"John Bush has a unique and inspired vision of the art of documentary film."
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
Mindfulness during the pandemic • Bodh Gaya
INTO THE HEART OF INDIA travels over 2,500 miles from the snows of the Himalayas to India’s steamy southern tip. The viewer is offered a direct experience of pilgrimage. Honoring India’s spiritual diversity, this non-sectarian series unfolds a radiant tapestry of natural beauty and the human heart.
INTO THE HEART OF INDIA brings ancient wisdom together with contemporary life, yielding both an inner and outer journey for the viewer. In the West, over 500 million people practice yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. These methods, with their origins in India, may bring one fully into the present moment to quiet the mind and open the heart. This cinematic pilgrimage visits the original context of these practices.
Experience a vast landscape with
luminous paths, the inspired diversity
of spiritual India from a western seeker’s
point of view.
Pilgrim offerings - Varanasi, India
Director’s Statement / John Bush
Every human being is born a pilgrim
in this world on their own spiritual
journey through life.
INTO THE HEART OF INDIA is a cultural portrait of India’s ancient pilgrimage tradition fully alive in the contemporary world. Thousands of years of pilgrims traversing India’s sacred geography has created a profound wholeness that still endures.
The series seeks to discover truths in India’s diverse spiritual heritage that affirm a deeper sense of unity between all human beings. While I am not a member of any religion, I am grateful for the ways these traditions have nourished my spiritual life for five decades. I wish to share, through film, their timely relevance with current generations.
Director’s statement continued -
Within Indian thought is the paradox of nirvana and samsara - divinity and delusion existing both in the world and within every human being. Practices to refine one’s own sacred nature and connection evolved over millennia in India - including the essential experience of pilgrimage.
Traveling through a vast spiritual landscape with a small Indian team, an assistant director & cinematographer, for over a year, was a revelatory time for each of us. These revered locations yielded up the power of unforgettable images and unseen realms.
The intimacy of devotion seen in pilgrims’ faces reflects one of the series major themes, bringing together the mortal and eternal, the human and being. What we see on screen may reflect ways viewers see themselves. After all, one reason for going on pilgrimage is to remind us that we are already on one.
"Lift the veil that obscures the heart
and there you will find what you’re
looking for.”
Kabir
INTO THE HEART OF INDIA
Featuring Some of India’s
Greatest Musicians & Singers
INTO THE HEART OF INDIA is an
immersive journey to ancient sites,
a cultural portrait that offers an
experience of opening and
interconnection.
NANDA DEVI, Himalayas (25,643 ft)
“As large as the universe is, so
large is the space within the heart.
Both heaven and earth are
contained within it, both fire
and air, sun and moon, lightning
and stars.”
The Chandogya Upanishad
JOHN BUSH • Amarnath, Kashmir, 1971
in 1970, John Bush, an anti-war activist, left an anxious America on a journey to India in search of peace. Over two years, within India’s spiritual diversity, he went deeply into hatha yoga, bhakti yoga and mindfulness meditation. John practiced along with other seekers in India’s revered pilgrimage centers, under the guidance of Neem Karoli Baba, celebrated in Be Here Now.
Now, after a five decade relationship with spiritual India, John returns as a filmmaker to share this ancient world still thriving within modern India. On pilgrimage with an Indian film team for over a year, John Bush has created this immersive series with an informed respect for India’s unique pilgrimage traditions and their timeliness for a worldwide audience.
