Filmmaker Meets the Director
Earlier this year, Gene Massey, a filmmaker from Los Angeles, shared with the Sathya Sai Baba Center of San Diego his experience of making a film for the inauguration of the Chaitanya Jyoti Museum at Puttaparthi on Bhagavan Baba’s 75th birthday. Here are some highlights:
Istarted attending meetings at Sai Baba centers in 1981, as I loved Swami’s teachings. I knew Swami was a great spiritual teacher and a holy man from India, but I didn’t realize His magnitude until I had an interview with Him in 1988. Thereafter, I was firmly convinced that He was no ordinary man, not even just a great teacher or a spiritual holy man, but really divine, an incarnation of Divinity. In 1992, I had another interview with Swami. In 1996, however, not only did I fail to get an interview, but for three weeks I could not even get a close look at Him. Two years later, I got some smiles from Swami, indicating that He had me in His eye and all was okay.
The year 1999 was very difficult for me. My career as a film director hit rock bottom. I asked a young lady to marry me, but she refused. When I was at this very low ebb of my life, I decided to write a letter to Swami. After many a discarded draft, I eventually wrote, “Swami, help me to accept Your will in everything, no matter what happens to me. Show me what You have in store for me, and take my life and make me Your instrument.” To make sure that Swami got the letter, I registered it with a ‘return receipt’ request. Imagine my surprise when I got the ‘return receipt’ duly signed by Swami Himself! It was dated 24th November, 2000—a day after His birthday. This paper, with His handwriting, is now one of my most precious possessions.
Shortly thereafter, Harshad Patel, the National Service Coordinator, called me. Mr. Indulal Shah, International Chairman of the Sathya Sai Organization, was looking for a director to make a three-minute film depicting creation for the Chaitanya Jyoti Museum in Puttaparthi. The museum is a seven-story structure carved out of solid granite, where world religions as well as examples from Swami’s life are exhibited. Harshad showed me the rough script of the film, which started with words that Swami wrote to His students in 1971 (in Prema Dhara): “There was no one to know who I am till I created this world at My pleasure, with one word. Immediately mountains rose up, rivers started running, earth below and sky over its head, oceans, seas, lands, and watersheds, sun, moon, and desert sands sprang up from nowhere to prove My existence. Then came all forms of human beings, mankind, beasts, and birds, speaking, hearing, and flying….” I agreed to take on the project. “Well good!” he said. “When can you go to Puttaparthi to see Swami and talk to Him?” “I could go now,” I replied. But I had to wait five weeks.
I asked my friend, Marla Carter [Hollywood digital film effects artist] to help me with special effects for the film, and she said, “Well, that’s funny, I am going to India in two weeks!” So I requested her to take a short detour to visit Swami. My childhood friend, Carl Hays III [Miami computer consultant], who loves Swami’s teachings and really wanted to see Him, also accompanied us.
In Mumbai, we discussed the project with Mr. Shah, who arranged for us to have special seats and a place to stay in Puttaparthi. On the first day, we sat on the verandah very near Swami’s door, and Swami came out and said, “Oh! When did you come?” We had six interviews that trip. Swami gave us a lot of grace and attention. He materialized a ring for me, a locket for my friend, a watch, and a vibhuti [holy ash] box for Marla. We all expected that He would discuss the film at length, which would give us more time to be in His presence. He did give us some instructions on how He wanted the film to be. But during the interviews, He never even mentioned the film. Eventually we gathered that He was not interested in the film, but was more concerned about our transformation. Marla made a wonderful storyboard, and He liked it very much.
I started reading some of the Vedas [ancient Hindu scriptures] at the Puttaparthi library. A very beautiful and poetic “Hymn to the Earth” from the Atharva Veda brought tears to my eyes, and I visualized a part of the film concerning the earth. I was totally enchanted by these books. Although raised a Christian, I do not belong to any particular religion. Swami taught me the love of all religions. In His book, Leela Kaivalya Vahini, Swami says, “Rig Veda teaches unity. It exhorts all men to pursue the same holy desire. All hearts must be charged with the same good urge. All thoughts must be directed by good knowledge towards good deeds. All men must tread the one path of truth, for all are manifestations of the one.” It is amazing how the sages in the olden days heard the voice of God and sang about it to the people. These hymns were later passed on as the Vedas from father to son. In those days, families praised the Lord and thanked Him for the food they ate, the crops they grew, the sky, the moon, and all the things we have forgotten to thank Him for today. When Swami called me in for an interview, I took His permission to use the Vedas for the film. I read them very seriously and consulted scholars. Slowly the script started to fall into place, and the passages and translations that would be used in the film became clearer. In the film I have used 20 passages from the Vedas, and the translations are interspersed with Swami’s voice.
In addition to making the film, we constructed a Hollywood-style screening room with a 16-foot screen, a very sophisticated video projector, stereo speakers and amplifiers, as well as a facility to play a DVD movie. When we had first gone to the site, we had only a room with four concrete walls and no electricity. So we had to put together everything, from the wiring to the screening room, with the equipment we had brought from America—it was a very exciting project.
Last year I went three times to India while making the film. On my first visit in February, Swami instructed us on how to make the film. In July we recorded the Vedas for the film. We had about two weeks before His birthday in November to install the screening room, put up the mirrors on the ceiling, and get everything ready for the opening.
Swami used the making of the film to teach me that we are just instruments in His hands, and it is He Himself who gets everything accomplished. It was all a miracle how: the special effects for the film were created by the people who made Star Trek; beautiful sceneries were donated by Wilderness Video; special computers were donated by Modern Video Films; and Marla donated three weeks to create the special effects, turning down all other work. Karen Kristin [Colorado murals artist, best known for the ceilings and murals at Caesars Palace and the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas] did the murals on the ceiling of the museum. I did not write the film or make it; I was just an instrument in His hands and assembled all the parts to complete the film.
Working on the film, I was highly critical about the other films playing at the museum in Puttaparthi. I had to make the best film and show them how it was done the right way. But that is not what Swami wants. If Swami wanted Industrial Light and Magic or Stephen Spielberg or Warner Bros., He wouldn’t have gotten “me” to make the film. He doesn’t care at all about the latest Dolby sound or exciting special effects. What Swami cares about is transformation of the heart. I learned this while working on the project. Swami said “Oh! You want to be famous? Let your work-in-progress be evident to the people. Tell people about how you have been working,” so that is what I am doing. I now realize that all those films that I criticized were the selfless efforts of devotees who wanted to serve Swami out of pure love! Do you see the ego in that?
I learned another lesson. I had been giving myself undue importance, thinking that I was making this film for Swami. In fact, I was one of 450 other projects happening in the museum. One day in darshan [sight of a holy person], I was feeling very proud that I was making a film for Swami, until I realized that the man sitting in front of me was the one who had built the museum. Yet Swami treated us all equally!
I also learned to work in harmony with others. Swami says that everybody thinks they know best, and I am as guilty as everybody else. So Swami throws us together in projects to put aside our egos and work together with love. In preparing for the opening day, we worked for two weeks with only four or five hours of sleep each night. On the last night, after I had checked all the equipment, tested the movie and felt that everything to do with the film was absolutely ready, I went to my room to rest at about one a.m. As I was leaving the museum, I noticed that a lot of work still needed to be done on it, and I said to myself that this museum would not be ready in time for Swami’s arrival at the opening ceremony. On the way out, I noticed many rows of seva dals [volunteers], and I casually thought they must be there to help out. When I returned at about 6.30 P.M., everything was ready and sparkling clean! An absolute miracle—if the same were to be accomplished in California, it would have taken at least a month!
After I finished and delivered the movie, I was asked if I would like to make another film for the ashram. Then I received a little bag that said “Photographer.” With my digital camera I was able to film during the birthday celebrations, thus attending all functions and being very near to Swami throughout the day. While a million people saw Swami from a distance, I was actually close enough for Him to touch my hand! I consider this His Grace and a reward for doing the film, for Swami just does not let anything go unrewarded. There are not enough Oscars in Hollywood to compete with the prize I got, whereby He gave me a chance, as His devotee, to work on a film that is playing in Puttaparthi.
Let’s not forget that all this is because a troubled man, who was having a very difficult time in his life, wrote a letter to Swami, and He showered His grace. He changed my whole life. I now know that whatever hardships may come, I will never be alone. I have learned that if you surrender to Him and let Him handle your life, He will guide you and fill you with His love and grace. I am an ordinary devotee, yet He showered His grace and changed me forever. So Swami always listens to us, whether we write or pray to Him.
During the interviews, Swami said some things that are embedded in my brain such as, never criticize a living soul. He told my friend, “Carl, you are the living God, we are the same. Carl is Baba and Baba is Carl.” He said, “You must wake up with Love, live in Love, have Love in the Heart, spend the day in Love, and go to bed in Love.” He said, “Never judge another person.” He talked about how the body is just a water bubble. He said, “See good, hear good, and do good.” In loving Baba we don’t have to stop loving Jesus. Whatever religion we belong to, we should love it and be its best followers. That is all Swami wants us to do.
I feel I am a “work in progress,” and this is how Swami works on us and remakes us. I always wanted to be someone important in movies, and that means I had a big ego. I now realize that it is the ego that separates us from God. The aim should be to dissolve the individual ego through devotion (which according to Swami is the quickest and the easiest path) and self-surrender to the will of the Lord. I am still having a tough time with my career. If Swami had given me a lot of success, that would not have helped me. Instead He has given me grace, which is far more important, for it has changed me and I am able to accept a lot more.
I would like to end with a quote from Conversations with Sathya Sai Baba. In an interview Swami says, “When God comes taking a human form, it is very difficult to see Him as the Lord. One sees that body, then one’s own body, and one cannot but relate the two and put that body at the same level as oneself. But if the Lord came in all His majesty, people would be afraid and would have no opportunity to know and love the Lord. For example, people worship the image of the snake in a temple hoping that the worship will bring the birth of a child. But if the snake became alive and wriggled across the floor towards them, they would take to their heels. People could not stand the Lord in super-human form. It is only when the Lord comes in a human body that people are able to approach Him and learn to love Him and know Him even a little bit. But one should not make the mistake of thinking that that is all there is to the Lord. For instance, the airplane flying high in the sky descends to the airport. But one should not make the mistake of thinking that the plane is a ground machine because one sees it on the ground. Once it has taken on its load of passengers, it again zooms up high into the sky. In like fashion, although the Lord has made a landing here on earth so to speak, He is not limited by His human form.”
