CINEMATOGRAPHER
NAGA THE ETERNAL YOGI
A film by Krishna Agazzi e Filippo Gastaldi
Naga: The Eternal Yogi | Trailer | Available now
The holy gurus of India who dedicate their lives to extreme yoga practices.
Naked, covered in ash, and quite literally standing for years on end. These are not your typical yoga enthusiasts. They are the holy gurus of India who contort themselves and dedicate their lives to extreme practices, all in the name of distancing themselves from the material world. They’re a menagerie of the weird and the wonderful, and travellers come from around the world to observe and consult them.
"Ash is the material part of life. To cover oneself with it means to dress oneself with stars". Sharvan Puri Ji is a young ascetic. He is travelling from his home, with the ancient monastic order of the Naga Baba, to the festival of Khumb Mela. Sharvan sees his asceticism and spirituality as a benefit to all humankind, animals, and the living Earth itself. Yoga is an antidote to the materialism that pervades modern society.
In the build-up to Khumb Mela the Yogi travel across the countryside learning from other austere practitioners of their faith. As Sharvan travels he encounters female Yogini, hermits who live in the caves, child Yogi, and the spirits of those who have been dead for millennia. Through each of these encounters we learn about the history and makeup of the Yogic ascetic culture.
"Austerity, makes us understand life from within", says Bhola Giri Bapu, a Yogi who for 28 years has not lowered his left arm, nor cut his fingernails. The significance of austerity, or 'tapasya', is to remove oneself from the temporal and material world. To contemplate and be in touch with our souls, which is also the soul of God. As Bhola says "politics and religion are worth nothing. Life is the divine soul and the divine soul is life!"
'Mela' means meeting in Sanskrit. Khumb Mela began as an opportunity for the Yogis to share their tapasya with the people. This tradition is still strong to this day as Yogi like Sharvan offer guidance and comfort to people overwhelmed and overtaken by the superficiality and materialism of modern life.
An intimate, often eye opening, portrait of modern day Indian Yogis that sheds light on the significance Yogic culture plays in modern day India, and why Yoga, in different forms, has spread throughout the globe.
Naga the Eternal Yogi ● Teaser
THE PRODUCERS
Krishna has been working in the camera department in the motion picture and advertising industries since 1998 and as a cameraman and director of photography since 2011. 'Naga', the first documentary that Krishna has directed, is a fusion of his passions: traveling, anthropology and documentary filmmaking.
After developing a keen interest in audio-visual art during his studies at University of Bologna, Filippo Gastaldi set up and became president of an audio-visual production group, 'WORP Cinematographic.' In 1998, attended his first Kumbha Mela Festival in India, where he met a Guru of the Naga-Dashnamis Sampradaya who initiated him into the world’s oldest monastic order, changing his life forever. In 2012 he reunited with Krishna, a dear friend from film school, resulting in the making of his first feature film as co-director and producer, ‘Naga’.
Sacha Beverini was born in La Spezia in 1982. Following his passion for cinema, he moved to Milan in 2008. Since then he has worked as film editor on documentaries and commercials. In 2012 he met Krishna Agazzi and Filippo Gastaldi, who gave him the oppurtunity to join the project 'Naga the Eternal Yogi' as editor and producer.
Making The Film
This movie was born around the fire lit in the temple that Filippo, the co-director, built in a garden
in Milan. We hadn’t seen each other for more than 15 years; that is, not since high school. He then told me about India, yoga and the teachings that his Guru had passed on to him. I realized that yoga had very little to do with physical exercise but much more with the
cult of fire, renunciation, nudity and ashes. We left two months later to tell this story.