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[mappi]

Baba - Room of Mirrors

"God! God!" they cry,
Till there forms a callus on their tongue.
If saying God gave liberation, then,
saying candy made your mouth sweet,
saying fire burned your feet,
saying water quenched your thirst,
saying food banished hunger;
Then, the whole world would be free.
- Kabir Das



The divine child walks into a Room of Mirrors. Everywhere he looked, he saw his own reflection. The divinity inside him allowed him to create himself using his own reflections. On one mirror, he drew a mustache, on the other a beard. He kept on altering himself by playing with his own images. Finally, he created his own demon by decorating himself as a fiend; thus, stuck inside the Room of Mirrors playing with his own reflections and forgetting the reality. He trapped himself with the other selves that he had created for eternity without gaining realisation - He became what he thought.

Sai Baba of Shirdi says, "Dust if you think, dust you are. God if you think, God you are. Think God. Be God. You are God. Realize it."

Inside the Room of Mirrors, the divine child Baba undergoes four states of consciousness before getting absorbed back into his native state of being unreflected.

When we first witness Baba (played by Rajini) on the screen, he is seen having his eye shut tightly. In this posture, The Waking State, Baba becomes aware of the quotidian - The Outward Knowing - becoming conscious when he opens his eyes (and watches the watching audience).

[The director of the film, Suresh Krisnaa, immediately establishes a direct communication with the viewers, by calling for a Bird's Eye View camera angle for the opening shot, making the audience as the Devine Watcher of the Devine Child.]



Baba enters into the Room of Mirrors, creating himself anew with his own reflection. Even though Baba is a non-believer, his divine knowledge is inborn. Whoever he creates himself to be - a truck driver, a laborer, a leader whose primary activity is to protect, a lover, a son, a friend, an alcoholic, a chain smoker ... etc - Baba got the ability to design his reflection as anything he wishes on the mirror - the divine knowledge cannot be subdued.

Baba enters the second state while lying down on a cart on the roadside. Baba enters into his vast subconscious mind.



[The Cry of Violins is absolutely brilliant. Hats off ARR. The vibration the string instruments bring creates a sort of intervention - something that knocks the doors of the mind. The director, again, goes for a Bird's View camera angle, as though the intervention is happening from above. While showing the experience of Atman (the soul), the director never fails to draw a parallel with the Jivaa (the body) through a sensory organ – Baba’s ears triggers the state. He visually captures the transformation in a series of skillfully angled shots. Hats off Chota K. Naidu]

In this state, the Dreaming State, Baba looks inside himself - Inward Knowing. He confronts with his own wisdom and subtlety which is as big as an elephant. His Jivaa (body) experiences many different levels of existence due to the activity of Maya.



[The director beautifully portrays Pravivikta (subtle) & Taijasa (burning) during Antah Prajnya (Inner Knowing). Baba is in a dream state with his eyes wide open. By invoking his inner knowing, his body reacts with a mysterious hand gesture. Wisdom is blessed on him by a temple elephant. Finally, the burning - he wakes up when the cigarette bud kindles heat around his finger. Hats off V. T. Vijayan]



When Baba ejects himself from the Magic of Maya, he paints a demonic self to his reflection while walking out of Chamundeeswari 's (played by Manisha Koirala) house.



Seeing him turning himself into something that he is not, the Messenger intervenes.



[This is an iconic shot called by the director, a cult scene in its own right, my favourite. This single shot hold volumes of informations. There are tons of cult shots in this film. Hats off Suresh Krisnaa]

The Messenger pulls Baba out of the Room of Mirrors and guides him to experience the third state - Deep Sleep (Sarva Jnya, the Knower of All), a state where underlying ground of consciousness is undistracted.



Baba realizes Karana Sarira (The Causal body) - The innermost body that veils Atman (True Soul). Baba meets Maha Avatar Babaji who is (*beleived to be) the origin and dissolution of created things.

[*Disclaimer : Mappi & Religion, oil and water. No mixing.]

Baba returns. Every instance in his life seems to be a dream when the three states - Outward Knowing, Inward Knowing and Deep Sleep - make him transcends to the fourth and final state - Turiya, Pure Consciousness.



[The Black top resembles that of Kaala's Kurta (Kaala is a forthcoming film directed by Pa. Ranjith starring Rajini in the lead role)]

After few trail and runs, testing his own Self according to the both absolute and relative, Baba experiences the true state of Ananta (infinite) and becomes free from the dualistic experience which results in him smashing the Mirrors in his Mind and permitting himself to walk out of the Room of Mirrors and embrace Vipalka (The Supreme Reality).

Baba knocks down all the Layers of the Mind and becomes Superconscious.