A baba is doing austerities. He has been sitting in the same circle of fire for a month, the scorching himalayan sun beating on him day after day. Yogis ponder the meaning of life as dead bodies rot in The Ganges. Ether sticks to their mortal remains...The temperature is a boiling 120 degrees Farenheit.
It is just another day. The people of the land perform asanas (physical postures of hatha yoga), pranayama (breathing) and kriyas (acts of internal purification of organs). Children play in the water. Gurus give satsangs (lectures) as the elephants give their blessings, knowing the world was made too small for them. And then, as the sacred India dives deeper and deeper into the innermost recesses of the mind, it forces all to realize that there is nothing, this is the end!?! The world of manifestations is just an illusion. Patanjali starts his "Yoga Sutra"with the aphorism: "Yoga Chittam Vritti Nirodha" (I,2). Yoga is the complete cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. To interpret the depth of this abstract concept, Wils interviewed Ramesh Balsekar, Sraddhalu Ranade, Gurudev Chitrabhanu, Dadi Janki and several other yogis, all of them having published books on yoga. He included rare satsangs of Swami Sivananda, founder of The Divine Life Society in 1932 at Rishikesh, Himalayas and author of over 300 books on yoga, Vedanta, health, self-realization and higher consciousness.
This film will also shed light on ashtanga, meditation, samadhi and the lives of sadhus, swamis and sannyasins at Rishikesh, Benares, Tiruvannamalai and other holy places, ashrams (Ramana Maharshi ashram to name one) and yoga institutes. Shot during 6 months in "cinema verité" style on 40 locations, the documentary renders the true spirit of India with cremations on the banks of The Ganges, yoga on a mallakhamb or a rope. Thread of Yoga: a rare field recording on sacred India! This is a 2-disc set: "Thread of Yoga", 88 minutes. Bonus DVD: "Shadow of a Thread", 83 minutes, full-length feature with all new material.
