Matrix and Vedanta: High-calibre nuclear physicists are said to have a penchant for Hinduism. At the end of the tunnel of complex equations and concepts of physics, there is a shining light called Hinduism. On the other hand, there are movie makers who stumble upon Hindu literature and find it mind boggling. So much so that The Wachowskis ended up making ‘Matrix Series’ on their understanding of Hindu texts.
Guru removes the veil of illusion
The basic tenet of the American movie, Matrix, is the concept of Maya. The lead character Neo has everything going pretty well in life. Though, it is not all predictable, even his life’s unpredictability has a predictable pattern. Neo fails to realise that. He is quite content with the way his life is taking shape, understanding it to be pure and absolute truth.
Until one day, a Guru in the form of Morpheus comes into his life. This Guru is different from the day-to-day teacher you observe in daily life. He does not have a set agenda to pass upon. Morpheus does not guide Neo to a text-based simulation. He asks Neo to experience the simulation and then understand it. All Morpheus did was remove the veil of ignorance which Neo had created by living day-to-day life.
Tell me, does this kind of teaching not prescribed in following Sanskrit verse, अज्ञानतिमिरान्धस्य ज्ञानाञ्जनशालाकया । चक्षुरुन्मीलितं येन तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः ॥ In English, it means, “My Salutations to that reverent Guru, who opened my inner eyes and removed the darkness of ignorance from my blind eyes by applying the light of self-knowledge.”
Matrix and Vedanta: Neo had to experience it on his own
Morpheus tells him that even a basic feature like appearance is illusion. It is just the mental projection of neurological links passing through brains and optical nerves. If a man can understand this, it becomes too easy for him to extrapolate the line of reasoning in day-to-day life.
Neo starts to observe his daily life without any illusory filter. He starts to understand that the phenomenal world, which is the observable reality, is a cosmic illusion. Neo quickly grasps that it is his avidya (lack of knowledge) which had given him the illusion of being knowledgeable in the matrix.
There comes a moment when Neo sees a little child appearing to be bending a solid metallic spoon. Fascinated, Neo enquires about it, only to get enthralled by the answer. The boy tells him that he should not even try to bend the spoon. Instead, he should focus on realising the truth. The truth is that there is no spoon.
Upon realising it, one could understand that it is only us who bend and not the spoon. Neo understands that what he perceives as real is actually a dream state as his body has been plugged into a liquid-filled pod by the products of Artificial intelligence.
Also Read: You thought Movie Matrix is all about VFX and martial arts? No, it is based on Vedanta
Advait Vedanta in Matrix
This concept has its resonance in Advaita Vedanta. The world which Neo was living in is termed as “Maya” in Matrix film. It can easily be understood by the dreams. When we see dreams, our neurological transmitters are connected to what is happening in dreams. It gives us a momentary illusion that the dream is real at the very moment we are seeing it. As soon as we wake up, we find that it was only a dream.
Same thing happens with our day-to-day lives. It is real while we experience it from the prism of finite ‘Gyan’. This is precisely why the Maya is finite and temporal in nature. It is an illusion and henceforth subject to whims and fancies of the state of our mind. In the movie matrix, the state of mind was being controlled by Artificial intelligence, which in turn controlled the person’s dream, depicted as daily life in the movie, while their bodies were lying in the pod.
When Neo is woken up from the dream, he is said to have taken the red pill and achieved his potential. He could become whatever he wanted. He understood the real world and could control it. In other words, his flexibility knew no bounds as it was infinite and impossible to attribute anything even remotely associated with finite. Basically, Neo had achieved ‘Aatman’.
The movie is possibly the most wonderful tribute by Hollywood to Vedas. The Wachowskis understood the concept and applied it in such a way that most of us did not even realise it. The subtlety was brought by wonderfully crafted VFX and animation, which in a way is another level of Maya.
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