Should Dharmic Fiction get married to Science Fiction?
Should Dharmic Fiction get married to Science Fiction?
Have you seen the latest Star Wars movie - The Last Jedi? Do you remember the scene, when Luke Skywalker explains to Rey what the 'Force' is? Rey realizes that the 'Force' is an energy field that exists between all living things; it also exists within her and that through meditation she can learn to unleash and control the Force. Did a part of you recognize the old wine of Vedanta in a new bottle? I did. When I discovered the movie’s premiere showing earned $45 million US, I could not help but feel that themes such as these should be basic precepts of India’s movie industry. Yet, it is not so. Is it because of our inexperience in the art of story-telling? Obviously not. Many Indian movies can shine as bright as any other on this front. Where we are lagging behind is in story-lines that involve futuristic/technological themes. Hollywood movies such as Matrix, Star Wars and Avatar seem to be incorporating ideas from Indic philosophy into their futuristic storylines with extreme dexterity, widespread viewer enjoyment, and huge economic gains.
So, why are we
unable to bat well on our own turf? In the west, specifically the US, many of
the ideas of dharma have long enjoyed cultural resonance and have been woven
into many movie storylines. Consider the case of Dr. Strange, that movie was
based on an American comic book character introduced in 1963 and earned close
to $700 million US in 2016. Accordingly, before dharmic ideas/kathas embodied
in futuristic avatars can translate into box-office hit movies the groundwork must
be prepared through successful novels and/or comic books. But how do we usher
in futuristic plots and storylines within the domain of desi storytelling?
The agent of
change could be as simple as our ancient heritage. Sometime ago, I wrote about
how dharmic plots have inspired a whole new genre of stories- Dharmic Fiction. Dharmic fiction is defined as fiction based on aspect(s) of the dharmic
Jeevan darshans (धार्मिक जीवन दर्शन) and/or dharmic
literature such as Puranic literature. We need a sangam1 of
science and dharmic fiction, Such a synthesis could be the foundation for an
entirely new genre of stories. The sangam of science and dharmic
fiction could explore familiar issues such as time travel, parallel universes,
aliens, artificial intelligence, but with the tadka2 of philosophy to add
depth and complexity to plotlines. So where might you look for inspiration for
such sangam? Since, this novel sangam is my creative suggestion, it
seems logical that I offer some concrete examples of my vision.
Autobiography of a
Yogi
There is no dearth
of dharmic literature from where one can seek motivation for futuristic
storylines. Perhaps, the most recent of such literature is the book ‘The
Autobiography of a Yogi’ (published 1946). In Chapter 43, ‘The Resurrection of
Sri Yukteswar’, Yogananda describes life in other lokas such as Hiranyaloka.
The description of astral life on Hiranyaloka appears eerily similar to the
intelligent Cloud in the book ‘The Black Cloud’, which was authored by the
British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle (published 1957). Moreover, the resurrection
of Sri Yukteswar itself is spookily similar to the resurrection of David Bowman
in the ‘2001- A Space Odyssey’ series (published 1968). While, I am not aware
of any overt acknowledgement of Yogananda’s influence on sci-fi writings, it is
not entirely unlikely that Yogananda’s influence spread far beyond the realms
of religion and philosophy. Yet, his book and perhaps other dharmic texts that
describe alien life (Yoga Vasistha?) can definitely prove to be inspiration for
budding novelists.
Artificial
Intelligence:
The age of
artificial intelligence is nigh. In western stories, robots are often portrayed
in one of two roles (i) logical machines which are essentially extensions of
the computer or (ii) killing machines hell bent on destroying humanity. I
believe there is a lot of room to explore here. A sufficiently intelligent
machine would recognize that logic is relative and it will try to understand
the dharmic philosophy. But then what will be the robot's dharma? What if we
face a tripartite conflict where we have aliens, humans and AI facing off? A
sufficiently advanced AI may face a choice of whether to ally with humans or
aliens. Again, what would the dharma of the AI be, and what would be the rules
that would govern our ways?
These are only two
ideas that could be developed. Granted, they may not be the best ideas, but
they serve as a starting point for discussion. There is no dearth of themes to pursue.
In the book, The Yoga of Time Travel, physicist Dr. Fred Wolf explains some of
the perplexing ideas of time travel that are part of the Puranic kathas
and yet seem to be very much aligned with some of our current understanding of
time as defined by the Theory of Relativity. However, the most interesting
hypothesis that Dr. Wolf puts forward is that teachings of yoga are pertinent
to time travel. If indeed only the mind, but not the body, can transcend time
what implications would that have for us? If one uses this as a limiting
situation in sci-fi stories what kind of plots can we create? All these remain
open questions and inspiration for storytellers who wish to tie Indic thought
with sci-fi.
Before I end, I
would like to note one important issue – Dharmic Fiction is not Dharmic
literature. The latter represents the corpus of religious literature that
belong to one or more of the eastern faiths, while the former is an entirely
new creation that takes inspiration from the latter. This inspiration is meant
to enrich our lives through a respectful imitation of some of the core dharmic
principles and ideas. The very naming of the genre as Dharmic Fiction was meant
to provide clear demarcations between the two. To those who feel that this
amounts to plagiarism of dharmic literature or an attempt to supplant it, I
would like to point to the Rigvedic Hymn which says “All that is not shared is
lost”.
References:
1. Sangam (संगम) - Sanskrit word roughly translates to confluence.
2. Tadka (तड़का) - Hindi word referring to one of final stages of curry preparation which adds flavor to an otherwise bland base.
References:
1. Sangam (संगम) - Sanskrit word roughly translates to confluence.
2. Tadka (तड़का) - Hindi word referring to one of final stages of curry preparation which adds flavor to an otherwise bland base.
Disclaimer: All posts should be treated as personal opinion of the author, unless explicitly stated otherwise. All material is copyright of Dr. Aloke Kumar, unless stated otherwise.
Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest to declare.
About the author: Dr. Aloke Kumar is currently an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Twitter handle: @aalokelab
Update: This article was subsequently published with slight modifications by Swarajya Magazine. The link to that essay is here - https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/dharmic-fiction-why-indian-film-industry-needs-to-focus-on-indic-themes
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