Silence of god

[kunjuppu]

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it was 1974 when mcmaster university had a series of films under the theme 'SILENCE OF GOD'. these were all swedish, and directed by ingmar bergman. it was a heavy duty one week, and it has been close to 40 years since i felt like seeing some of them again.

tonight it was the seventh seal - it is an allegory of the presence of death in our every day life. there is this knight antoninus, in the medieval period, swedish, coming back after a futile experience in the Crusades. to a sweden, in a plague epidemic, and the stench of death all over.

but death to antoninus, is a different proposition. he tries to prolong his life on earth, with a game of chess, with death. ..and along the game, he meets various characters, experiences, and above all, a crisis of faith. his god is silent, to all the sufferings.

a fantastic movie. but it needs a framework of mind, quietness and above all, a need to question....what really happens after death?

THE SEVENTH SEAL BY INGMAR BERGMAN

the closest i came to this, in an indian environment, was samskara by u.r. ananthamurthy..another story of a society torn asunder by plague and doubtness of faith.

 

[Sastri]

it was 1974 when mcmaster university had a series of films under the theme 'SILENCE OF GOD'. these were all swedish, and directed by ingmar bergman. it was a heavy duty one week, and it has been close to 40 years since i felt like seeing some of them again.

tonight it was the seventh seal - it is an allegory of the presence of death in our every day life. there is this knight antoninus, in the medieval period, swedish, coming back after a futile experience in the Crusades. to a sweden, in a plague epidemic, and the stench of death all over.

but death to antoninus, is a different proposition. he tries to prolong his life on earth, with a game of chess, with death. ..and along the game, he meets various characters, experiences, and above all, a crisis of faith. his god is silent, to all the sufferings.

a fantastic movie. but it needs a framework of mind, quietness and above all, a need to question....what really happens after death?

THE SEVENTH SEAL BY INGMAR BERGMAN

the closest i came to this, in an indian environment, was samskara by u.r. ananthamurthy..another story of a society torn asunder by plague and doubtness of faith.

Death of the Physique was not the plan of God initially. Man was indeed created for eternal life. But man brought physical mortality upon himself by his own design, by his acts of unrighteousness which distanced him from his creator. This made Life and Death a matter of eternity. Man was set on a quest for answer to the query 'What happens after death?'.

Man's desperate search for an answer resulted in invention of religion(s) (invention indeed as against discovery of evolution) which further engulfed him from God in whom and in whom alone was the answer to this query.

God is Silent indeed. Coz in silence and quietness will man realize God, in whom is the eternal Truth, panacea for all ills, answer to all queries in the metaphysical realm.

God is Silent indeed for God has spoken and finished once and for all, all that he needs to speak. God does not repeat but reminds infinite times. Man only needs to listen, recapitulate and obey. God is watching and watching quietly and patiently.

 

[KRS]

Wow, Sri Sastri ji!

You seem to know what God wants! When did you meet with Him and discuss this? If you have not met Him, do you then have other valid references to back up your claims?

Regards,

Death of the Physique was not the plan of God initially. Man was indeed created for eternal life. But man brought physical mortality upon himself by his own design, by his acts of unrighteousness which distanced him from his creator. This made Life and Death a matter of eternity. Man was set on a quest for answer to the query 'What happens after death?'.

Man's desperate search for an answer resulted in invention of religion(s) (invention indeed as against discovery of evolution) which further engulfed him from God in whom and in whom alone was the answer to this query.

God is Silent indeed. Coz in silence and quietness will man realize God, in whom is the eternal Truth, panacea for all ills, answer to all queries in the metaphysical realm.

God is Silent indeed for God has spoken and finished once and for all, all that he needs to speak. God does not repeat but reminds infinite times. Man only needs to listen, recapitulate and obey. God is watching and watching quietly and patiently.

 

[Brahma Rishi]

Dear Sri Kunjuppu,

You had started off a Thread which has the potential to draw numerous responses from intellectuals and which could run to pages, never ending.

I wish to keep you posted that, one of my cousins, whose surname is Sastri, had indeed promptly responded on the same day you started the thread. He being a veteran, his views are subjected to moderation.

While many of his earlier views had passed moderation successfully, however for reasons mysteriously unknown, from one point of time his posts have not been reflected in many threads. In spite of his repeated queries he has not been provided an explanation by the forum owners. His posts are nevertheless well in conformity to the forum rules while yet he was offended by a veteran on one occasion.

While this topic interests me too and I can contribute a great deal, I wish to abstain from joining this forum. Perhaps I may post my views after my cousin's post reflects.

Regards,
Rishi

 

[kunjuppu]

rishmi and brahma rishi,

i think you should follow that old maxim, 'publish and be damned'. waiting to hear from both of you. i am no intellectual or even pretension to one.

but ingmar bergman's movies were moving, and this particular one, was filmed during the middle ages of europe, an era where an all powerful catholic church controlled all aspects of daily life - through fear of punishment, excommunication and exclusive right to the bible.

all this ofcourse changed within a few hundred years - with the invention of the printing machine which made publishing possible, martin luther's reformation and above all, the voyages of 'discovery' - which ended up by us being discovered by vasco da gama, and the red indians discovered by columbus, much to their misfortune.

 

[sangom]

it was 1974 when mcmaster university had a series of films under the theme 'SILENCE OF GOD'. these were all swedish, and directed by ingmar bergman. it was a heavy duty one week, and it has been close to 40 years since i felt like seeing some of them again.

tonight it was the seventh seal - it is an allegory of the presence of death in our every day life. there is this knight antoninus, in the medieval period, swedish, coming back after a futile experience in the Crusades. to a sweden, in a plague epidemic, and the stench of death all over.

but death to antoninus, is a different proposition. he tries to prolong his life on earth, with a game of chess, with death. ..and along the game, he meets various characters, experiences, and above all, a crisis of faith. his god is silent, to all the sufferings.

a fantastic movie. but it needs a framework of mind, quietness and above all, a need to question....what really happens after death?

THE SEVENTH SEAL BY INGMAR BERGMAN

the closest i came to this, in an indian environment, was samskara by u.r. ananthamurthy..another story of a society torn asunder by plague and doubtness of faith.

Dear Kunjuppu,

Since the video is not downloading here due to low internet speed possibly, I read through the plot (The Seventh Seal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

I do not feel that the film makes you enquire about "what really happens after death?". I have my own beliefs about this topic but since it is very different from the generally subscribed to notions, I do not propose to write my beliefs here.

In short, it is better to discount what most of the religions say about this. That is my view.

 

[prasad1]

Dear Kunjuppu,

Since the video is not downloading here due to low internet speed possibly, I read through the plot (The Seventh Seal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Mr. Sangom, did you contradict yourself? When I started a thread that internet speed in India was slow, you chided me that Indian Internet was very fast. What changed your mind?

There are large number of heavy internet users in India do complain about slow internet speed.

 

[kunjuppu]

Dear Kunjuppu,

Since the video is not downloading here due to low internet speed possibly, I read through the plot (The Seventh Seal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

I do not feel that the film makes you enquire about "what really happens after death?". I have my own beliefs about this topic but since it is very different from the generally subscribed to notions, I do not propose to write my beliefs here.

In short, it is better to discount what most of the religions say about this. That is my view.

dear sangom,

perhaps you can try to download the movie, and then watch after the full movie is stored in your computer. best of luck on this.

i called this thread, silence of god, because it was under this title, that a series of movies were shown over a week, every night, 40+ years ago in my university. all of them, deal with life, and a life where god does not exist (ie no faith in him), or his faith questioned, or the presence of faith, stifling, like in this movie.

ulitmately, all these movies, show, the futility of faith and provides no explanation for sufferiings or death - except as disjointed events of life, to be faced with courage. and alone.

the beauty of these movies, is the stark swedish landscape, the sparse dialogue, and the universal theme of fear of death.

 

[sangom]

Mr. Sangom, did you contradict yourself? When I started a thread that internet speed in India was slow, you chided me that Indian Internet was very fast. What changed your mind?

There are large number of heavy internet users in India do complain about slow internet speed.

Shri Prasad,

I have two internet connections - asianet and BSNL. Asianet was down during last few days - may be their cables got damaged due to a fallen coconut tree or something like that but their customer service is awful. BSNL is slow except in the very late night for which I can't keep awake.

When asianet starts working again it will be possible to download the video, I think. People say the internet is much faster in large cities like Chennai, BGL, etc., and that only in small towns like TVM the speed is very less. Obviously, even in the US I think such differences will be there. Hence my disagreement with you on blaming the whole of Indian internet please.

People will complain till their upload/download is complete as soon as they press the button - very near infinite speed!! So, that cannot be a measure of the internet speed as such, I feel.