims that he simply holds the mirror up for his followers to see their true selves. It is through this thought that the creating of Sri Kumare begins, leading to “the biggest lie of my life” as Vikram describes it. One of the largest points in his teaching for Kumare is the one that talks about illusion and the fact that illusions are what keep people from finding their true selves in this world. This is maybe the small ounce of truth that Kumare’s religion offers. In the Hindu religion, the concept of Maya is an integral role. In the Upanishads, it speaks of Brahman (absolute reality) that people need to strive for. The material world around us does not exist; it simply blocks us from finding Brahman. Kumare’s teaching speaks of removing the illusion in order to find truth, but his idea of removing illusion does not mean renouncing life and the truth found at the end is the lesson that only you can create your own happiness. Those thoughts aside, Vikram Gandhi and his biased thoughts on supposed fakeness of religion, its leaders and its followers created the experiment Kumare. His need to see the opinion of the outsiders, whom he is apart of in some senses, ended up manipulating people to follow him and put trust into someone they believed would help them. Vikram’s actions were ones that lead to an unfortunate experience for Kumare’s followers in
Throughout the film, Vikram believes that he is helping people through his “experiment”. His dharma is to share with people that they do not need religious figures in order to find the happiness and peace they seek. This dharma is the power behind Kumare’s mirror theory, in which he proclaims that he simply holds the mirror up for his followers to see their true selves. It is through this thought that the creating of Sri Kumare begins, leading to “the biggest lie of my life” as Vikram describes it. One of the largest points in his teaching for Kumare is the one that talks about illusion and the fact that illusions are what keep people from finding their true selves in this world. This is maybe the small ounce of truth that Kumare’s religion offers. In the Hindu religion, the concept of Maya is an integral role. In the Upanishads, it speaks of Brahman (absolute reality) that people need to strive for. The material world around us does not exist; it simply blocks us from finding Brahman. Kumare’s teaching speaks of removing the illusion in order to find truth, but his idea of removing illusion does not mean renouncing life and the truth found at the end is the lesson that only you can create your own happiness. Those thoughts aside, Vikram Gandhi and his biased thoughts on supposed fakeness of religion, its leaders and its followers created the experiment Kumare. His need to see the opinion of the outsiders, whom he is apart of in some senses, ended up manipulating people to follow him and put trust into someone they believed would help them. Vikram’s actions were ones that lead to an unfortunate experience for Kumare’s followers in