Virtual Reality is a computer-generated 3D simulation of environment or image. This environment can be interacted in a seemingly real way by a person by using special gadgets such as a helmet with a screen or gloves with sensors. This makes the users feel they are immersed in their surroundings.
One example that can be cited is VR rollercoasters. The person wearing the headset is standing still in a room, but feels that he is in an amusement park ride experience with 360 degrees views, motion and sound effects. Virtual reality stimulates the senses; an illusion became real – like a thirsty man sees a mirage in desert.
Yesterday I was seeing people deeply immersed, lost themselves in a virtual reality called Republic Day, Patriotism and Mother India! Nations come and go. Nations are never permanent. Old nations die and a new nation takes birth. Over 500 princely nations died, giving birth to a new nation called India. Similarly, two nations were born out of one Germany; they became one again. Two nations were born recently from Sudan. This corroborates our view that nations are not permanent. They come and go. I may add – two nations were born from Pakistan in early 1970s. I wonder how the concept of nationalism, patriotism, lying down lives for the nation arises! Thus, Nations themselves are Virtual Realities. They exist in VR; we have yet another VR called patriotism with in the Nation VR!
The minds are tweaked by the society, teachers, politicians and the religion in such manner, that too at the time of birth itself, that we can never distinguish between reality & virtual reality. To explain through an example: Two lovers live in their own VR. They smile at each other, keep staring at each other and do all those stupid things which one in sane mind would never do. The real world around them moves on as usual. The loves live in their own VR. We can call them mockingly as ‘stupid’ people. But what about our VR in which we are lost?
99% of the movie goers live in their own virtual reality. They actually think what they see in the movie is real! They believe that their hero can actually beat up 10 knife yielding goondas single handedly without being scratched on the body! It is yet another VR. These VRs are layered. How these layers are laid from the time of birth is illustrated below:
Government VR
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Nation VR
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Workplace VR
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Movie VR
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Society VR
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Religious VR
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School VR
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Parents VR
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Birth of a Person
Thus, these VR layers on us since birth are infinite. We see VR within a VR. For example, the hero in a cinema is dreaming in sleep. It is impossible to get through the VR layers in one’s lifetime. Many people die believing in their VR as true!
God is another VR. Heaven and Hell, Good and Bad, Gods & Demons are the VRs created by our tweaked mind. Here there is no need to wear a special helmet or gloves or jacket. Our mind substitutes the external gadgets. What we see and believe are a part of infinite VRs.
From immediately after the birth the imposition of VR activity commences on the just born. So much so, by the time the child is 3-year-old, he begins to see the Virtual Reality. No one sees the truth; the real. A Hindu sees his God only in his dream; a Mohammadan sees the God of his religion. Nowhere in the History did we come across a Mohammadan seeing in his VR a Hindu God or Vice Versa.
The layers of VR imposed by the society cannot be broken lose! It is almost impossible. Select few in the world did break their VR and saw the reality. Reality is not self-realization / God-realization/ enlightenment / heaven or hell. Reality is to see through the VR… to witness the world / the reality as is. The entire universe is colored by the VR. I wonder whether it is possible for man to break through the VR.
When the computer engineers invented / discovered VR, I feel they have not done anything great. They are successful in giving a shape to the way the mind sees. As I understand the VR created by the mind, I am in a position to see through the VR. A smile flashes on my lips; calmness envelopes me; mind becomes peaceful. As I walk on the road, I see the VR of other people; they stand with their offerings in a long queue before a temple; they want their sins atoned, be assured of their place in Heaven! They want to lay down their lives for their mother land. Few want both. I wish them nothing. What can I wish them when the people are blinded by their own sight?
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
