“Bhagavad Gita is a great spiritual inspiration for the Matrix movies”, said Bernard White who played the role of Rama Kandra in the movie “The Matrix Revolutions”. He said that he had a copy of the Bhagavad Gita with him all the time during the filming of the movie.
Let us look into the climax scene of this final movie of the Matrix series, “The Matrix Revolutions” in the context of the Bhagavad Gita.
Closely observe the conversation between the Oracle and the little girl Sati at the end of the movie, when she asks “Will we see him again?” referring to Neo, and the Oracle replies saying “I Suspect So”.
Now why will Neo return?
The purpose of Neo was to establish Peace. That is what he replies, when the Machine Leader asks him “What do you want?”.
Remember the chanting of the lines of peace from the Upanishads. The Navras music played over the closing credits after the movie ends.
Asato Ma Sadgamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya
Mrityor Ma Amrutangamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Heem
which means
Lead us from falsehood to truth
Lead us from darkness to light
Lead us from the fear of death to the knowledge of our immortality
Let there be Peace, Peace, Peace …
Its all about Peace. Truth, Light, Knowledge – they all bring Peace.
The return of Neo means another need to re-establish Peace.
In the same climax scene, when the architect asks the Oracle, “just how long do you think this peace is going to Last”, the Oracle replies “as long as it can”.
Obviously, nothing is permanent, neither war, nor peace. So when the times of war return, Neo should return to bring back the peace again.
This entire set of conversation seems to revolve around the following lines from the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna tells Arjuna
Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya Glanirva Bhavathi Bharatha,
Abhyuthanam Adharmaysya Tadatmanam Srijami Aham
Praritranaya Sadhunam Vinashaya Cha Dushkritam
Dharamasansthapnaya Sambhavami Yuge-Yuge
which summarizes to,
Whenever there is decay of righteousness and a rise of unrighteousness in the society, I manifest myself again for the protection of the good and the destruction of the evil…
which in turn would lead to a time of peace and righteousness…
It is in this context that the Oracle speaks at the end of the movie about, “the peace lasting as long as it can”, and the “possible return of Neo” again. Neo seems to be modeled on this idea of the “return” of an establisher of peace whenever there is a need to do so.
Just like a program can be terminated and restarted again, so are we, the humans, without any real death. Remember the last line of the Upanishads mantra which goes
from the fear of death to the knowledge of our immortality
We don’t have any real death either, its the body that dies, just like its the process that gets terminated in case of a program. We just are re-born as somebody else, just like a program re-runs as a new process with a different process ID. There is a cycle of programs terminating and re-starting, similar to the cycle of humans dying only to be born again.
Some, like that of Neo in The Matrix, and Krishna in our world are born again, only when the need arises to for their return.
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