Morgan Freeman travels to India in search of God?

Morgan Freeman's journey to India late last year was an undercover affair, but the outcome of that visit will soon be evident in a documentary series to debut this month on National Geographic, called 'The Story of God'. Freeman, as host and executive producer, travelled to Bodh Gaya and Varanasi late October to interview Buddhist monks, Hindu priests, theologians and academics in his exploration of the divine. The six-part series tries to unpack key themes in each of the world's five major religions: Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism. By studying universal narratives on creation, resurrection, apocalypse and evil, the documentary attempts to uncover kinships and variations in religions, the former holding especial significance for a country like India, divided on the divine.Morgan Freeman's 'Going in Style' pushed to 2017Freeman's expedition across 13 countries was triggered by a moment of revelation in Turkey a couple of years ago when he realized the Hagia Sophia museum had formerly been a Christian basilica, and later a mosque. Its Biblical frescos weren't papered over, but celebrated by the latter faith too, he was told. The quiet cross-connections between faiths became the point of departure for the project. 'A documentary about God, one that focused on telling the stories from myriad perspectives, could be very interesting' decided Freeman and Lori McCreary (co-founder, with Freeman, of the production house Revelations Entertainment that produced the documentary).The series is woven around some of the bigger questions that humans ask: is there a creator, were we created, what happens when we die, does evil exist? Was the experience transformative for Freeman? 'I've been asked if my beliefs changed and the answer to that was no, but affected personally, absolutely,' he tells TOI on the phone, 'Learning how these different cultures function around the idea of God was very, very fascinating. I think it's affecting to learn, for instance, that from as far back as we could go all of it points in the same direction.'Freeman says like most people, he grew up thinking science and religion were completely separate 'and ne'er the twin shall meet'. 'A big surprise to me was at the Vatican when we learned that the Pontifical Academy of Science was established 400 years ago. Now we're talking about one of the major world religions having a science academy, a genuine scientific exploratory academy,' he says, 'I think the ultimate upshot of that for me is learning science and religion have always, and always will be somehow hand-in-hand because they're asking the same questions; just going about getting the answers differently.'The actor recalls several instances that have stayed with him from the making of the series. 'For instance, boating down the Ganges River in Varanasi, India, was fascinating,' he says, 'Seeing the rituals happening up along the shore ' the cremations, the faithful bathing, people doing commercial laundry ' that was all very interesting to me. And I loved walking down all of the little narrow streets in India, seeing the various merchants and temples and holy men.'WATCH: Morgan Freeman Talks Brussels, Hillary Clinton, and Voice of God | The View