About
Rajiv Mudgal is a Writer, Playwright/Filmmaker who embodies the principles of non-duality in his works. His work challenges the myth that standard writing and accepted form of language and literature cannot express the non-dual as difference and change is fundamental to modern self understanding of Being.
His insights are inspired by the idea that the western sense of Being have become dangerously unreliable and that the East should search the meaning and values that matter to them the most in their own Being.
His play ‘अनिष्ट का दस्तक -The arrival of devastation’ is about four holy men who undergo a crises of faith as they confront the forces of modernity in the form of a crippled beggar.
In the play we meet Bansi who is a tuneless minstrel, Durga a passionate potter, Mahapatra is a failed healer and Vishnu a dumb and devastated poet. Each of them are voices, opening themselves and inviting you into their memories. Fate has brought them together to a remote and forgotten temple. The temple infuses new life into them. They have accepted their destiny and hold no grudge. Until one day a crippled Langda from the city comes to their village.
In essence, the place owns them and in owning them it gives their broken lives a higher value and meaning. But there is another call, another hailing.
For Rajiv the sacred place means to feel at home, to belong to, it is also a location. ‘Being true’ in his films means that one has to deal with issues of place, location and sacredness that gathers people as well as revisit disappearing traditions, crafts and also ‘Location' that disrupts dislodges and scatter prior ‘Unities'.
His writings cover a wide range of topics related to non-duality and ethical issues arising from it, including the problem of error, wrong doing and nature of self, reality and the path to graceful life.
His works are aimed at householders, or people who are living in the world and dealing with the challenges of everyday life.
Overall, Rajiv Mudgal's books and films are valuable resource for anyone who is interested in learning about Advaita Vedanta and its relevance to everyday life without recourse to special forms of secret knowledge.