I read this curious article about how some people have become seriously depressed after watching the movie Avatar. Not because it didn’t make them happy seeing the world portrayed in the film, but because the real world seemed so grey and lifeless afterwards.
I say ‘some people’ but it seems to be quite a few, judging by this article.
My comment would be – and I haven’t seen the film, although everyone else apparently has – that yes, those movie-goers are quite correct, this world is indeed grey and lifeless but the good news is that there is indeed another world, an alternative reality, that you can enter through the spiritual practice of yoga. It is a factual world where you can walk around and enjoy yourself, with a self-illuminated sky, trees that fulfil all desires, and the most beautiful scenery in vivid colours. More than that, the relationships are never disappointing and the food is never the same twice.
For thousands of years, contemplatives have been entering this world in their deepest meditation, coming back to external consciousness only to speak of it to others. It is so far away that it is inaccessible, even if one travelled at great speeds for years; but it is so close that it can be revealed within the heart. This world belongs to no single religious tradition, but the techniques of entering it can be learned by investigating the oldest writings on this planet.
In the ancient Bhagavad-gita the supreme person of that world declares: “That abode of mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire. One who reaches it never returns to this material world.”
Furthermore the same person declares: “I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known…”
And the Vedas recommend the daily practise of meditation to take our innermost self higher. That self desperately wants another world because that world is the real home of the true self. And the best form of meditation is to focus the mind, for as long as possible and at one sitting, on a sacred mantra, a sound formula that connects the inner heart with the lost inner world.
The Vaishnava Voice 
It is funny that folks are so interested with fictionalised versions of a perfect or more colorful world when the teachings of the Gita and Prabhupada offer them just that but for real. I haven’t seen the movie either but I have seen the way to a better world.
Hare Krishna
I don’t want to see this movie because it will just sharpen the pain I have felt all of my life, due to being in this world, and knowing we can, and need to, do much, much better. I say we can, but not until the choke hold of the present power structure is released.
I find it interesting that many of the statues in Thailand look a lot like the people in this movie.
I recently wrote about this phenomenon on my blog. Please see my post, “Singin’ the Avatar Blues.” I am interested in your comments on my perspective.
http://www.ambrosiawaterfilters.com/blog/?p=239
In a clean, natural world, we may not need so many water filters. I get water from the local food co-op which has been filtered, ROed, and oxygenated, because I don’t trust the tap water.
Anyway, about Avatar, I think our world, even though it does not look exactly like the world in the movie, is beautiful in its own way. Unfortunately, the suits don’t see it the way we do. They look at a lovely, pristine forest and see board feet, they look at a sparkling, blue river, and see a place to dump their industrial waste. You get the idea. As long as they are in control, this world will get sicker and more polluted, until it dies. That is what is so depressing. It doesn’t have to be this way.