I was just recently watching the Star Wars series on the Sci-Fi Channel and began to notice the religious allegory in the storyline that I had never noticed before.
After doing some searching on the Internet, I found this article that seemed very interesting:
http://www.chron.com/entertainment/movies/article/Many-faiths-see-religious-allegory-in-Star-Wars-1919344.php
One thing I found very interesting in the article was that there was no mention of the Bhagavad Gita in the passage at all. Therefore, I thought it might be worthwhile to add some clarification to some of the mentions made in the article:
Much of the debate centers on the nature of the Force, which Lucas told Time magazine in 1983 was God. Sixteen years later, Lucas told Bill Moyers that he put the Force into Star Wars "to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people — more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system."
If we look through the passages of the Bhagavad Gita, we can find many references that explain directly what George Lucas describes:
http://vedabase.com/en/bg/18
Bg 18.66 — Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
The article refers to no particular religion in reference to God, just an overall spirituality. The Bhagavad Gita, while traditionally associated with Hinduism, indicates that all varieties of religion are acceptable to follow the principles of the Bhagavad Gita.
After doing some searching on the Internet, I found this article that seemed very interesting:
http://www.chron.com/entertainment/movies/article/Many-faiths-see-religious-allegory-in-Star-Wars-1919344.php
One thing I found very interesting in the article was that there was no mention of the Bhagavad Gita in the passage at all. Therefore, I thought it might be worthwhile to add some clarification to some of the mentions made in the article:
Much of the debate centers on the nature of the Force, which Lucas told Time magazine in 1983 was God. Sixteen years later, Lucas told Bill Moyers that he put the Force into Star Wars "to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people — more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system."
If we look through the passages of the Bhagavad Gita, we can find many references that explain directly what George Lucas describes:
http://vedabase.com/en/bg/18
Bg 18.66 — Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
The article refers to no particular religion in reference to God, just an overall spirituality. The Bhagavad Gita, while traditionally associated with Hinduism, indicates that all varieties of religion are acceptable to follow the principles of the Bhagavad Gita.
In fact, if you read the entire passages of the Bhagavad Gita available here: http://vedabase.com/en/bg, you will be able to find suitable comparisons for nearly all of the characters in the movie including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, The Force etc.
While someone can easily write entire volumes on the allegory of Star Wars (as some authors already have done), I will provide just a few brief examples from the Bhagavad Gita and leave the rest to those interested in further research and investigation:
- Luke Skywalker--Devotee of God such as Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita
- Obi-Wan Kenobi/Yoda-Gurus of the Devotee/Lord Krsna
- Darth Vader-Duryodhana as well as Lord Krsna/God (Lord Vader saves Luke in Return of the Jedi)
- The Empire-The Kaurava Forces
- The Rebel Forces-The Pandava Forces
- The Emperor-Dhritishtrashta
- Princess Leia-Draupadi
- Chewbacca-Bheem
Perhaps in a future blog post I may be able to elaborate further on these various references as well as relate to the specific passages in the Bhagavad Gita, but that's all for now! :-)
When I was watching Star Wars Episode 1 I caught the quote from Yoda which was highly reminiscent to a famous passage in the Gita (Gandhi's favourite passage, incidentally): Yoda "Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.”
ReplyDeleteCompare to Gita 2.63. :)
(Gita 2.62 2.63) While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.
ReplyDeleteFrom anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost; when intelligence is lost then one is completely undone.