Martin Shaw - The Biography. Stafford Hildred
his wide-eyed enthusiasm can sometimes provoke ridicule but he knew he was in for a sympathetic hearing when he told his father all about his beliefs. After all, he already knew that his relentless quest for truth and discovery was inherited. ‘He really listened,’ said Martin. ‘Most people when they first hear about it either go glassy-eyed or cynically go, “Ah Ha!”, which I might well have done myself a few years before. But my dad listened and I spouted for about an hour and a half, and he said, “You know I believe I have been looking for that for 40 years.” It was a wonderful moment between us.’
Visitors to Martin Shaw’s dressing room have remarked on the gold-framed colour photograph of Charan Singh on his table. The beaming face of the guru is topped by a white turban and he proudly wears a long grey beard and a benevolent smile. Martin refers to Charan Singh simply as ‘the man who changed my life’ or ‘my spiritual healer’. He sincerely believes he was well down the road to self-destruction when he met Luke Hardy. His belief in the teachings of Charan Singh completely refocused his life. ‘It is a path I have followed ever since,’ he says.
He sees no reason to be embarrassed or awkward about his devotion. In fact, he has many times tried to explain his motivations to a wider public despite knowing perfectly well that he could easily be misinterpreted and come out sounding like a complete crackpot.
In many ways, Martin Shaw is a very private person yet he went to great pains in an interview with journalist Ian Woodward to try to spell out exactly why he draws such strength from his beliefs. He said: ‘There is a place or a person or a thing or an entity, which everyone knows by different names, like God or the Lord or whatever, and at one time there was just that and nothing else. And then, for reasons best known to itself/himself/whatever – if you imagine that thing as an ocean then drops separated from it, and that was the first action, and every action has an opposite reaction, so that produced more and more reactions. These drops went through various stages, various altered states, and got further and further away from their source until they became Mind, and from Mind they became astral plane, until they finally crystallised into steam, water and ice; this is in turn crystallised into a physical form and became very dense and very coarse. The essence of the ocean of the Lord is still within every human being, is still here. It’s what makes people restless, what makes people lonely, what makes people fall in love. It’s just a reflection of the love for the Lord that they once had.
‘What keeps people bound in the body is the cycle. Now in the West all this sounds like nonsense, yet 85 per cent of the world’s population believe in karma and in reincarnation; it’s only in the West that we don’t have very much knowledge of it. The purpose of this path is not to make life easier, although one of the side effects is that it does make life easier. The real purpose is to enable me to get out of this life altogether and not have to return in a human body. I’ve never acknowledged that before and maybe it’s time I told the absolute truth about what I’m doing so that the public can learn what kind of nutcase I really am! The purpose of this path for me is to finish off all my karma residual attachment to a physical plane, make a hasty retreat and never come back to it again. Now the only way you can do that is to be guided and taken through the journey inside you by somebody who knows that “inside” way – Charan Singh. He has taught me the calming effect of meditation. His presence alone is inspirational and I have met him several times. His whole philosophy of life is to do with love and integrity. This is why I am a vegetarian.’
Though the changes in Martin were remarkable, not quite all his predictions at that time came true. He said in 1982 that in 10 years, or hopefully 5, he wanted to be out of show business altogether, he planned at the time to switch track and run some kind of pioneering healing institute where he could use all the knowledge of alternative medicine and herbalism that he had built up. ‘Although I love my job as an actor,’ he said, ‘and although I am artistically dedicated to it, I don’t feel as attached to it as I once did. To be honest, and I have not said this publicly before, I can see that my spiritual and emotional attachment is being directed much more towards healing. That’s where my heart lies.’
Martin’s encounter with his old friend Luke in the 1970s changed his life completely. He became much more self-aware and determined to behave as well as possible in all circumstances. Martin admitted he had a temper and he realised in future he would always do his utmost to control it. ‘The change in my personality has been gradual,’ he said. ‘But I believe my beliefs have made me more tolerant, a lot more loving and generally more understanding.’
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