Prithwis Mukerjee, Ph.D.

 

 

Background

What is The Matrix ? It is a science fiction movie featuring Keanu Reeves ("Neo"), Carrie-Anne Moss ("Trinity") and Laurence Fishburne ("Morpheus") released by Warner Brothers in 1999 that explores the complex relationship between physical human beings and their perception of reality as controlled by a gigantic computer programme - "The Matrix". The movie has most of the Hollywood elements of high drama, action, violence and a cameo love affair but what is most intriguing -- and most probably overlooked -- is its striking similarity with the philosophy of Vedanta. There is an uncanny echo of Sankara's treatment of the Atman, the Self, and Maya -- the veil that shields the Atman. What is science fiction today may just become scientific fact tomorrow and this apparent convergence may just be a harbinger of a more significant convergence of rational science and the intuitive insight of Indian philosophy. Hence this analysis.

 

The Movie

The year is 2199 and computers with artificial intelligence have taken over the world. Human beings are born (or "cultivated") in captivity and at birth are connected to a life support system that feeds then intravenously till death. The bio-chemical activity in their bodies is used as a source of electric power to support the computers -- but that is not relevant in this case. What is important is that each person's brain is connected to the central computer. Complex programmes -- the Matrix --  running on this computer feed a continuous stream of stimuli to the brain and this causes the individual to perceive a full range emotions associated with growing up, moving around -- including flying through space, working, growing old and finally dying. The Matrix programme is smart enough to simulate a whole range of physical locations like parks, gardens, restaurants, train stations that people can visit -- or perceive to visit -- and interact with just as if they were physically there. They also perceive images of other individuals -- some rooted in other physical captive bodies, while others could be pure creations of the computer simulation process. Interactions between two individuals are also simulated.

 

There is a small group "independent" humans who live outside the Matrix in place called Zion. They have their own computers through which they are able to "hack into" the Matrix programme. This allows them to "enter" and "exit" the Matrix through telephone lines. When the enter the Matrix, their physical bodies remain at Zion, connected to the Zion computers, just as the bodies of the captive humans remain in their incubators. The crucial difference between the independents and the captives is that the former can actually "exit" from the Matrix and detach themselves from the Zion computers. Then they can live and perceive Reality.

 

Within this complex environment, the movie weaves a fantasy of heroism and love. Morpheus is the leader of the independent people and he has located and identified Neo -- currently a captive -- as the one who will destroy the Matrix and free mankind from this slavery to computers. Neo's arrival has been foretold by the Oracle. Morpheus and his band of independent humans, enter the Matrix, contact Neo and convince him of his importance. Then they detach his body from the Matrix computer, remove his body from the incubators and take it to Zion. Here they rejuvenate and repair his degenerated body. Now Neo, like the other independent humans can connect to the Zion computers and enter and exit from the Matrix at will. Would he succeed in his mission ? Since the actual outcome of the adventure is not relevant to this analysis, we will not reveal the ending for those who wish to see the film.

 

Vedanta : a brief outline

 

The Indian or Sanskrit word for philosophy is darsana -- which means direct vision. This word highlights a major difference between modern Western philosophy -- that predominantly depends on intellectual pursuit, and Indian philosophy that relies on direct visions of truth and Buddhi or reasoning. These visions of truth forms the foundation of all schools of Indian philosophy and were directly experienced by ancient sages living in various parts of India. The direct and transcendent experience of reality beyond the logical and material domains is both the source and the ultimate goal of these systems. The mind and the senses are the necessary tools that are initially used in the process of attaining the highest state, but they are not adequate to attain the final goal -- transcendent insight alone provides the whole truth.

 

These direct intuitive insights were first formalised as the four Vedas - Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva, possibly as early as 4000 BC. The original Rig-Veda consists of nearly 20,000 verses that appear as simple prayers to deities, yet couched in highly symbolic language, they contain great philosophical and metaphysical meaning. With the passage of time, this body of vedic literature evolved through four chronological phases, Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and the Upanishad. The Upanishads represent the culmination of the Vedic approach. There are one hundred of eight Upanishads of which eleven are considered pre-eminent and in these eleven, the wisdom of the Vedas reach its acme. The word Veda means "knowledge" and Vedanta -- another name for the Upanishads -- means "the end of knowledge". The Upanishads are written as a dialogue between a teacher and a student and the truth is revealed in stages according to the capacity of the student.

 

Over the past 2000 years, many learned men and women, have interpreted this mass of knowledge according to their understanding and this has resulted in the various schools of Indian philosophy like Nyaya, Sankhya, Yoga and Vedanta. All these schools try to answer the following fundamental questions :

 

1.       Who am I ? From where have I come from and why ? What is the relationship between me and the universe and other human beings ?

2.       What is the essential nature of my being  and what is the essential of the universe ?

3.       What is the relationship between consciousness and the objects of the universe ?

4.       What is truth and how do we arrive at rational conclusions on the question of truth

 

 

The Vedanta school, formalised by Sankara sometime between the sixth and ninth century AD, is acknowledged by many to be the most comprehensive interpretation of the direct intuitive insights that form the foundations of Vedic literature. A full exposition of the Vedanta school is impossible within the scope of this analysis. Nevertheless, some of the key concepts which are relevant for this comparison with the movie Matrix are described below :

 

1.        Atman - the Self : The entire phenomenal world is bound by time, space and causation and as long as one is confined by these concepts, the experience is limited. Beyond the realms of time and space, there is an absolute and unconditional Reality that has no beginning and no end. That is Atman, the Self. The Self cannot be experienced by the senses. This Self is both within and outside the  body. Unlike the body it is beyond death and decay. The Self is the fountainhead of the life force that animates and motivates the mind-body complex. According to Sankara, this Self is the all-pervading, self-illumined Consciousness.

2.        Brahman - the Supreme Consciousness : Brahman is the ultimate Truth within and without. Brahman is also all-pervading and self-illumined Consciousness and the relationship of the Brahman to the Self is that of the forest to the tree. The entire universe emanates from Brahman, exists in Brahman and at the time of dissolution returns into Brahman. Stepping beyond the primitive monotheism of the Judeo-Christian philosophy/theology, Sankara asserts that the individual Atman and the universal Brahman are one and the same and the concept of a creator that is distinct from the creation is a cosmic illusion.

3.        Maya - the Illusion : The phenomenal universe that can be perceived by the senses is actually an illusion called Maya. This Maya is what causes human beings to perceive worldly phenomena and respond to the environment. Vedanta states that Maya shields the Truth or Brahman from the Self or Atman.  The concepts of time and space that veil the face of Truth are aspects of Maya. Because Maya veils the Truth, the individual Atman misconstrues both the world and itself as different from the Truth or Brahman.

 

The individual Self is liberated when it succeeds in breaking through this illusion and progressively understands that

 

v      Brahman alone is real and the universe is unreal

v      There is only one Brahman without a second

v      I, that is the Self, is the Brahman

v      The entire universe is Brahman

 

These truths have to be understood, not at the gross level of conventional "bookish" learning, but at an intuitive level of passionate conviction and belief. One can read the Upanishads from cover to cover and understand every word and paragraph. However the Truth dawns if and only if the individual Atman is conditioned to receive the Truth -- this happens through a variety of devices including but not limited to Yoga, meditation and the influence of certain narcotic drugs.

 

Vedanta has many more interesting concepts but a full discussion of all of them is beyond the scope of this study. Let us get back to the Matrix.

 

The Similarities

 

The movie obviously does not have a one to one correspondence with Vedanta. Nevertheless there are certain similarities. Consider the following passage where Morpheus introduces Neo to the Matrix :

 

Morpheus  : I know..._exactly_ what you mean. Let me tell you why you're
                here. You're here because you know something. What you know,
                you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your
                entire life. That there's something _wrong_ with the world.
                You don't know what it is, but it's there...like a splinter
                in you're mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has
                brought you to me. Do you _know_ what I'm talking about?
Neo   :        The Matrix
Morpheus  : Do you want to know...._what_ _it_ is....?

Neo nods

Morpheus  : The Matrix is everywhere. It's all around us, even in this
                very room. You can see it when you look out your window or
                when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you
                go to work, when you go to work, when you pay your taxes.
                The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes,
                to blind you from the truth.
Neo   :       What truth?
Morpheus  :That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born
                into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or
                taste or touch. A prison...for your mind....Unfortunatly,
                no one can be..._told_ what the Matrix is...you have to see
                it for yourself.

 

The Matrix computer programme is analogous to the Maya of Vedanta, the illusion that is perceived by the senses as the physical world. Morpheus "detaches" Neo's body from the Matrix computer (and the associated computer programme) and brings him to actual physical "reality" and this is what Neo looks and feels :

 

The metal harness opens and drops the half-conscious Neo onto the floor. Human hands and arms help him up as he finds himself looking straight at Morpheus, Trinity and Apoc, along with others he doesn't recognize. Morpheus smiles, and speaks quietly to Neo.

Morpheus  : Welcome to the real world....

Neo passes out.
As he is unconscious, Morpheus and Trinity talk in hushed voices

Morpheus  : ...We've done it, Trinity...we've found him.
Trinity  : I hope you're right...
Morpheus  : I don't _have_ to hope. I know it.

Neo wakes up later on, and looks at Trinity and Morpheus, who are standing watching him.

Neo   : ....Am I dead?
Morpheus  : Far from it...

Neo passes out again.
Later on, he wakes up. He sees his body pierced with dozens of acupuncture-like needles wired to a strange device.

Dozer: He still needs a lot of work.
Neo   : What are you doing?
Morpheus  : Your muscles have atrophied, we're rebuilding them.
Neo   : Why do my eyes hurt?

Neo blinks

Morpheus  : You've never used them before.

Neo looks confused

 

Confronted with this reality, Neo feels helpless, and wants to go back to the illusory comfort of the Maya / Matrix. Morpheus allows him to do so

 

Morpheus  : You wanted to know...what the Matrix is, Neo?

Neo nods unsteadily

Morpheus nods to Trinity

Morpheus  : Trinity...

Trinity approaches Neo, and helps him into an armchair, strapping in his feet, and leaning his head back against the head rest.
Morpheus looks at Neo

Morpheus  : Try to relax...this will feel....a little _weird_.

As Morpheus guides a coaxial line into the jack at the back of his neck, Neo screams and makes a few other disturbing noises.

When he opens his eyes, he is standing in a totally white place. His hair is back, and he is wearing different clothes.
As Neo spins around a bit, trying to see what's going on, Morpheus appears in front of him.

Morpheus  : This is the construct. It is our loading program. We can
                  load anything from clothing, to equipment, weapons,
                  training simulations, anything we need.

Neo is having a hard time getting a grasp of this.

Neo   : Right now....we're inside a computer program?
Morpheus  : Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are
                  different. The plugs in your arms and head are gone. Your
                  hair has changed.

Neo puts a hand to his head and touches his hair

Morpheus  : Your appearance now is what we call residual self image.
                  It is the mental projection...of your digital self.

Two chairs appear in front of them, and Neo reaches out to touch one. He runs his hand along it's back.

Neo   : This....this isn't real?

Morpheus looks at him

Morpheus  : What _is_ real? How do you _define_ real? If you're
                  talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what
                  you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical
                  signals interpreted by your brain.

A television appears in front of the two chairs, as Neo sits down in the chair beside Morpheus. Morpheus picks up the television control and turns it on.

Morpheus  : _This_ is the world that you know. The world as it was at
                  the end of the twentieth century. It exists now only as
                  part of a neural-interactive simulation, that _we_ call
                  the Matrix.

 

 

There are some other interesting similarities between Maya and the Matrix programme. In explaining Maya, Sankara very often refers to the example of the rope and the snake. As long as one mistakes a rope for a snake, he is frightened and reacts to the rope as if it were a real snake. When he realizes that what he sees is only a rope he laughs. Similarly, as long as one is engrossed in the ignorance of relative consciousness, the world is indeed quite "real". But when true knowledge dawns, one becomes aware that the world was a fake.

 

Perceiving the "real" world as a "fake" needs deep insight and sceptics have often wondered that if the snake was a fake rope, how is it possible for it to actually kill someone. Sankara argues that the vivid imagination creates the presence of the snake in a rope and this imagination is so strong that a person can die from an imaginary snakebite. Thus, wrongly perceived situations may result in physical or psychological reactions.

 

There is a very similar situation that happens in the movie. Neo has entered the Maya / Matrix and makes his first attempt to fly through the air.

 

Summoning every ounce of strength in his legs, Neo launches himself into the air in a single maniacal shriek - But comes up drastically short.
His eyes widen as he plummets. Stories fly by, the ground rushing up at him, but as he hits - The ground gives way, stretching like a trapeze net.
He bounces and flips, slowly coming to a rest, flat on his back.
He laughs, a bit unsure, wiping the wind-blown tears from his face.
Morpheus exits the building and helps him to his feet.
Inside the Nebuchadnezzar, the crew are feeling kind of let down by Neo.

Mouse  : What...what does this mean?
Switch  : It doesn't _mean_ anything...
Cypher  : Everybody falls the first time. Right, Trin?
 

But Trinity has left. Neo's eyes open as Tank eases the plug out. He tries to move and groans, cradling his ribs. While Tank helps Morpheus, Neo spits blood into his hand.

Neo   : I thought it wasn't real.
Morpheus  : Your mind makes it real...
Neo   : If you're killed in the Matrix...you die here?
Morpheus  : The body cannot live without the mind.

 

To sum up

 

Indian philosophy relies on intuition and insight, functions that are performed by the right part of the  human brain. "Modern" western science depends on rational analysis, that utilises the left side of the brain. This rational approach has given us mathematics, computer science, the concept of virtual reality and is trying to create artificial "intelligence". We have for a long time believed that 'East is East and West and West and never the twain shall meet'. Is this really so ? As mankind tries to push back the frontiers of knowledge, perhaps the time has come to realise that the two paths are converging towards a common understanding of the great riddle that has puzzled philosophers down the ages. Who knows how human knowledge will evolve in the future.