Meet The Indian Warrior Monk At Shaolin

This is how a Mumbaikar became a warrior monk at China's Shaolin temple.   Shaolin Temple Warrior Monk Academy

Transcript

00:00Any kind of spreading of culture through Kung Fu, through the whole culture of performances.

00:17It was one of the most and the biggest traumatic times of my life.

00:29A lot of self-doubt and a lot of depression in fact I would say.

00:40I was actually saving up money to go for Tomorrowland.

00:44So I was thinking that I'll actually use these things,

00:49use my funds, my savings to get myself healed.

00:52Shaolin has these three pillars and three cultures to offer which includes

01:00Zen Buddhist philosophy, Kung Fu and medicine.

01:16Shaolin, if you break it down in the Chinese meaning,

01:19Shao as in little and Lin as in forest. It's all an Indian thing, it comes from India,

01:23it's an Indian connection. Chinese people already had a fighting system called Jiao Di

01:28but it wasn't more, it was very raw fighting, it was not structured the way it is with Kalaripayattu.

01:50I was in a little dilemma where I was like I hope I'm in the safe place,

01:58I hope I'm not getting taken like that movie Taken.

02:05Grey and red and green structures everywhere,

02:08mountains just surrounded and it's just like as if you've entered heaven and it was just,

02:13I was just speechless.

02:34Shaolin Kung Fu will say the power comes from the earth.

02:44There was no going back for me to learn the language, I just studied every day,

02:47I had my thesaurus, my books, my dictionary on my phone, I learned

02:52a language just through listening and I think a good student is a good listener.

02:55That is a very emotional flashback to revisit.

03:26I was like Shifu, Shifu, I don't think I can do it.

03:38My Shifu always spoke about if you don't have spirit or passion in anything

03:42then it does not make sense doing it.

03:48Does that mean you're not going to get married?

03:50Does that mean we'll never have grandchildren?

03:56I'm announcing it, you know, separately that we have an Indian warrior monk on the team,

04:13that's when I started feeling this, this, this feel of, you know,

04:17like feeling good that I'm representing India, I'm, you know, feeling proud.

04:25I see myself as being like a Bruce Lee part, you know, like having his own school,

04:45you know, being open to come as an action hero.

04:55We are planning to revive this lost Indian culture,

05:02because end of the day you are enough for yourself is the idea.