Have you ever wondered why certain movies resonate so deeply with you? Or what about why certain stories seem to be retold in various forms over and over again, resonating with people across cultures and time?

Well, I didn’t. I used to think it was really dumb to dissect books or movies to find some sort of deeper meaning or patterns in them. That’s probably why I strongly disliked English class throughout grade school. 

“Were you entertained for a few hours? Okay, that's cool. Then it’s good, and you can move on to the next story.”

That was my line of thinking.

My spiritual journey kickstarted a YouTube channel

It was only once I started my journey into spirituality that I started to develop an appreciation for how stories could provide direction to answering some of the big questions about life.
For some, this probably seems like the most obvious thing in the world: stories could provide valuable information about what it means to be human, but to me, this was a huge revelation.
 
I became increasingly interested in why certain stories seemed to resonate deeply with us and what clues they could provide about our spiritual selves. This is the topic I’m exploring with my YouTube channel, Movie Meditations.

The Princess and the Frog

The movie that kickstarted this project into existence is Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog,” which I finally watched after years of a friend telling me it was top-tier. At this point, I was already starting to see how modern animated movies were a major force in passing on the myths being told for time immemorial. When I watched this particular movie, I was taken aback by how many parallels I saw between a core lesson of the movie and lessons from ancient Yogic and Vedic teachings in which I had become more immersed. 

I felt that the song “Dig a Little Deeper,” in particular, was a fun, beautiful representation of a timeless spiritual lesson that seemed more relevant than ever.

But in case you haven’t seen this movie in a minute and need a quick refresher:

[Spoilers Ahead]

Tiana is a hard-working young woman who burns the candle at both ends to save enough money to buy a building to turn into a restaurant. Why? Opening a restaurant in No’leans was a dream of her late father, and now her sole focus in life was bringing that dream to fruition.

Naveen is a carefree, womanizing prince who was just cut off from his family’s wealth due to his lack of ambition, direction, and discipline. He is seemingly only interested in dancing, playing the ukulele, and wooing the women of foreign lands.

Through various mystical circumstances, including Naveen and Lawrence, his personal valet, playing with the Shadow Man’s voodoo, both Naveen and Tiana are turned into frogs. They are desperately looking for a way to turn themselves back into humans when they hear about Mama Odie, a woman on the bayou who has the power to deal with these sorts of situations. 

At this point in the movie, they just want to be humans again- Naveen so he can go on to pursue Charlotte and marry into a comfortable, wealthy life, and Tiana so she can make the down payment to finally buy the building to start the restaurant with the money Naveen has promised her when they become human again. 

Okay, now that we’re all caught up… this song is basically Mama Odie telling them that they won’t be turned back into humans until they dig a little bit deeper and find out what they actually need. What are they really looking for?

One thing that I didn’t touch on in my YouTube video is the symbolism of our protagonists being frogs and trying to return to being human, which is a representation of being stuck in a lower level of consciousness. A level of consciousness that is under the illusion that the feelings of lack and unhappiness can be removed by changing the circumstances outside of them.

To return to being human and to a higher level of consciousness, they need to remove that ignorance and understand that the feeling of lack, the feeling of being incomplete, will not be solved by achieving something in the world or gaining more material possessions or status. 

Love with a capital “L”

That which they seek is deeper than those things. So what is it that they really NEED?
The answer, as it often is, is Love. In the movie, this is represented by the romantic relationship between Tiana and Naveen. Still, it’s important to remember that this is just a placeholder—a representation of Divine Love with a capital L. 

My meditation teacher, Gurudev, who is my guide for translating ancient wisdom into a modern context, always says that Love is not just an emotion; it’s your very nature. The song “Dig a Little Deeper” implies that the love they are looking for comes from within. 

In my experience, meditation, service, and studying wisdom are the ways to tap into that Love that we sometimes get caught looking for outside of ourselves, in objects and achievements.

So the lesson is NOT to forget about your dreams and ambitions and just fall in love with someone and get married. The lesson is that your inner feeling of lack or dissatisfaction will not be resolved by worldly achievements or gains but only by digging deep enough inside until you find the ocean of Love that you already are.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, you might also enjoy watching A Surprising Lesson on Blocking Your Gifts, based on the 2017 Pixar movie Coco.