Battle and Kruger
De entre de los entresijos de internet, entre los e-correos reenvios que nos atiborran de sandeces, a veces se encuentran maravillas insospechadas. El video de YouTube “Battle and Kruger”,ha tenido un record de visitas y más de 16.097 comentarios hasta el momento. Es un simple video grabado por un videoaficionado que muestra el enfrentamiento entre unos animales salvajes en África; una cría de búfalo es atacada por unos leones, un cocodrilo luchará por la presa contra los leones, en un momento dado aparece una manada de búfalos mayor que regresan a salvar a la cría expulsando a los leones.
Esta historia, perfecta de un western, tiene como singularidad que está grabada en un plano secuencia único de casi ocho minutos, sin montaje de ningún tipo. Es emocionante verlo y carece de los preparativos de los documentales de fauna al uso de la 2 o de Discovery Channel. La película no tiene desperdicio y no está falseada, lo que hace que nos maravillemos. Es un ejemplo de lo que con medios precarios y mucha suerte puede suceder con una pequeña cámara.
There is a wonderful story in one of the Upanishads about the god Indra. Now, it happened at this time that a great monster had enclosed all the waters of the earth, so there was a terrible drought, and the world was in a very bad condition. It took Indra quite a while to realize that he had a box of thunderbolts and that all he had to do was drop a thunderbolt on the monster and blow him up. When he did that, the waters flowed, and the world was refreshed, and Indra said, "What a great boy am I." 
Brahma sits on a lotus, the symbol of divine energy and divine grace. The lotus grows from the navel of Vishnu, who is the sleeping god, whose dream is the universe. So the carpenter comes to the edge of the great pond of the universe and tells his story to Brahma. Brahma says, "You go home. I will fix this up." Brahma gets off his lotus and kneels down to address sleeping Vishnu. Vishnu just makes a gesture and says something like, "Listen, fly, something is going to happen." 
The boy says, "Indras before you. I have seen them come and go, come and go. Just think, Vishnu sleeps in the cosmic ocean, and the lotus of the universe grows from his navel. On the lotus sits Brahma, the creator. Brahma opens his eyes, and a world comes into being, governed by an Indra. Brahma closes his eyes, and a world goes out of being. The life of a Brahma is 432,000 years. When he dies, the lotus goes back, and another lotus is formed, and another Brahma. Then think of the galaxies beyond galaxies in infinite space, each a lotus, with a Brahma sitting on it, opening his eyes, closing his eyes. And Indras? There may be wise men in your court who would volunteer to count the drops of water in the oceans or the grains of sand on the beaches, but no one would count those Brahmin, let alone those Indras." 
Indra says, "I ask. Teach." (That, by the way, is a good Oriental idea: you don't teach until you are asked. You don't force your mission down people's throats.) And so the boy points to the ants and says, "Former Indras all.Through many lifetimes they rise from the lowest conditions to the highest illumination. And then they drop their thunderbolt on a monster, and they think, 'What a good boy am I.' And down they go again." 
And with this set of instructions, Indra gives up his idea of going out and becoming a yogi and finds that, in life, he can represent the eternal as a symbol, you might say, of the Brahma. So each of us is, in a way, the Indra of his own life. You can make a choice, either to throw it all off and go into the forest to meditate, or to stay in the world, both in the life of your job, which is the kingly job of politics and achievement, and in the love life with your wife and family. Now, this is a very nice myth, it seems to me. 
