Beyond the soaring majesty of distant constellations, the stunning breathtaking visuals, and the 3-D trailblazing special effects, there is something else in James Cameron's epic masterpiece, "Avatar."  Something as grand and great as life that pulsates with the rhythms of the sacred earth, and talks to the ancients in their own tongue - "All is one and all is interconnected." Simply put, it is a marvelous tribute to Pantheism.

Set in a sci-fi universe, it is the story of a white man going native as in Kevin Costner's "Dances with Wolves."  Instead of the remote Western frontier, there is a distant moon Pandora, populated by nimble, blue colored, 10 feet tall, agile, cat like, bird riding, arrow shooting, eco-friendly aliens called the Na'vi.  To the Na'vi's, the land is sacred, all life is sacred.  They worship Eywa, "the Mother," an impersonal, mystic force that connects all nature.  Into this land of noble and tranquil people arrives a former marine who is sent to mine and exploit precious minerals in exchange for his lost legs. To survive in Pandora and breathe its air, he is transformed into an "Avatar" with a Na'vi body and a human mind.  However, he falls in love with a Na'vi beauty and Na'vi spirituality and successfully fights the marines who come to plunder the peaceful land.

Even though it is not directly advocating Eastern Philosophy, the underlying script riddled with oneness and union with nature is an ode to Pantheism, the overarching religious belief that all things are linked in profound unity.  Like a philosophic banyan, Pantheism accommodates a tapestry of the stuff of eternities, ranging from Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Yoga, animism, the Greek religion, religion of the indigenous tribes such as the American Indians, the ancient Mayan religion and the pre-Islamic religions of the Middle East.  In his illuminating book, "The Tao of Physics", Fritjof Capra, a renowned Physicist from Berkeley, sets Pantheism, Taoism, the cosmic dance of Shiva, Buddhism and Eastern Philosophy on a firm pedestal supported by unassailable concrete facts from Quantum Physics and the wave structure of matter.

The pantheistic message is more widespread than we think.  According to a recent Pew Forum report, many Christians believe in the spiritual energy of trees, mountains and nature.  Hollywood's runaway successes such as Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai", "The Lion King" and Pocahontas also point to the increasing number of followers wearing the New Age glasses of Pantheism. 

Last update : 01-02-2010 11:15

Keywords : Avatar Glistens with a Cosmic Connection, Aneeta Chakrabarty

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