Raja Choudhury wears many hats – filmmaker, spiritualist, speaker, and a popular internet content creator. For the past few years, he has concentrated his energies on a feature-length documentary about Swami Vivekananda, the revered Indian spiritualist and social reformer who brought yoga and Vedanta to the United States. Everyone knows the story of how this Indian monk captured the American imagination when he started his speech at the Chicago Parliament of Religions in 1893 with “Sisters and brothers of America”. Choudhury’s film America’s First Guru tells the story of everything Vivekananda achieved in the six years that he spent in the United States.
In a chat with Community Reporter Tanay Gokhale, Choudhury talks about his inspiration for the film, Vivekananda’s philosophy, and much more, ahead of the film’s premiere on public television and the PBS app.
Edited excerpts below.
Q. Why did you make this film?
A. First of all, I’m a complete history buff and a spirituality buff as well. Growing up in Africa, with Indian parents, Vivekananda was big in our house – we’re Bengali so Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were everywhere. But when I came to America, nobody knew about him here. People did not know that this was the man who brought yoga and Vedanta to America. This is an untold story because everybody thinks of the Parliament of Religions, that’s it. No, he built an institution, he worked with people, he talked, he traveled, and he was the first guru of the country between 1893 and 1899.
Second, even people in India don’t know the story; everybody thinks he comes home, gives the “Arise, awake…” speech, and everybody wakes up and he is the hero of the country.
But in reality, he was a very complicated, modern man and this film brings that all together for us.
Q. Vivekananda left behind such a vast body of work. If you had to synthesize the most salient aspects of his philosophy and teachings, what would it be?
A. You’d think it is vast, but it’s not because he died a very young man, at 39. He came to the United States when he was 30, and everything he achieved was in that period of nine years, which is incredible. If you look at his life before then, he was educated to be an English gentleman in Calcutta. He was a Brahmo Samaj member, a singer, an athlete, later became a Freemason, and was from a very wealthy and successful family. The tipping point came when he met Ramakrishna Paramhans, who initiated him into the mysteries. But he also brought this idea of Vigyana Vedanta which says that you are divine, and everybody is divine. This is the first time anyone spoke of a universal Vedanta, and that was revolutionary. And that’s what the young man takes to America.
When he came here, he realized that for America, he needed a more pluralistic approach. So he said, “The path to realization is Vedanta and you can achieve it through any of the four yogas. So he synthesized yoga and Vedanta for the first time. He said that you can be a yogi in the world, you can be a good person, you can enjoy life, you can have a family, and still pursue Vedanta. Americans loved the idea that you are not a sinner, you don’t have to surrender yourself to some God in heaven, and you are also made of the same divine stuff that you’re looking for.
I think you can bring it down to that one thing: he triggered a revolution in consciousness and thinking that wasn’t there before.
Q. This film is quite an achievement given that no video footage of Swami Vivekananda exists. How did you go about collecting all the archival materials for the film and giving life to him on screen?
A. We were very lucky because the Ramakrishna Mission and the Vedanta society in America have been excellent at keeping all the archives and photographs and because I have been associated with that culture, I was able to access things that most people could not.
But apart from the photographs and the narration, we thought, what if we could interview Vivekananda, what would that be like? A one-on-one conversation with him running throughout the film. So we got a fantastic Bengali actor from New York, Samrat Chakrabarti, and he was a great fit to play Vivekananda.
He embodied the character completely, and even though the film is scripted, everything Samrat says was said or written by Vivekananda. We went through eleven volumes of his letters and speeches and extracted the best bits for the lines in the film, so it’s all genuine. And then we filmed the Parliament of Religions speech, and also a scene in which he is walking on the streets of New York – which was a revelation in itself!
We chose an alternative storytelling style, so we kept the Ken Burns style, which is the older way of narrative documentary, but we added this device of an actor bringing him to life. We have fused the two styles.
Q. In the film, Vivekananda is openly critical about the status of women in India. Could you talk about his opinions on Indian culture and society at the time vis-a-vis the seeds of reform?
A. He wrote in his letters that India is a “slave nation”. In Neitzchian philosophy, a slave is somebody who accepts whatever is given to them, and assumes that this is their fate because there is no chance to alter it. In his mind, we had become like that, not only because we had lost our vitality, our power, our Shakti. He was very upset about that and he did not blame the British, he blamed the people of India. He said, stop trying to teach the people Vedanta, feed them first. Get them help and then teach them Vedanta and yoga. He was very angry about the state of things in India.
He grew up in the Brahmo Samaj, which had abolished sati. They educated women in Calcutta – only the elite – and he had seen the benefits of that. When he came to America, he said, we have to educate our women because he realized that civic society would only succeed if women were educated. He was very big on that.
Another side to him was that he was not judgmental at all. The Christian does not have to become a Hindu, the Hindu does not have to become a Christian. He said that all religions were true and that by practicing Vedanta and yoga, you can become a better Christian, a better Muslim or a better Hindu.
We did not include it in the film but he had also written lines like, “India needs an Islamic body and a Hindu mind,” because he saw the vitality of the Muslim age, and what they brought to India. Even though there was destruction, he saw the power, and he wanted that Shakti in all Indians. He never saw Hindus and Muslims as different, in fact, in his writings he says, “We are all Indian, and we are all from this one motherland.”
And he was the first founder of what is now called interfaith dialogue, where we all come together and have a conversation instead of fighting each other, so that you and I can learn from each other’s faith; but we can also celebrate each other’s faith. I mean, 130 years ago, he was talking about what we should be talking about today, so I’d say he was definitely a very progressive man for his time.
Q. One of my favorite scenes is when Vivekananda walks the streets of New York in the present day. What was it like to film that scene?
A. The scenes in which we engaged with the city were among my favorites. We dressed Samrat as Vivekananda, robe and all, and then took him out on the streets to see what would happen, and it was a revelation! [laughs] They were bowing to him on the streets, greeting him, asking him, “Are you a famous monk? Are you a great man?”
I think that the reason cities like Calcutta, Bombay, New York, San Francisco, and London are great for people like Vivekananda – and me and you – is that we have the freedom to be anonymous and to celebrate our multiple identities. When we then look at the rest of the world, we think, “Why aren’t they like that?”
I think Vivekananda found that through his yoga and Vedanta, he could take that to anybody. He could teach tolerance, universalism, and the beauty of seeing the divine in everybody so that when you see another person, you don’t look at them as an outsider; you look at them as a divine soul that you can relate to.
Q. Your film is about what Vivekananda gave to America and the West. What did America give back to him in return?
A. I think that we have to understand that there was no such organization like the Ramakrishna Mission until Vivekananda. The Ramakrishna Mission is much more like an American nonprofit charitable organization than it is a classical monastic organization. The monks may be monks, but they are sevaks or karmayogis first. It was a revolution where you could clean toilets, educate children, and do good in the world, and not only be a monk seeking moksha.
So I think his revolution that he brought by understanding the American idea of service changed Indian culture. We wouldn’t have the robust NGO culture in India if it hadn’t been for that movement. Not to mention all these amazing American and British women and men coming and helping build institutions like printing presses, schools, and hospitals under the Ramakrishna Mission.
The second thing he brought over is the idea that India can give Vedanta or spirituality to the West and in return, the West can be “our teachers of all things material.” I think what he meant was that not even one person should be in poverty in India. There shouldn’t be one person who feels crushed and oppressed and unable to speak up because of the color of their skin, religion, or ideals. I think he would have been weeping for that still because we still have millions of people starving. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a lot to do!
Q. Finally, what is the one takeaway that you want viewers to remember from the film?
A. What will you do to wake up that divine spark in you? I don’t want you to quit your job. I don’t want you to take off and be a lost soul traveling in India looking for meaning and going from temple to temple and ashram to ashram. That’s not the answer. What are you? Who are you? What do you want to do? Don’t say, “I want to meet the next Vivekananda,” say “I want to be the next Vivekananda.”
Vivekananda overcame British rule and came to the United States, and even got shot at over here, but he never gave up. Even when he went back to India, he was attacked regularly by the Hindus. They thought he was bringing Christian values and all kinds of things. But he had a mission, a plan, and he was going to do it. So, I would say, wake up, be your own guru, or find a teacher, but find your own way to do right in the world. Go be a flame!
The film America’s First Guru will be available on public television and on the PBS app starting May. Watch the film here!
This series was made possible in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program.