This film is a section cut from my work “Things Will Change”.

I have wanted to sort out this fantastic footage for years, and thanks to AI, I was finally able to reproduce it. This new cut and colour contain licensed music, so it will not be blocked, unlike my last version, which was blocked after reaching 500k views!

Please enjoy “Varanasi”.

The whole film can be seen here: YoutTube: Things Will Change

Original description:

Many Indian cities are a jumble, a mix of the ancient and modern, but none I have ever visited compares to Varanasi. I come from a country, and from a city, that has a long history and many ancient sites of worship, yet even the 1000-year-old site of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London pales in comparison to the 3000 years of worship maintained here by the Vedic priesthood. The mythical history of Varanasi reaches even further back; according to legend, it was founded by none other than the Hindu deity Lord Shiva himself.

At this point, the average Westerner or Briton should try to forget everything they have learned in school about Hinduism. In my Religious Education classes, we were taught about Hinduism in a way that forced all religions into a Christian framework for comparison. So, where Christianity has God, Hinduism has Shiva. In place of Jesus, there is Krishna, and the comparison goes on with angels (the Devas), priests (the Brahmans), the Bible (the Vedas), and the Kingdom of Heaven (Rebirth).

One important takeaway from this muddled presentation is that the people who wrote the Religious Education syllabus had little to no understanding of Hinduism. Viewed through this distorted lens, Hinduism may appear quite confusing. However, it is crucial to recognize that the Hindu faith is fundamentally different from Christianity in nearly every aspect.

First and foremost, “Hinduism” is an umbrella term encompassing a wide array of beliefs, all interconnected primarily by their geographical origin: they all come from India. Furthermore, when we discuss Hindu cosmology, we are not referring to a celestial hierarchy in the same way it is understood in Christianity. In Hinduism, the structure is not one where God is at the top and humans are near the bottom, just above animals.

No, in Hinduism, the belief is that you are God…