So now, we have a symbol, which is like a half moon cresent, with a double edged sword throught it, which is remarkably similar to the star wars sign, and also the iranian flag. What is also interesting, before the muslim conquest, iran was a zoroastrian country, a faith which is closey related to areas of hinduism. Iran is also said to be mentioned in indian scriptures as the place where some of their stories took place. It also interesting that the islamic sign of a half moon crescent, is so similar to an ancient indian symbol of shiva, which has been around for thousands of years, and was most likely present in some middle eastern countries before their islamic conquest.

The original nihang order of the sikhs, is also remarkably similar to the way of the jedis, being a sort of neutral religious police force, helping those who are suffering under tyrannical rule, no matter what their faith, living and dying by the sword, and relying on a force (in case the allmight transcendental lord waheguru or god), which in eastern religions is more of a force which is all around us and inside every living being, rather then being a character sitting in heaven as with western semetic faiths. Furthermore, in relation to Jai singhs comment about sikhs not encouraged to feel love, the elite nihang soldiers, were indeed encouraged to not marry and have no loving ties, as their soul purpose was to fight for their faith and die as martyrs. Their only love was to be for god, and they would treat going to battle as a their wedding, as if they were brides going to wed and become one with their groom (waheguru).

For more infor pls see http://www.sarbloh.info, and http://www.shastarvidiya.org (although i think its under repair at the moment..)

p.s. — finally got our desi cast member on BSG…

Anil,

I love the music for Galactica too — from soothing “rainforest” scores to the Japanese war-drums during some of the battle scenes. The Gayatri Mantra at the beginning is a nice touch too; I don’t know if it’s supposed to indicate that the Colonials are the ethnic and religious ancestors of Indians too (along with the rest of the inhabitants of the “ancient” world), or whether someone just thought it was a nice tune. Cleverly done, though — I didn’t realise what the song was until I read about it on the ‘net; I’d previously thought it was just a Gladiator-theme-type song in some unidentifable ancient or foreign language — ironically, I wasn’t too far off the mark on both counts

But yes, there should definitely be more desis on the show.

I absolutely love the music. Though rest assured that they couldn’t ever be “Americans in space” no matter what the musical score sounds like — they’re practically all Canadian — even the John McCain look alike who plays Colonel Tigh. (Ever notice how the skyline of Delphi looks exactly like downtown Vancouver?) Battlestar Canadia indeed.

I wonder what the story was with the US version using a different theme song for season one — was it the Gayatri Mantra itself? concern about protests from angry Hindus? or something else altogether? And then, what it was that caused them to change their mind for season 2? I’ll bet there’s an interesting story in there somewhere.

Still waiting for the first desi cast member — though at least we do have Grace Park as an Asian American (er, Asian Canadian) lead.

A.

It concerned stuff like THE FORCE being like OM – we are all part of one force that permeates everything, MAYA, YODA being sakskrit for warrior, EMPIRE being like a sanyasi learning from the wise yogi in the forest (janoi?), AHIMSA, little tikias as sported by PADAWANS, giving up relationships (sp. PADMÉ) and family to pursue spiritual enlightenment (although this is present in many religious traditions), Luke cremating his father aaaaaand so forth.

Those of us in the UK caught the first season of the “new” Galactica last year before Americans did — and yes, I thought it was outstanding too. Definitely not suitable for family viewing either

The British version had the Gayatri Mantra as the main theme music for the 1st season too. I like their consistent use of what can only be defined as “world music” for the background score in the show as well…..It sort of underlines the “foreign” origins of the Colonials, at least with regards to how they’re not supposed to be “Americans in space”, despite some of the character’s first names and their clothing.

Anyway, I’m going off-topic……

I read somewhere (probably on Wikepedia) that the name “Jedi” actually has a Buddhist origin, although I can’t remember exactly what the word means.