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purposes only. When reprinting please include this and the statement
at the bottom of this article.
Hinduism for Beginners - 1
Hinduism and Video Games
by Namdev Nirakar
"Hinduism is so complex. I do not understand it most of the time", said
Eesha, a young girl to Uncle Ashok. Ashok had come over half an hour ago
and Eesha was so engrossed in her video game then that she mechanically
said "Hi" to Ashok, and continued with her game. Ashok watched Eesha play
Super Mario Brothers (*). He watched her move Mario to the right, hit and
get hidden mushrooms and get bigger, or get a fire flower or a cape,
collect coins, punch his way thru obstacles, climb ladders and
ccasionally
get chomped by turtles. After the end of a life Mario would start his
ext
life, from where he left off. Now that Eesha had finished one level she
noticed that uncle Ashok, whom she met every week when her parents took
er
to the temple, was still there.
"Eesha, you are really good at this video game !", said Ashok. She nodded
and added "Yep! and I can even beat my brother at it". "You know you can
learn many ideas of Hinduism from the video games",
said Ashok. "How ? uncle Ashok", Eesha asked. Let us say if you got a
ideo
game and it gave you only one chance to beat it, will that be fair ?",
Ashok asked. "No, that is why they give you multiple lives. Actually,
ith
a new game it is very difficult to advance much further. It takes
ractice.
When we had just bought this game, I used to 'die' in just ten seconds,
every time", said Eesha.
"Hinduism is similar too. Most people do not lead a perfect life. So
according to Hinduism, you get many chances to improve your self. You get
many lives. This is called reincarnation". He continued," and just
as in a video game, if one life ends, you start over in the next life
here
you left off "Now what will happen if you do not go towards the right in
your video game ?", asked uncle Ashok "You will not move to the next
evel.
You will not make any and time will run out", Eesha said "Exactly! if you
do not move in the 'right' direction, you will not make progress. Thus
OU
determine the right direction and how far progress you can make. 'What
ou
do, determines the result' this is called the law of Karma. Your actions
bear fruit accordingly. Now what happens in a video game if you keep
aking
same mistakes ?", Ashok asked. "You go back to the start of that level"
Eesha replied. "Law of Karma similarly tells you that if you keep making
same mistakes over and over again, you will move backwards. Now in a
ideo
game you get rewards and receive set backs. In this video game a mushroom
will make you grow bigger or an attack of a turtle will make you smaller,
in real life too you may become rich or poor, but that depends where you
start at and what actions you take. Yet getting big or small in itself
oes
not mean progress. Does it ?", asked Uncle Ashok "You are right, being
ig
or small does not necessarily mean you will move forward in the game or
even to the next level", Eesha replied. "Now tell me what happens when
ou
go to the next level ?" Ashok asked. "It gets tougher at the next level"
Eesha said "Same is true in spiritual practice as per Hinduism", Ashok
added. "Now tell me what happens if you get stuck at a level, what do you
do ? and why ?", he asked. "I ask my cousin Ojas. He knows what I should
do. He knows where to the keys are hidden, where secret passages are. He
has beaten the game already, Some times he even takes the controller to
help me", Eesha said.
"In Hinduism, similarly a Guru helps you move to next level. A Guru or a
master has already 'beaten the game'. She or He knows where the key is
hidden that will unock the door. She or He knows what where the secret
passages are. She or He can even show you a 'warp' zone, to go to the
ext
level. But unlike a video game, in real life a Guru cannot play for you.
You have to play it yourself", said Ashok. "You keep referring to Guru as
She or He, why? " Eesha asked. "Good question! Hinduism considers man and
woman as having equal potential to become a master, a Guru. Just as you
re
better than your brother at video games, a woman can reach the highest
state also In fact there were many women who contributed to the Vedas,
he
are many women saints even now" said uncle Ashok. He continued, " there
are
many ways you can go to next level, so some Guru wll a easier way and
some
a harder way, all depending on your capability Buddhists have Buddha as a
Guru, Jains have twenty four Tirthankars Gurus while Sikhs have ten Gurus
whose guidance they follow. "Now tell me what happens when you beat the
last level ? " Ashok asked. "I have not beaten the game yet, but my
cousin
Ojas says that you see fire works, music plays for long time, and then
you
see the name of the programmer", Eesha said. "Interestingly, that is
what
Hinduism says also, when you go beyond the last hurdle you hear the music
and you see THE PROGRAMMER - that is God and then you do not need to play
the game again, except to help others" Ashok said.
"Let me ask you one more question. You get so absorbed playing a video
game
that you feel that you are being Mario or Luigi on the screen. But are
you
really Mario or Luigi ? Who are You ?",He asked "I am Eesha, of course.
But
while playing the game I forget that I am Eesha and am only concerned
about
Mario or Luigi on the screen", she replied. "Exactly, Hinduism believes
that we go thru different lives believing we are the body or the name in
that life. But we are not that body nor its name. We are the Atman or
soul
which plays as a character of Mario or Luigi (or whatever). That is
something we must never forget. We are not this body, but we are the
Soul,
or Atman". Ashok continued, "Eesha have you noticed, that from video
games
you just learnt Hindu concepts of reincarnation, Karma, Guru and Atman."
He
asked, "Was that complex ? ". "Not complex at all!" Eesha smiled, Her
face
was glowing by the realization of Hindu concepts, a knowledge she already
had in the form of video games.
_____________________________________________________________________
* Super Mario Brothers is a game from Nintendo Corp. The characters like
Mario, Luigi, Mushroom, Fire flower, cape, turtle are all part of Super
Mario Brothers and are servicemarks of Nintendo Corp. They are
only used as an example in this article. The characters or game name can
be
replaced by any other game or the characters therein.
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