Original subtitles

FREEMAN: Movie theaters...

I've always loved them.

But I wasn't recognized as a movie actor until the age of 50.

My breakout role was as "Fast Black",

the pimp in the movie, Street Smart.

And I'll never forget how I won the role.

I had seen a pimp chastising a woman on the streets of New York

one night, so at the audition...

I tried to channel the darkness I saw in him.

As the scene crescendoed, I leapt across the table and

pretended to hold a knife to the face of the casting director.

Well, for a split second I, I know she thought that I embodied evil.

I felt the power too.

Religions around the globe have given many names to our darker impulses...

Iblis, Ravana, Satan.

I want to know why people believe in him; what purpose he serves.

Who is the Devil?

I'm going on a quest.

To learn about the Devil in all his forms.

I'll visit the desert where it is said Satan tempted Jesus.

YISCA: That is what it's all about.

Having a constant battle, with the Devil, like Jesus...

FREEMAN: I'll see how Buddhist monks purge themselves of evil.

What you're saying is, "You just have to control yourself."

CHOKYI: The worse enemies are within yourself.

FREEMAN: I'll meet a man who fought battles with demons.

MAN: I said, "I cast you out foul spirit"

and my body went berserk.

FREEMAN: And I'll see how other traditions celebrate evil's defeat.

SHANKER: On the tenth day, we congregate as a family

celebrating the God's victory over, over the demons.

(theme music plays).

FREEMAN: My journey begins where the Christian story of Satan begins...

In the Judean desert, outside the ancient city of Jericho.

I've come to a 5th century monastery that stands as a monument to

an epic spiritual battle.

I'm meeting Yisca Hirani, an expert in Christian history in the holy land.

Well now.

YISCA: This is the church of Saint Gerasimos.

FREEMAN: Saint Gerasimos.

YISCA: Yes, and he's lived here, died here,

and he was a prime example of a Monk, going to the desert,

fighting the Devil.

FREEMAN: St. Gerasimus came to this to the harsh desert to prove to God

he was strong enough to resist the devil's temptations.

Gerasimus was inspired by a tradition that started centuries before him.

YISCA: This specific desert,

posed the devilish battle to people before his time.

Before Saint Gerasimos, it was Moses in the desert,

it was Elijah, John the Baptist, Jesus.

You can see uh, a depiction of Jesus being tempted.

As is recorded in three Gospels, in the New Testament.

FREEMAN: According to the Bible, Jesus came to the Judean desert to fast

for 40 days and 40 nights.

As his hunger and exhaustion peaked, the Devil revealed himself.

YISCA: The Devil says to Jesus,

"You have the ability, command the stones to become bread".

Now, it's easy for Jesus to do, but he says,

"No I'm not the creator only God is the creator."

This has deeper meaning, than just, eat or don't eat...

He's offered to be like God...

And he says no.

FREEMAN: The monks living here today put themselves

through the same temptation Jesus faced.

As their own test of faith, they venture out to the nearby caves and

fast for five days a week.

Why fasting?

YISCA: Fasting is getting yourself to a point of crisis.

FREEMAN: Just getting yourself to a point of crisis?

YISCA: Yes, because when people are in crisis,

that's when they're really dangerous.

If, their belly's full, if they're happy, then they are not dangerous.

FREEMAN: But when you're weak and hungry.

YISCA: You will do many bad things.

There is this Monk that came from far away.

And he writes a diary, and he writes how difficult it is,

he says,"I'm here in my little cell,

and when I look through the window to see if the sun has already passed,

then I know, that I am in despair,

then I know that I am not strong,

if I look out the window, it means that I am weak."

So, he is very, very openly confesses the

difficulty of being just with yourself.

So where is the Devil?

Inside you.

FREEMAN: There is such a thing as 'human'.

It's human to eat, it's human to drink, it's human to want...

You know what I'm doing I'm playing Devil's advocate here.

YISCA: Well that is what it's all about.

Having a constant battle with the Devil, like Jesus,

but not for 40 days,

for the entire course of my life.

FREEMAN: Just as Jesus resisted the temptation to use divine power to

turn rock in to bread,

the monks resist the temptation to walk away from this lonely desert outpost.

Some of them paid the ultimate price.

YISCA: These are the Martyrs.

FREEMAN: Martyrs?

YISCA: Martyrs, because uh back in the seventh century there was an invasion of

Persians who were coming with a different religion, a different agenda.

This was an opportunity for the Monks to show that they're not tempted to

change their religion.

They are not tempted to uh run away but rather they prefer to be like Jesus,

so they've decided that death in that case with faith is better than

life with no faith.

In this world they fought the devil and so in the afterlife they will

get the reward for that.

The desert is a place of schizophrenic, existence.

It is either purity or impurity.

It is either, God divinity or the Devil.

FREEMAN: Most Christians try their best to steer clear of the devil,

but, for the monks

who endure this remote desert monastery, he's an opponent they willingly face.

Their only weapon of defense, their faith.

Some Christians spend their entire lives locked in battle with the devil.

But for Buddhists, there exists an alternative...

I'm in Kathmandu in Nepal to witness an ancient ritual that aims to win the

devil over to our side.

Here at the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery,

I'm meeting Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche.

A Buddhist Master,

and an old acquaintance of mine whom I first met at the sacred

Bodhi Tree in India.

CHOKYI: From today you are my friend.

Hello my friend.

FREEMAN: Rinpoche, how are you?

CHOKYI: How are you?

FREEMAN: I am, I am very well.

Nice to see you again.

CHOKYI: I miss you.

FREEMAN: You miss me? I miss you.

You don't look any different.

CHOKYI: No? FREEMAN: No.

(both laugh).

CHOKYI: You must come. Come. FREEMAN: Right. CHOKYI: Welcome to Gumba.

FREEMAN: Thank you.

I have arrived in time to witness the Rinpoche lead a special prayer ceremony...

A "puja", as it's called.

Its purpose?

To cleanse the temple, and the monks, of evil spirits.

(chanting).

The monks believe their chanting,

the horns,

the drums,

and the smoke will purge malevolent forces.

But the monks also make offerings of tea, and even beer to the evil entities.

Which seems like it might not purge the monastery of evil,

but instead invite it in!

(chanting)

FREEMAN: In a monastery in Kathmandu,

my old friend Chokyi Nyima is leading his monks

in a ceremony to control evil spirits.

The puja lasts more than an hour.

It leaves me with questions about how Buddhists understand and

deal with evil spirits.

So I ask Chokyi Rinpoche to sit down with me and explain.

His longtime student, Catherine Dalton, has offered to translate for us.

FREEMAN: The Puja.

What is the purpose of it?

(speaking in native language).

CATHERINE: We humans have a physical form, but there are also beings

that lack a physical form.

There are evil spirits and if we want to pacify those kind of

evil influences and spirits, the best way to do that is...

We use a meditation practice in the Puja; we actually invite them,

those kind of spirits, uh, to come...

FREEMAN: You don't isolate bad guys.

CHOKYI: No, of course not.

FREEMAN: You, you say, "Hey, come here."

CHOKYI: Yes, to help. Yes.

FREEMAN: 'Cause I know in the Christian, uh, belief, it's just like,

"Satan, you get away.

Go get behind me."

CHOKYI: A different, different belief.

FREEMAN: And you're saying, "No, no, no, come here. We can talk."

CHOKYI: Yeah.

FREEMAN: The concept of evil spirits are things you have to battle.

CATHERINE: We can talk about evil forces or negative beings, but what that means,

actually is just that anyone who has come under the influence of

ignorance behaves in negative ways.

We could say that primarily, they, uh, enemy or negativity is

something that we find within ourselves.

FREEMAN: As they are chanting and meditating in the puja,

the monks visualize inviting the evil spirits into their monastery.

Since these spirits are negative aspects of their own minds, their job

now is to work to convince them to become good.

They do this by making offerings.

I noticed that there was a young man, who would stand presenting the chalice.

CHOKYI: Yes.

FREEMAN: And he'd go and throw it out.

It was beer.

And then, comes back, and he has hot tea.

Can we talk about that?

CHOKYI: Yes, yes, yes.

Some of them suffer a lot because they're hungry, thirsty;

we will bless to the beer and black teas,

and let them enjoy that.

FREEMAN: But, you don't drink beer?

CHOKYI: No, no.

FREEMAN: Monks don't drink beer.

CHOKYI: No, we give it to others.

(laughs).

CATHERINE: Using different substances, using Mantras.

Doing meditation practice.

When all of those things come together, it becomes possible to

tame those kind of otherwise wild and incorrigible spirits

to tame their minds.

FREEMAN: Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Wait, you're saying that bad guys became...

CHOKYI: Become, yes, good, yeah.

FREEMAN: Through meditation, chanting and offerings,

the monks work to turn evil spirits good.

The spirits that come around are known as Dharma Protectors.

And the monks visualize them driving away any remaining negative influences.

CHOKYI: Buddhists mention the worst enemies are within yourself, not outside.

FREEMAN: What you're saying is, you just have to control yourself.

CHOKYI: Yes, yes.

FREEMAN: Get a grip on you,

and you can change these thoughts and feelings and

temptations personal inside.

Right?

CATHERINE: Yes, uh, definitely, the Buddha, himself,

even taught that, um, you are your own enemy, and you're your own protector.

(bells and horns)

(snap)

(chanting)

FREEMAN: Do you remember the day?

CHOKYI: Yeah, but still, you're giving?

FREEMAN: Yeah, I'm giving now to you.

CHOKYI: Oh, so sweet.

FREEMAN: No, it's, it's, it's, may I?

CHOKYI: So sweet.

Oh, before I give you, now you give to me.

FREEMAN: I had no idea that I would have the opportunity...

(kiss).

To be in your presence again in life.

CHOKYI: I love you.

FREEMAN: So, thank you, I love you.

Thank you so much.

For Christians, the devil is an evil spirit that must be expelled from our minds,

you know, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

But these Buddhist monks, they accept that we're all susceptible to

evil thoughts and impulses.

So, they don't chase evil spirits away.

They work to transform them into protectors.

So, you see the devil doesn't need to get behind you,

he just needs to be coaxed into becoming

someone you don't mind having alongside you.

Novel, isn't it?

For more than two millennia of Buddhist history,

the battle with evil has been seen as an internal struggle.

As Christianity grew in the centuries after Jesus, the Devil solidified as an

external foe...

And took familiar supernatural form.

How did this transformation happen?

Andrew McGowan, a Christian scholar of Anglican Priest,

has come to the Broumov Monastery in the Czech Republic

to see first-hand one of the earliest and most famous images of the devil.

He's been invited by the historian Erika Harlitz-Kern,

who studies how the devil changed as Christianity developed.

ANDREW: Wow. Well, this is extraordinary.

ERIKA: This is the Codex Gigas.

Codex Giga is Latin for Big Book.

It's 36 inches tall, 20 inches wide, 8.7 inches thick and it weighs 165 pounds.

The Codex Gigas has a second name,

The Devil's Bible.

Legend has it that, in the 13th century, a monk named "Herman the Recluse",

was sentenced to death for breaking his monastic vows.

To avoid this fate, he offered to glorify the monastery forever by creating a single

book containing all of mankind's knowledge and write it in one day.

Near midnight, unable to complete his task, he called on the only person

he thought could help.

The devil.

The devil offered to help Herman finish the book...

but took his soul in return.

To seal the deal, Herman included a portrait of his benefactor.

ANDREW: Ah!

This is such an extraordinary image isn't it?

It's, it's really quite fearsome or repulsive even I think.

ERIKA: Yes and he's looking straight at you as if he's,

if he's trying to jump out of the page.

We have the horns, we have the talons,

the green face and he has, what appears to be,

two tongues.

He is meant to be frightening.

What makes this image unique, is the Devil is wearing a loincloth and the red spots

that we see on it are ermine tails and ermine tails,

in the Middle Ages, was a sign of royalty.

Kings wore ermine tails.

So, what this image is telling us, is that this is the Prince of darkness.

He is the Lord of the underworld and is of royal lineage and

he has royal power.

ANDREW: What does this book have to tell us about the,

way in which the Devil is understood?

ERIKA: During the Middle Ages,

the Catholic church comes into its own as a political institution.

As Christianity spreads, the church is changing the interpretation of the Devil,

to teach its flock about sin and they're playing on the fear of the afterlife,

of what can happen to you if you do not live a virtuous life.

ANDREW: It's almost as if it's like an advertising billboard, a warning sign.

This is where you could end up if your behavior, or your lack of faith puts you in

the wrong place.

ERIKA: This is like church propaganda in the Middle Ages.

FREEMAN: The horns, the talons...

taking physical form makes the devil more tenacious.

A creature lurking in the shadows, capable of grabbing us, and refusing to let go.

And for some tortured souls,

there's only one way to expel the devil: exorcism!

*

FREEMAN: We've all seen someone behaving oddly on the street, right?

Yelling, screaming what seems like nonsense.

Most of us never think of demonic possession: We imagine it's a mental health issue.

But the Vatican has a team of sanctioned disciples who see demons at work in

every part of society.

They are exorcists and every day they go into combat against the Devil.

Father Don Aldo Buonaiuto is one the Vatican's leading exorcists.

I know all about exorcism.

I mean, I saw the movie.

So, I know that, uh, if the Devil resides in the person, the room that that person is

in turns cold and that person can turn his head around 360 degrees.

How close am I?

(speaking in Italian).

INTERPRETER: Some people think of exorcism as something superstitious.

But exorcism is most of all a prayer.

It's a prayer towards the soul of the person that is asking for help when its possessed.

FREEMAN: How does one proceed with an exorcism?

INTERPRETER: There is a doctor and a psychiatrist and him...

(speaking in Italian).

For the Catholic Church, only the priest that has had a special direction from the

Bishop can do exorcism.

Nobody else can.

FREEMAN: Is it necessary for a priest, who is chosen by the Bishop,

to evince a certain talent?

INTERPRETER: They need to be particularly trustworthy priests,

that have an intense spiritual life.

FREEMAN: You have to have courage. Coraggio.

FATHER ALDO: Si.

FREEMAN: You've done exorcisms yourself.

How many?

(speaking in Italian).

INTERPRETER: So, he gets lots and lots of requests.

But the real right hardcore ones, about ten per week.

FREEMAN: When someone comes to you, what tells you that it's a possession rather

than a mental problem?

INTERPRETER: The first thing that an exorcist does is to see if there

are visible signs.

If the person has an aversion for the sacred...

Or the knowledge of languages.

He's been following a 15 year old who speaks about ten different arcane languages.

FATHER ALDO: He speaks in Coptic, in Sanskrit, in...

FREEMAN: Coptic?

INTERPRETER: Yes. Sanskrit. Coptic.

And he got a specialist, a monk whose been studying...

And the monk could not believe...

FATHER ALDO: He's terrified.

INTERPRETER: This...

FREEMAN: Have you had repeat, go back to the same person over and over?

(speaking in Italian).

INTERPRETER: The same person goes to see the same exorcist for

more than two or three years sometimes.

(speaking in Italian).

It's like a cure.

Like, you cure the body.

You cure the soul.

FREEMAN: Is it possible to witness one?

(speaking in Italian).

INTERPRETER: According to the church the prayer of exorcism cannot be shown to the public.

FREEMAN: I can't see a priest perform an exorcism.

But I can speak to a person who's been on the receiving end of many exorcisms.

Thank you very much for talking to me.

Really appreciate it.

MAN: You're welcome.

FREEMAN: I wanna point out that, uh, you want to remain anonymous.

Why?

MAN: I'm a physicist.

I do a lot of consulting work for high technology companies and it might be the kind of

thing that makes them hesitate before deciding, that I'm the guy they

wanna do business with.

FREEMAN: How did you, a physicist, a scientist,

a man of science, get into the idea of exorcism?

MAN: It wasn't a straightforward experience.

I was completely different inside."

I no longer had any ability to feel any kind of happiness,

any kind of pleasure,

any kind of love or affection for humans.

I felt like I was a dead man walking.

I saw a variety of doctors,

endocrinologists, variety of psychiatrists,

variety of psychologists.

You know, they had no effects at all.

FREEMAN: Brain scans found no tumors or other abnormalities.

No medications helped him.

So he turned, in despair, to less conventional remedies.

MAN: I didn't rule out things because they sounded crazy because I'd already gone

through all the things that sounded sane.

But one of the things I encountered along the way was the concept of exorcism.

I was raised Catholic.

I thought, you know, I can say the prayers.

So, one evening as I was out jogging...

I went through the various prayers and statements...

I got to the point where I said, I cast you out foul spirit.

It was like slamming into a brick wall.

I stopped abruptly,

I bent over, I had violent dry heaves, convulsions.

That was very graphic evidence that something was real.

FREEMAN: What was your immediate reaction?

MAN: I need to find somebody who actually does exorcism for real and

see if he can help me.

And I was fortunate to live not that far from a pretty well-known exorcist.

FREEMAN: What does exorcism feel like?

MAN: Imagine you're sitting there...

An exorcist, he's going through the standard prayers, standard statements.

He gets to the point of speaking to the demon.

And he says, "I demand your name."

My body started to react;

twitch, jerk, make strange and very nasty faces, convulsions,

thrashing and screaming.

It was very violent.

*

(screaming)

I remember I, I needed band-aids afterwards for scratches.

FREEMAN: How do you know when the exorcism's been successful?

Because it stops reacting to the prayers and statements.

But of course, there were many so the cycle starts up again with the next demon.

You went through this, how long?

MAN: About five years, I think.

FREEMAN: How do you feel now?

MAN: I feel human again.

The problem I had was an incredible lack of emotion.

I couldn't feel love.

I couldn't feel any kind of positive feeling.

Thankfully, exorcism was effective in, in restoring that aspect to my life.

I was very grateful.

FREEMAN: Being scientific minded,

how do you square that,

how do you square the fact that this does exist for you?

MAN: You know, the definition of science to me is you research,

you theorize, you test.

I didn't know if demons were real or not, now I do.

I have experienced up close and personally, in ways that are unmistakable,

the reality of evil spirits and the reality of good through the Lord, God.

FREEMAN: For this tortured man, the devil's demons weren't metaphors for

emotional imbalance or mental distress.

He experienced them as real, tangible foes that he struggled for years to expel.

Giving the devil solid form doesn't necessarily make him more powerful.

It can make him easier to fight, and defeat.

But the faithful don't always win.

And the gods of their demons can multiply, born in the gods of another faith.

*

FREEMAN: I have always loved Rome.

The street life, the food, the people.

What's most fascinating about a city this ancient is the layers of history.

How one culture takes over what has gone before and uses it for its own purposes.

This wall, was built to protect the Romans in the 4th Century BC, now it holds up

this apartment building.

Re-purposing happens in religion sometimes too.

Sometimes one faith's god, can become another's devil.

Journalist Nelufar Hedayat has come to the ruins of the ancient Roman city of

Pergamum, in modern-day Turkey.

She's here to meet biblical archeologist Sarah Yeomans.

And to find out why the Book of Revelation

said this was where Satan had his throne.

NELUFAR: This is, even in its ruinous state,

it looks absolutely spectacular.

It's beautiful.

SARAH: It is isn't it. It's really a unique site.

It was a major city in the Greek world in the second and first centuries BC, and then

it became a very important city in the Roman world once they took control of this area.

FREEMAN: The Romans built a forum, an amphitheater, and several massive temples.

SARAH: So, what we are looking at are the remains of the Temple of Trajan,

this would have been built in the second century,

to honor the Emperor Trajan and this is representative of this tradition

of worshiping, uh, deceased emperors and

their families and by doing so,

it's a way of honoring the living emperor and honoring the existing government.

NELUFAR: So the Romans honored their...

their emperors, their politicians, by turning them into deities.

SARAH: Yes, having an imperial cult and requiring worship of the imperial cult

was a way of promoting nationalism,

was a way of promoting what it meant to be Roman.

FREEMAN: This sprawling city and political epicenter may have been a

symbol of pride for Romans.

But the picture painted in the early second century

by the Book of Revelation implies that Christians

living here had a very different experience.

SARAH: The Romans had no problem with Christians worshiping their God, if you

think about you know a society that has so many gods,

there's always room for one more what brought the Christians

into conflict with the Roman authorities was the fact that

they refused to participate in Imperial Cult worship.

This was considered treasonous.

NELUFAR: Intolerable.

SARAH: Intolerable for the Roman authorities.

The author of the Book of Revelation emphasizes in his writings,

that there existed a great tension between

the Christians and the Roman authorities.

NELUFAR: Right.

SARAH: So it was a city where we really see the conflict between Roman authorities and

the early Christians.

NELUFAR: How did that play out in the city?

SARAH: The tensions here became so hostile that one of the members of the Christian

community was martyred, was executed...

NELUFAR: Who was he and why was he martyred?

SARAH: His name was Antipas and he was executed we believe for not being willing to

participate in the worship of the Imperial Cult.

FREEMAN: The location of Antipas's death is not known for certain, but some theories

place it at Pergamum's temple of Zeus.

A place that early Christians came to call Satan's Throne.

SARAH: What we're seeing now is essentially what's left of the foundation.

The altar itself would have been on top of what we're seeing.

Everything would have been faced with white marble.

The altar, we believe, was dedicated to Zeus, and Zeus, in Christian minds,

was really in direct opposition.

In direct conflict to their own god.

And if you read the Book of Revelation,

you have a very similar type of epic contest

taking place between good and evil.

FREEMAN: Christian tradition says that Antipas was burned to death inside a

hollow bull made of brass.

As the flames heated the metallic beast, Antipas cried out.

His death screams escaped from the bull's open snout, transformed,

cruelly, into snorts.

If they watched Antipas die in the shadow of the altar of Zeus,

these early Christians could be forgiven for seeing this place

as the Devil's throne.

SARAH: The author of Book of Revelation is,

very intentionally, setting up the

Roman authorities as equivalent to Satan,

and setting up this place in particular

as the seat of Satan, very cleverly creating this opposition,

this sort of them versus us scenario.

NELUFAR: Ah, so this actually about, about getting the Christians motivated,

he's speaking specifically about Christian brothers and sisters

suffering at the hands of the Imperial powers, the Romans.

SARAH: Precisely.

It's a way to unify the Christian community, and have them see the Roman authorities

and Imperial Government as the evil one.

As something to be resisted at all costs.

FREEMAN: Associating the Romans and their gods with the devil may have

helped unify early Christians.

But it's a dangerous tactic.

Driving a wedge between people of different faiths

may just be what the devil wants.

But there is one place where a celebration of the Devil brings people together.

I've come back to Kathmandu, in Nepal where a party atmosphere fills the streets.

It's called Dashain.

It's the biggest Hindu festival of the year.

I've been invited to join a typical family celebration.

Bearing traditional gifts of fruits and sweets, I've come to the home of

Shankar Raj Pandey.

SHANKER: Namaste. FREEMAN: Namaste.

SHANKER: Welcome Morgan. FREEMAN: Thank you so much.

SHANKER: Nice to have you here.

FREEMAN: It is my pleasure to be here and this...

SHANKER: Well thank you so much, thank you so much.

FREEMAN: For you. SHANKER: Come on in. Please.

So this is my family here.

FAMILY: Oh!

FREEMAN: Namaste, namaste. FAMILY: Namaste, namaste.

FREEMAN: Good looking bunch of people.

FREEMAN: Namaste, namaste. Namaste, namaste. Namaste, namaste.

So, Dashain, it's a family affair.

SHANKER: Yes, very much so.

Dashain has ten main days and on the 10th day we congregate as a family celebrating uh,

the Gods' victory over, over the demons.

FREEMAN: According to Hindu mythology, there was a king named Mahishasura who pleaded

to Brahma, the god of creation, to grant him immortality.

Brahma granted his wish, but later came to regret it...

SHANKER: So the story goes that Mahishasura become a demon.

FREEMAN: So he turned to a bad guy.

SHANKER: That's right. He turned into a real bad guy.

FREEMAN: Mahishasura raised a demon army and began attacking the gods.

Like Lucifer, Christianity's fallen angel,

he became an embodiment of evil.

FREEMAN: For two weeks each fall, Hindu families in Nepal come together in celebration.

Here at Shankar Pandey's house,

they are happily feasting and performing rituals.

But the divine story behind Dashain; of a powerful demon attacking the Hindu gods...

Doesn't sound to me like a cause for celebration.

Okay, now we're in this big battle.

SHANKER: Nine days of battle, of fierce battle.

FREEMAN: The bad guy, however, is winning?

SHANKER: Well he started troubling the Gods.

FREEMAN: Mahishasura had been made invincible.

But the creator God Brahma had made one caveat: a woman could kill him.

So the gods combined all their divine energies to summon a fierce,

10-armed virgin goddess named Durga.

Durga battled the demon Mahishasura for nine days.

Finally, on the 10th day she defeated him.

But the Dashain festival is about more than simply remembering this victory of

good over evil.

It's a battle Shanker and many Nepalese Hindus imagine

is taking place inside themselves.

SHANKER: When you take the whole epic and, and put it on to our self...

When we feel all powerful then there is a tendency of the demon, within us,

to take precedence over our goodness...

It's good over evil but in essence we are fighting with ourselves.

FREEMAN: Most homes receive a visit from a priest for blessings with holy water.

It's a reminder that there is at least a kernel of evil inside everyone and that it

needs to be controlled.

SHANKER: After the sprinkling of the holy waters.

Now the second part of the function starts, which the priest will put the

tika onto my mom.

(praying in Nepalese).

FREEMAN: Receiving the tika bestows good fortune, health, long life.

And it evokes supreme power within you.

SHANKER: My mom was first because she's the eldest right, so we receive...

FREEMAN: You think so?

SHANKER: I think so.

FREEMAN: How old is your mom? SHANKER: 86. FREEMAN: Yep, she is.

SHANKER: Because I, because I read about you.

FREEMAN: Ah!

(praying in Nepalese).

SHANKER: So this is tikka, vermilion powder, rice, grains, and yogurt and

this is the jamara.

So you just to do this put it like this, yeah okay.

(praying in Nepalese).

And there is a belief that during the (inaudible) that you need to lift your feet

off the ground.

FREEMAN: Elevating your spirit above your baser tendencies is both metaphorical and

literal for the Nepalese during the Dashain.

SHANKER: There is another aspect which I think you should see.

There is this concept of uh, a swing; it's a bamboo swing that people erect in different

parts of the city and uh villages and there is a belief that you need to lift your

feet off the ground.

FREEMAN: To be airborne.

SHANKER: Airborne.

Exactly, so that frees your spirit and brings in all the good stuff to our soul.

FREEMAN: So do you believe that there is pure evil?

SHANKER: Pure evil?

You know, that's 100% evil is not possible.

I don't think so.

Some person is very good and someone is very bad.

FREEMAN: Right.

SHANKER: But then every bad person also has goodness.

FREEMAN: Somewhere.

SHANKER: Somewhere and if we can, if you can extrapolate that,

and, and take it out and, and let him, I mean let the light come out

so that the darkness goes away...

Even if it is .001% there is light and that,

that is enough light to work towards eliminating darkness.

FREEMAN: Interesting.

You don't believe that there is pure evil, that the devil stands alone.

SHANKER: No, if you believe that God is omnipotent...

That it is all his creation so good and evil are just a way of teaching us.

Okay, Morgan, you wanna try?

FREEMAN: Okay what? SHANKER: Be on the swing?

On the swing.

Lift yourself up, lift your spirit.

FREEMAN: Me?

SHANKER: Yeah, it's safe, don't worry, it's safe.

FREEMAN: Okay. Alright. Okay. I'm not really afraid.

Okay, airborne, how high can I go?

SHANKER: Enjoying it?

FREEMAN: Yes.

SHANKER: Yeah, now lift up your spirit again.

It should do that

FREEMAN: I'm doing. Is that spirit lift?

(laughs).

Watch the dismount now, watch the dismount.

You know, seeing people's faces

as they soar towards the heavens

and celebrate the good inside them,

makes one think of evil in a different way.

The Devil allows us to test our willpower.

He is the embodiment of what we must defeat, both out in the world and

within our hearts.

Striving to beat the Devil has the power to uplift us, and bring us together.

The Nepalese believe that there is evil even in the most saintly person and

good in the most devilish.

We should all make the choice to rise up and slay the demons inside us.

Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.

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