Rita Digilova

Here is the post that I published on FB (October 6th):

About Watching TV series based on Vedic Traditions

This morning, my mom, in the very concerned tone of voice, told me: “Rita, I don’t remember when the last time I saw you’re watched anything “normal” on the TV.
By “normal” she means some popular Hollywood movies, series that are regularly shown on cable (I don’t have cable TV BTW) or Netflix (I do have that, but it is used by my family, including mom herself)…

I haven’t even realized that, but mom is absolutely right. Since the beginning of 2015, I haven’t really watched anything that is considered “entertaining”.
What I watched (and still watching) – some recorded lectures that I find necessary for my work.

However….
There are some series related to Vedic Traditions made by TV networks of India that I have been watching continuously when I have time. Since 2015, I was able to finish watching each episode of these series. So, nowadays when I have time, I re-watch some random series from those same shows.

I have watched each show in the following sequence:
1. Mahabharata 2013 – based on the epic legend of the same name. I do re-watch part with Bhagavat-Gita every now and then.
2. Devon Ke Dev Mahadev 2011-2014 (God of Gods Mahadev – stories about Shiva), based on Shiva Puranas
3. Siya Ke Ram 2015-2016 (Sita’s Rama) which is based on epic story Ramayana (however, it is really based on Tulsidas’ poem Ramcharitmanas, in which, the epic is told from Sita’s perspective).

When I was a kid, I loved reading Mahabharata and Ramayana, but I have never read Shiva Puranas (because they were not available).

I don’t want to get involved in discussions about religious aspects of the above shows, yet, I want to point out that these series might widen up your mind’s boundaries, might raise your consciousness, could make you think (or re-think) about your own place in this world, might enforce you to look at your life-purpose from a different perspectives, and also can make you re-assess your own spirituality and your personal spiritual development.
There are many other benefits that you might get while watching these shows.

My only suggestions are:
1. Watch it in the sequence that I did (see above)
2. Keep your mind open while watching it
3. After watching (especially Mahabharat), do not get yourself involve into any modern sects that claim that they promote these same teachings (like ISKCON for ex.). If you will still think that you need to be surrounded by people who claim that they have same beliefs, at least thoroughly check them out before you decide to join them.
4. And please, understand, these series are based on the ancient Vedic texts and legends, therefore you need to have your modern common sense intact.
5. If I feel that there are other suggestions I might have in the future, I’ll do an update on this post.

Well, I hope those of you who decide to watch these series, will really enjoy them as much as I did (and still do)!

UPD: All of these shows are available with English and Russian (and I think French too) subtitles. All you need to do is search!