(RNS) — Brooklyn-based comedian Pranav Behari ran into his longtime fan, filmmaker and producer Adi Parige, at a performance a few years ago. Looking back, some would call it a divine intervention.
The two Hindus found they lived just one block apart. When asked how long they knew each other, they said, “From which lifetime?”
Behari, 44, and Parige, 31, joined together on a brand-new project: “Shakti Punch,” a play on the term shaktipat, meaning an immediate transfer of knowledge, psychic or spiritual power from a guru or deity to a disciple.
The podcast, which officially launched last week, features Behari speaking on topics of Hindu philosophy and mythology. Ancient wisdom, they say, fits perfectly with the values of modern American Hindus like themselves.
With their first episode titled “Lord Rama Is Depressed,” in which Behari describes Ram’s famous tirth yatra to holy Indian pilgrimages as a “road trip with the boys,” it is clear that “Shakti Punch” intends to be a novel kind of satsang, a form of group spiritual discourse, meant for the 2020s.
And the trick to making these high-level concepts fun and relatable, these friends say? Hinduism is already “really effing cool.”
Religion News Service talked with them about the project. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did the idea for “Shakti Punch” come about?
Behari: I have always been very into Hinduism and dharmic thinking in general, both in practice and philosophy. And something that I started to notice during the pandemic is that the more I would post about certain things, like philosophical concepts, especially with Advaita (nondualism) and things like that, a lot of people started reaching out to me on social media, trying to learn more. I’m not a guru or anything, but I am interested and I am passionate about it. So I would put them on to certain things, certain books, and people would want to talk to me about it, and I would talk to them about it a little bit. And I don’t know, my own sort of sadhana (ego-transcending enlightment practice) started to increase and intensify.
I noticed that certain Hindu friends of mine would not be necessarily outwardly Hindu, right? But they would see that I am, and so they would want to talk to me about it.
Honestly, the whole thing has come together in like two weeks. It feels very, you know, it feels very karmic and very inspired the way it’s kind of come together. It really manifested, kind of out of nowhere, into something.
Parige: It wasn’t very premeditated as well. I think that’s a really important point. So much of this happened organically. I think so much of our goals for what’s coming forward with “Shakti Punch” is to keep it organic and to keep it evolving and loose and fun, while also walking this line and sharing this beautiful information and knowledge that we both love to satsang with each other about via the scriptures.
What was it like for you both to grow up as Hindus in the United States?
Behari: My upbringing is definitely a huge part of this. I grew up and I’m just kind of going through the motions. I go to the temple, and there’s all these things that I don’t understand, and nobody’s making an effort for me to understand either. But somehow, for some reason, even though in all other ways I was a very bad kid, I was really into sadhana. I was really into the Hanuman Chalisa, I was really into all the ithihasas. I was really devoted, kind of out of nowhere, but I didn’t really have anybody to share this with. I remember, though, having a sense of alienation. I would have a picture of like Hanuman up in my locker, and, you know, I’m surrounded by a bunch of, like, Christian friends, pretty much that are like, “What’s that?” and I’m like, “That’s God, bitch!”
Comedian Pranav Behari in the first episode of “Shakti Punch.” (Video screen grab)
But you know, you take a break from this stuff too, right? You’re in Central PA, you’re surrounded by non-Hindus. You’re not thinking about these things. You’re more interested in the more kind of gross material aspects of life. And, you know, I still maintained a certain level of devotion in terms of, like, our chants and stuff like that, and meditate here and there, and do some kind of form of puja and things like that. But it was kind of really swept aside. And I was really into leftist politics, and politics really rose to the core my own upbringing, and after a point, I really came back to the Dharma. I started reading the Gita, and everything really started switching on for me, and a lot of miraculous things would happen in my life.
But I feel like that experience of moving away from it and then coming back to it was really important, because that was the thing I felt like I was really able to bring out in certain other friends of mine. They just didn’t have a space to kind of express these things and to think about these things and to talk about these things.
Parige: Growing up in the dot com boom in the Bay Area, I feel like I almost grew up in like a little golden era of Hinduism, like a whole Hindu village, genuinely. So I was surrounded by the culture immediately, and with a lot of other people experiencing the culture, but I was also surrounded with a lot of orthodoxy. As I got into my teens, I started to reject that quite a lot. I had to almost go 100% rejection at that point for some reason, and kind of turned my back on even paying attention to dharmic principles and applying them in my life and engaging a lot more with the critical aspect of how you know politics works, how Indian politics works, all of this. That being said, the last five years has been a massive drive to return to what my roots are and engage with kind of the most beautiful aspects of our religion, which is philosophical satsangs, bhajan (devotional songs), discussion.
I think being of a dharmic faith, the biggest blessing is your autonomy of thought and the space to grow disagree, dissent. That’s kind of my aspect. You know, in ways, Pranav and I have really fun conversation together, because I might take a little bit more of the skeptical position, and Pranav might drive Bhakti (devotion) home.
Why is it important to have this space for Hindus especially now?
Behari: India, on a global scale, is starting to reassert itself as a civilization, and thus it’s getting a lot more global attention, and a lot of that is going to be negative. And in the West, if you live here, Indian and Hindu Americans — their visibility is expanding. And the more visible we become, the more of a target we’re going to become, and the more our faith is going to become a target.
Hindus are getting kind of a wrath lately in the media as well, and so a lot of people feel the need to hide their identity as Hindus. They keep it kind of quiet: “I’m culturally Hindu.” They don’t want to really get into what this is about. You know, there’s a need to conceal themselves, to hide themselves. And for me, the love of doing this at “Shakti Punch” is all about making Hindus of the diaspora feel OK about this, and being like, “Hey, you don’t have to feel weird about about worshipping these gods and exploring this philosophy, which is unlike any other theology or cosmology on Earth.” It’s extremely unique. And the concepts that we deal with are things that are like science fiction for the rest of the planet, right? The level of philosophical engagement and conceptions of consciousness, time, it’s really stuff that is untouched in other cosmologies and is really only being touched by Western science, right? Psychoanalysis, things like that, ways of treating memory. And I’m like, listen, these are things to be proud of. These are things that we’ve been thinking about for thousands of years and expounding upon. I want people to continue to learn about these things and to proliferate dharma.
How do you use your comedic training to make this podcast funny and relatable?
Behari: Comedy is my dharma. This is what I’m supposed to be. Since I was a little kid, I’ve always been making my parents laugh and making my friends laugh everywhere I go. How I process reality is always through humor. My goal with “Shakti Punch” isn’t necessarily always to be funny, right? It’s really just to explore these things. It just happens to be that I am funny, so sometimes stuff is going to come out in a funny way.
Parige: I think we often don’t focus on the humor embedded tradition, and that the most ancient rishis (sages), even, and the stories they tell us, and the gods that we pray to, there’s humor built into this, you know, and it’s not by accident. There’s a reason Ganesha eats a lot of laddoos (Indian sweets) and rides on a small rat. That was always supposed to be funny.
Are you making Hinduism cool?
Parige : Hinduism and dharma is cool. It always has been. It’s always been super inclusive. It’s easy to forget that with the noise in the media.
Behari: We’re here to remind each other that’s what friendship is, you’re always reminding each other of the good things, right? That’s what a satsang is. And what I love about talking to not just Adi, but also other friends of mine — I am actively able now to learn from them, because I was somehow able to activate some enthusiasm in them. The “Shakti Punch” podcast is not about me trying to teach people. It’s really about me learning and bringing other people along for this, and learning from the people who are listening to it as well. So, it’s a true satsang.
Who is your intended audience?
Behari: It is any young Hindu from anywhere in the world, but because we’re diaspora kids, you know, I want diaspora Hindu kids and young adults and adults to engage with this stuff, right? I mean, there’s a guy who commented recently on a video, and he’s basically talking about how he grew up going to Catholic school in India. And his whole life in America has been about making a living and becoming a prosperous person. But really he wanted to return to what his actual spiritual roots are and to understand them better. And he was like, “Thank you, this is something that’s that’s really helpful for me.” A lot of feedback I’ve been getting is like, this is a podcast I’ve always needed that is really helpful. That’s just after one episode.
Parige: As a producer, a specific demographic within the many demographics that we are going to reach, I think, is also the intermediate learner. I think in the diaspora, we have such a great foundation, actually. We know the stories. We know these deities. Now, it’s time to access the philosophy that they’re channeling through the stories.
Behari: We’re not trying to exclude anybody from this too. I would be happy if somebody who has no idea about Hinduism comes and listens to the podcast. It’s really for everybody. But as Adi said, this is about Hindus in the diaspora setting, especially who have grown up with the stories and all that, and then maybe they’ve kind of forgotten about it, and then maybe they want to learn about it again. This is the place to come to. This is where you can really start exploring a lot of the philosophy and a lot of the concepts. And we started with one of the most challenging texts… but you know, we’re all in it together, right?
What are your hopes for this podcast?
Behari: There’s our material goals for this of, we would love to have a big following, because I would like to build this out into IRL (in real life) in-person satsangs, because I already do this informally with my friends. So I want to build those out and build out that kind of infrastructure. But really, in terms of where it’s going is there is no limit to this, because there is so much material to go through itself. We can do a 1,000-episode podcast on just one book. It is so vast, and it’s so complex, some of the concepts. But, you know, we’re also going to be talking about a lot of the mythology, right? We’re going to be going through various Puranas, and we love the mythology. That’s how we got into this. You know, like our friends are all watching “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars,” which all that stuff is great, but here’s the real shit.
Parige: I guess this one’s personal, but you know, I’m an artist. I’m a storyteller. I define myself as a filmmaker. What I hope for this podcast is that we don’t have rules except the rules of dharma. And I think there’s so many interesting storytelling structures and things embedded in dharmic literature and ethics, and learning how to be reflexive with that is my goal.
