One would think that an event that attracts 70 million people would garner some attention. However, until the recent release of the documentary Short Cut to Nirvana, most of the Western world has been oblivious to it. Occurring every 144 years, the Maha Kumbh Mela is a six-week spiritual festival of massive proportions held in Allahabad, India where the sacred Ganges and Yamuna Rivers meet. Although smaller festivals occur yearly – with a particular emphasis on those held every twelve years – the Maha Kumbh Mela coincides with an aligning of the planets and celebrates an ancient story of demigods, demons and a pot of nectar that offers immortality. In 2001, filmmakers Maurizio Benazzo and Nick Day captured more than just a glimpse of the event that is believed to date back to 10,000 B.C.
    
    Music, dance, theater and, most importantly, spiritual leaders converge on a parcel of land that is submerged underwater during the rainy season. This Hindu festival attracts people of all faiths and invites attendees to learn, celebrate, experience and take part in a ritual of spiritual cleansing in the Ganges. The film is punctuated by interviews with a number of Americans, as well as a gregarious Buddhist monk named Swami Krishnanand. Krishnanand has intimate access to spiritual leaders whose methods of gaining enlightenment run the gamut. One has held his right arm aloft for 20 years. Another sits upon a bed of nails over a fire. Others, however, simply offer nuggets of spiritual truths about love, peace, family, the self and more. For example, the Dalai Lama visits the festival and shares with the crowd gathered before him, “All traditions – Hindu, Moslem, Christian, Jewish – have a common responsibility to serve humanity, improve the world situation and protect the environment.”

    With both a broad view of the festival and a number of intimate observations of spiritual leaders and other participants, Short Cut to Nirvana invites the audience into the whirlwind that is the Kumh Mela. Although no particular dogma is consistently preached, viewers will likely connect with some of the messages. Some images of the event encourage the awkward interest one might have at a freakish circus. Regardless, the film brings this holy festival, which is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as “the largest number of human beings to ever assemble with a common purpose, in the entire history of mankind,” into our consciousness. With 70 million people traveling across India to such a festival, I encourage you to travel across town to pick up this DVD.

Review by Maggie Busser

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