Swaha: A Journey of Transformation

Meditation and Yoga are proven cures for the psychological ills of our time, but can the same forces, drawn from the traditions of ancient India exert influences beyond the individual to affect societies and the world?

LOGLINE

Ashaa Siewkumar, descendant of Indian indentured labourers to the new world, goes with a film crew on a voyage to discover the spiritual dimensions of the culture from which she feels history has alienated her. The nine-day fire ceremony she attends may not achieve its objective of World Peace, but it changes the life of at least one westerner.

SYNOPSIS

Ashaa was born in Trinidad in the West Indies, the descendant of indentured labourers who were brought by British colonialism to work in the sugar cane fields of the Caribbean. All through her life, preserving something of her Indian identity in the alien fields, she is faced with the puzzle of who she is. Meanwhile the materialistic world of the West has taken note of the ancient spiritual techniques and rituals of Hinduism. Yoga, Buddhism and meditation have been incorporated into Western techniques of balancing life. Ashaa takes a western crew to India and throws herself in at the deep end of Indian ritual spirituality. She attends a nine-day ceremony (Lakshchandi Maha Yagna) of a thousand fires, initiated by the gentle guru His Holiness Rahuleshwarananji. He is leading this ceremony and dedicating it to the destruction of violence in the world.

The Lakshchandi Mahayagna Puja is specifically designed to relieve humanity of its many ailments, to enable world peace, bless its participants with longevity, health, and a route to Moksha (Salvation). This is a Mahayagna because it consists of 91,600,000 prayers offered to the Goddess over a period of 9 days.

We follow Ashaa's journey and share her thoughts through the nine days of this spiritual adventure, sharing her naiveté and acts of surrender and scepticism. She is convinced that her journeys into the helter-skelter of India and into the ancient ceremony of faith have changed her. Her crewmember (Kurt Johnson) however has been the most deeply affected and his contact with the guru has persuaded him to change his life, to leave America and his livelihood and accept the life of an Indian ascetic and disciple of the Guru.