Gurukulam: One Without a Second

Filmmakers Neil Dalal and Jillian Elizabeth's documentary about spiritual life that is anchored in ideas rather than faith-based religion is set at a picturesque ashram called Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Tamal Nadu, India. Here, students from around the world spend three months studying a Hindu school of belief known as Advaita Vedanta, taught by a plain-speaking and often charmingly bemused master, Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Some students stay much longer than the minimum requirement—a few interviewees have been there for decades and become swamis themselves. Most of the footage captures impressions of daily life at the 14-acre ashram, from the preparation of food to the sweeping of pathways, from training lights on an elephant rummaging through trees to the somewhat comic sight of the community's elders traveling around the large property on golf carts and in tiny cars. While these slices of reality might sound ordinary, they ultimately add up to something pleasantly meditative while also reinforcing Saraswati's teachings about non-duality: i.e., that nothing separates us from the larger surrounding world. Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)