It's a must watch for the people who are on their spiritual journey and confused with many thoughts and belief schools. Sometimes when we think God is up there somewhere, he is actually sitting right besides us as "Richard Parker" but we keep gazing in the sky. And when he sees that we are able to stand on our own feet, he leaves us without even saying a good bye.
We all expect this from “Our” version of God. We all want him to be around but we always fail to see him, we try to search him here and there and we never see around. Sometimes he is right there with the face of your friend, loved one and is actually helping us by using their hands, but we ignore. We always expect a “Miraculous” helping hand right from the above and fail to see some tiny little hands trying to cheer us up when we are down and broken. This is how God / Mother Nature work. No matter how hard you cry for the reason of not getting a proper “Good bye hug” God leaves you like that from where you can start a journey by your own.
“Life of Pi” is miraculous journey, a journey of human being towards spirituality. As “Irfaan Pathan” says in the beginning “My story will compel you to believe in God” and it actually does if you could understand between the lines.
We all have stories, stories about our God and his never-land. The versions may be different but moreover it’s all the same, and we all have chosen the best version, the strongest and the merciful one. Our religious scriptures are full or miracles and dreamlands like “Life of Pi” in which we know that the “Ship” sinks but there is no clear statement “How it sank”? And we all know that what we are listening or believing actually doesn’t exists and there must be some genuine and valid reason how ship sank? But hilariously with all the failed logics and rubbish promises, we chose the best miraculous and dreamy version of our god and religion.
There are two kinds of people, one who believes in all the dreamy stories and the other who are seekers. Seekers are like the two Japanese firm employees who ask Pi Patel, “Can you please tell us a story on which we and our company can actually believe?” we have already heard the first story told by you, it was good but we want to know the actual version of the story. Then Pi tells them another story, created by his mind, but they both look confused and said, both of the stories were good but none of them clears “How ship sank?” Seekers never believe on anything given by someone else.
Do we know how ship sank? Have we ever asked ourselves? We all know the truth is! How ship sank, none of our religious scripture tells us. What we get is a promise of a fairyland that is not seen by any living human being ever, but we still believe. We believe because we want our version, our version of god and the paradise.
This journey (life) starts alone and ends alone. No matter how hard you tried but you end up believing one or another version of God. But remember, no one is going to tell the real story behind the ship. How ship sank you will have to find it alone.
At the end when Irfaan khan asks, “I told you two versions of the story, which one would you choose?” And the guy says, “obviously the one in which there was the Bengal tiger” and Irfan says “Same goes with the God”
This is how we have chosen, our version, our God and our belief, the version of “God/Religion” that is strongest, that is full of miracles, and promises of dreamlands. And if you are a true seeker, you will have to leave all the stories behind and seek alone, without any scripture and without any prejudice.
~ Tabish Siddiqui
