How can we see virtual reality in terms of spiritual philosophy?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So, what does virtual reality mean in terms of a spiritual or material world view? Yeah, actually the more we are able to simulate reality by virtual means, the more we recognize that the person experiencing the reality is distinct. We can create a replica of reality.
Definitely we can do that. And as technology advances, we can make that replica at simulation more and more closer to reality. So, from the perspective of the Gita, virtual reality is a very good metaphor for understanding our present material existence.
In 13.22 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, purusha prakati sthohi bhunkte prakati jan gunan karanam guna sanghose sadasa dhyoni janmasu. That the soul is non-material. But the soul’s consciousness gets caught in the material reality.
And because of that, the soul experiences pleasure and pain. So, and I talked earlier about watching a horror movie. Watching a horror movie, it’s primarily our eyes and ears that are involved.
But when you consider virtual reality, it’s all our senses are involved in it. So, the world that we live in presently is in a sense a virtual reality. So, the soul is different, but the body that we have, shrotram chakshu sparshanam cha rasanam grhanam eva cha adhishthayam manaschayam vishayan upasevate.
So, the various senses that we have, they are like a virtual reality apparatus that is strapped on the soul. And based on that soul, based on that, the soul seeks pleasure in the soul. So, the soul, just as a person who is experiencing virtual reality, can get so caught in that virtual reality that whatever happens to the character that they are identifying with, say a person is participating in a virtual car race and the car goes across a bridge and the bridge collapses and the car falls down and the car explodes.
The person who is caught in it may feel as if I have died. So, what happens? It’s all misidentification. The projection of consciousness into the material realm causes misidentification with the character in the virtual reality.
Same way for the soul, the soul is different from the body, but the soul’s consciousness is projected into the material realm. And that’s how we misidentify. In fact, there is a devotee scientist, there was a devotee scientist, Dr. Richard L. Thomson, Siddhaputra, who has written a whole book whose title is Maya, the world as a virtual reality.
So, if you are interested in that, you can contact the devotees here. You can read that book. That really explains systematically how the metaphor of a virtual reality can help us to understand our existence in this material world.
Thank you. Thank you for the talk. So,