Matrix Trilogy
Created | Updated Jan 20, 2004
The Matrix Trilogy
The Matrix trilogy is indeed a set of movies well packaged and presented. As is the case with all things that human beings are witness to, perception differs with differing perspectives. At the same time, the perspective one takes reflects his/her maturity, overall orientation, predominant thoughts and the objective with which he/she comes to witness what he/she witnesses.
The Matrix trilogy is well packaged because it has something to offer both for those who just need some entertainment to break the monotony of life and also those who wish to fish for something deeper, something to take back home.
Beyond the façade of cool sunglasses, fantastic weapons and fabulous special effects - the kind Industrial Light and Magic have been known to produce - there lies a very interesting mixture of spiritual beliefs. If the characters and plot of the story are looked at as something symbolic, the movie offers an experience similar to cracking a code.
The movie has done quite well in the balancing act - That of carefully interspersing fight scenes, special effects and science fiction with what in reality has been talked about since time immemorial: perception – reality, duality – unity, bondage – freedom, choice – price and finally equilibrium – disequilibrium. What is interesting is that by interspersing the two, the potential monotony and banality of having just one of the two is avoided.
With regards to the spiritual journey, the trilogy takes us from the point when one who believes in the illusion is disillusioned (being liberated from the Matrix, that is but a symbol for the world that we take as real), he proceeds to higher levels of consciousness, where at each level he is restricted by his own perception of reality. When to perform a certain function he has to return to the Matrix, though liberated, he is again governed by the rules of the Matrix (When Gods descend to the world in the form of avatars, they are born, and thus they will die). Destiny plays a role in fixing the function of each character and as the function is completed, the characters disappear. Quite naturally, as the law of duality has it that “what has a beginning, must have an end.” (Hence the search for the eternal unchanging?) We also see motifs like “the chosen one,” “messiah,” “trinity,” “prophet” and finally the mindless, attribute less, omnipresent centre, source or ultimate, all in personified forms. The chosen one is chosen for a task he has to perform, which he performs with the aid of others whose function is to aid him. He moves on as they fall off and in the end he has to leave even the trinity behind (Matrix Revolutions). In all of this, there is again the play of free will, belief and choice. There is nothing right or wrong, there is only a choice, and every choice has a price to pay for. So an unbeliever starts from disbelief to experimentation, from experimentation to experience, from experience to belief and from belief to faith.
In sum, there can be as many interpretations of the trilogy as there are people. It is quite similar to saying that there are as many views of the world as there are people. What is interesting is that in ways similar to what He has done, the directors have scooped a bit of the ocean and put it in a container for us to see. If the water in the container is a part of the greater whole, it would also present us a manageable microcosm of its source to analyze and understand. Naturally, we can choose to do that or take the container to be what it is. Again, it is just a choice!
As for hints from the director, the Sanskrit hymns at the end of the movie (Titled Navras in the soundtrack) say a lot:
Asato ma sat gamaya (Lead us from untruth to truth!)
Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya (Lead us from darkness to light!)
Mrityor ma amritam gamaya (Lead us from the mortal the immortal!)
The Matrix trilogy is indeed a set of movies well packaged and presented. As is the case with all things that human beings are witness to, perception differs with differing perspectives. At the same time, the perspective one takes reflects his/her maturity, overall orientation, predominant thoughts and the objective with which he/she comes to witness what he/she witnesses.
The Matrix trilogy is well packaged because it has something to offer both for those who just need some entertainment to break the monotony of life and also those who wish to fish for something deeper, something to take back home.
Beyond the façade of cool sunglasses, fantastic weapons and fabulous special effects - the kind Industrial Light and Magic have been known to produce - there lies a very interesting mixture of spiritual beliefs. If the characters and plot of the story are looked at as something symbolic, the movie offers an experience similar to cracking a code.
The movie has done quite well in the balancing act - That of carefully interspersing fight scenes, special effects and science fiction with what in reality has been talked about since time immemorial: perception – reality, duality – unity, bondage – freedom, choice – price and finally equilibrium – disequilibrium. What is interesting is that by interspersing the two, the potential monotony and banality of having just one of the two is avoided.
With regards to the spiritual journey, the trilogy takes us from the point when one who believes in the illusion is disillusioned (being liberated from the Matrix, that is but a symbol for the world that we take as real), he proceeds to higher levels of consciousness, where at each level he is restricted by his own perception of reality. When to perform a certain function he has to return to the Matrix, though liberated, he is again governed by the rules of the Matrix (When Gods descend to the world in the form of avatars, they are born, and thus they will die). Destiny plays a role in fixing the function of each character and as the function is completed, the characters disappear. Quite naturally, as the law of duality has it that “what has a beginning, must have an end.” (Hence the search for the eternal unchanging?) We also see motifs like “the chosen one,” “messiah,” “trinity,” “prophet” and finally the mindless, attribute less, omnipresent centre, source or ultimate, all in personified forms. The chosen one is chosen for a task he has to perform, which he performs with the aid of others whose function is to aid him. He moves on as they fall off and in the end he has to leave even the trinity behind (Matrix Revolutions). In all of this, there is again the play of free will, belief and choice. There is nothing right or wrong, there is only a choice, and every choice has a price to pay for. So an unbeliever starts from disbelief to experimentation, from experimentation to experience, from experience to belief and from belief to faith.
In sum, there can be as many interpretations of the trilogy as there are people. It is quite similar to saying that there are as many views of the world as there are people. What is interesting is that in ways similar to what He has done, the directors have scooped a bit of the ocean and put it in a container for us to see. If the water in the container is a part of the greater whole, it would also present us a manageable microcosm of its source to analyze and understand. Naturally, we can choose to do that or take the container to be what it is. Again, it is just a choice!
As for hints from the director, the Sanskrit hymns at the end of the movie (Titled Navras in the soundtrack) say a lot:
Asato ma sat gamaya (Lead us from untruth to truth!)
Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya (Lead us from darkness to light!)
Mrityor ma amritam gamaya (Lead us from the mortal the immortal!)
