I am sure you might have heard many people saying ‘F#@# Reality.’ You might have even read quotes of various famous authors, phycologists and scientists on reality, its definition and its very doubtful existence. When I say doubtful, please bear with me till the end of this very blog because I know no matter how ridiculous it will sound but I will try my level best to explain you why Einstein and many others feels that ‘Reality is a myth.’ On topic of reality Einstein quoted ‘Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.’ So what exactly is reality and why we feel what we feel as real, if it is not? Confused by my statement? Let me put it in laymen term, if we go by bookish definition, Reality is simply can be described as a state of things as they actually exist. So everything that we see with open eyes is real. Everything that can be physically touched or can be heard is real. But is it so or Reality is actually a myth, an illusion?
When I was a kid, I heard a very beautiful story of creation of our ‘Brahmand’ (Universe). How there was nothing before, no heaven, no earth and no space but only Vishnu (and probably Shiva). And then one day Vishnu decided to create this Universe but as he was very tired and probably want to sleep again, he created Brahma. A lotus got sprung out from Lord Vishnu’s naval and in the middle, Brahma was sitting waiting for his creator’s order. Vishnu spoke ’Create the World’ and so did he obliged and created this ‘Brahmand’. There was also a theory which illustrates the existence of multiverse or so quoted in Puranas as ‘Umpteen Brahmands within a Brahmand’ but more on that later. Like I was saying, this simple story of creation which is a cornerstone of Hindu mythology’s creation story is termed as the most ‘Scientific explanation for the creation of Universe by any myth’ by Carl Sagan and Fritjof Capra (re known Science writers). So before proceeding further with the idea of reality as an illusion, I would like to tell you why such writers came to this conclusion. When a female gets pregnant and a seed is formed inside her womb it is the umbilical cord which connects a developing embryo to its placenta and does play the most important role in the birth and development of a child’s body inside fetus. As it is written ‘a lotus sprung out from Vishnu’s naval and Brahma was sitting in the middle of it.’ Since, naval is the part of body where umbilical cord is connected which is solely responsible for the development of child’s body; this creation story of Brahma in Hindu mythology is not just an illusionary concept but a very scientific one. Moreover, Hindu Puranas and Upnishads mentions how cosmos undergo through almost infinite number of births and deaths by Brahma (who creates it), Vishnu (who preserves it) and Shiva (who destroys it) and the timescales corresponding to those of modern scientific cosmology which can closely determines the age of (last) big bang, would make even a skeptical agree that it cannot be neglected as mere mythology and there is some truth to it. However, we are not here to discuss the age of cosmos but the very own existence of reality, so let us move to that topic.
How do we define what’s real and what’s not? Simply by touching it, right? If it feels real, we say it is real. Anything which we can touch, smell, feel, hear, taste or can sense through our sensory organs is real. Now speaking of the dream, whatever we see in dream feels every bit of real. And as we woke up, everything seems to be confusing and we instantly know that something was not right in our dream. Even in our dream our sensory organs works just fine. We can feel the sensation of burning, pain, we can touch things which are nothing but just projection of our sub-conscious mind, we can smell flowers, we can taste food but as we open our eyes everything that we feel real in our dream becomes illusion. So, what if even now our sensory organs are just playing with us? Even at this very point of time, when you think you are reading this blog is nothing but just an illusion of your mind, a very persistent one indeed.
If we dig into the various mythologies of the world, we will notice different words for describing reality as an illusion for example Hindus calls it as Maya (From which I think Mayans derived their name), Buddism (Having common ancestry with Hinduism) calls Reality as a myth and paves the way to Nirvana or enlightenment. Greeks firmly believes in the very existence of confusion and chaos that surrounds us in the form of what we perceive as real. This could be found in the works of Parmenides (525 CE) and then later on, the same philosophy was proposed by Plato (423 CE). Out of numerous theories and philosophies that Plato gave, his Theory of Forms suggests that reality is nothing but just an illusion. Just like the shadows which one sees in the caves but are not actually real. In simpler terms if I ask you to imagine a table at my home, you would imagine a table in your mind even without knowing or having any idea how it actually looks like. Because it might not have four legs like you imagined instead it could have one leg at the center only. Even Werner Heisenberg (Reknown for his uncertainty principle) quoted ‘’I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.’’
Reality is like Money (Currency). Money (Currency) is just a paper with some value depending on its market value. But consider a scenario where market crashes completely. Now that money in your wallet which costs you 10 hours of your daily labor is nothing but just a valueless paper. Reality is like money only, where we act as ‘Market’ and consider Currency (with value) as ‘reality’ which is nothing but ‘Just a Paper’. Not just our age old philosophies and religious texts talk about reality as an illusion but many physicists and scientists were searching for an explainable theory which could justify these claims. So, they came up with a new theory and called it Simulated-Reality. Those who have seen Matrix (Movie) will find this term familiar. This theory hypothesis suggests that reality could be simulated and to such a degree that it becomes indistinguishable from the ‘true’ reality which means it could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation. Hindus use to believe in the karmic cycle of life. People do things, good or bad, and when they die Yumraj judge them and put them in heaven and hell depending upon their deeds. A soul get pass through various ‘Yonis’ and then finally when it enters in a human body it strives for Moksha which is the final enlightenment. Everything is pre-written and everything happens under God’s will. This is preciously what simulated- reality is all about. You are nothing but a like a computer program, designed to perform certain task by the programmer (God). Your soul is like a code which passes from one program (body) to another. Since, we are being programed to do certain tasks, everything might be pre-written. And there is no end to our Karmic cycle until and unless one’s code (soul) is completely destroyed by the programmer which we think of as enlightenment or Moksha.
Zhuangzi, a Chinese philosopher from 4th century BC, came up with a very interesting theory which questions the distinction between reality and dream. He called it ‘Butterfly Dream’. This went as follows: Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things. So, in case if you are dreaming many of your views and beliefs about the world are incorrect or you might be dreaming your entire life, in which case everything you perceive as ‘Real’ is an ‘Illusion’ albeit a very persistent one.
So, we have read different myths related to the concept of reality as an illusion, various philosophers promoting the same and a fascinating Oscar awarded movie which very beautifully describes this concept in the form of humans living in the Matrix. All pointing to Einstein’s famous quote ‘Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.’ We can never actually know if, we truly are living in a real world or everything we perceive as real is nothing but just an illusion. An atom consists of 99.99999…% free space. Still we can see each other, touch each other and feel each other. Human civilization can never be able to reach its Zenith and will fall before realizing that who or what made us. But till then it would be better for us to consider everything as real and enjoy these little and precious moments with our loved ones, because
‘Reality may be an illusion’…But… ‘Feeling of being loved is real.’
When I was a kid, I heard a very beautiful story of creation of our ‘Brahmand’ (Universe). How there was nothing before, no heaven, no earth and no space but only Vishnu (and probably Shiva). And then one day Vishnu decided to create this Universe but as he was very tired and probably want to sleep again, he created Brahma. A lotus got sprung out from Lord Vishnu’s naval and in the middle, Brahma was sitting waiting for his creator’s order. Vishnu spoke ’Create the World’ and so did he obliged and created this ‘Brahmand’. There was also a theory which illustrates the existence of multiverse or so quoted in Puranas as ‘Umpteen Brahmands within a Brahmand’ but more on that later. Like I was saying, this simple story of creation which is a cornerstone of Hindu mythology’s creation story is termed as the most ‘Scientific explanation for the creation of Universe by any myth’ by Carl Sagan and Fritjof Capra (re known Science writers). So before proceeding further with the idea of reality as an illusion, I would like to tell you why such writers came to this conclusion. When a female gets pregnant and a seed is formed inside her womb it is the umbilical cord which connects a developing embryo to its placenta and does play the most important role in the birth and development of a child’s body inside fetus. As it is written ‘a lotus sprung out from Vishnu’s naval and Brahma was sitting in the middle of it.’ Since, naval is the part of body where umbilical cord is connected which is solely responsible for the development of child’s body; this creation story of Brahma in Hindu mythology is not just an illusionary concept but a very scientific one. Moreover, Hindu Puranas and Upnishads mentions how cosmos undergo through almost infinite number of births and deaths by Brahma (who creates it), Vishnu (who preserves it) and Shiva (who destroys it) and the timescales corresponding to those of modern scientific cosmology which can closely determines the age of (last) big bang, would make even a skeptical agree that it cannot be neglected as mere mythology and there is some truth to it. However, we are not here to discuss the age of cosmos but the very own existence of reality, so let us move to that topic.
How do we define what’s real and what’s not? Simply by touching it, right? If it feels real, we say it is real. Anything which we can touch, smell, feel, hear, taste or can sense through our sensory organs is real. Now speaking of the dream, whatever we see in dream feels every bit of real. And as we woke up, everything seems to be confusing and we instantly know that something was not right in our dream. Even in our dream our sensory organs works just fine. We can feel the sensation of burning, pain, we can touch things which are nothing but just projection of our sub-conscious mind, we can smell flowers, we can taste food but as we open our eyes everything that we feel real in our dream becomes illusion. So, what if even now our sensory organs are just playing with us? Even at this very point of time, when you think you are reading this blog is nothing but just an illusion of your mind, a very persistent one indeed.
If we dig into the various mythologies of the world, we will notice different words for describing reality as an illusion for example Hindus calls it as Maya (From which I think Mayans derived their name), Buddism (Having common ancestry with Hinduism) calls Reality as a myth and paves the way to Nirvana or enlightenment. Greeks firmly believes in the very existence of confusion and chaos that surrounds us in the form of what we perceive as real. This could be found in the works of Parmenides (525 CE) and then later on, the same philosophy was proposed by Plato (423 CE). Out of numerous theories and philosophies that Plato gave, his Theory of Forms suggests that reality is nothing but just an illusion. Just like the shadows which one sees in the caves but are not actually real. In simpler terms if I ask you to imagine a table at my home, you would imagine a table in your mind even without knowing or having any idea how it actually looks like. Because it might not have four legs like you imagined instead it could have one leg at the center only. Even Werner Heisenberg (Reknown for his uncertainty principle) quoted ‘’I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.’’
Reality is like Money (Currency). Money (Currency) is just a paper with some value depending on its market value. But consider a scenario where market crashes completely. Now that money in your wallet which costs you 10 hours of your daily labor is nothing but just a valueless paper. Reality is like money only, where we act as ‘Market’ and consider Currency (with value) as ‘reality’ which is nothing but ‘Just a Paper’. Not just our age old philosophies and religious texts talk about reality as an illusion but many physicists and scientists were searching for an explainable theory which could justify these claims. So, they came up with a new theory and called it Simulated-Reality. Those who have seen Matrix (Movie) will find this term familiar. This theory hypothesis suggests that reality could be simulated and to such a degree that it becomes indistinguishable from the ‘true’ reality which means it could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation. Hindus use to believe in the karmic cycle of life. People do things, good or bad, and when they die Yumraj judge them and put them in heaven and hell depending upon their deeds. A soul get pass through various ‘Yonis’ and then finally when it enters in a human body it strives for Moksha which is the final enlightenment. Everything is pre-written and everything happens under God’s will. This is preciously what simulated- reality is all about. You are nothing but a like a computer program, designed to perform certain task by the programmer (God). Your soul is like a code which passes from one program (body) to another. Since, we are being programed to do certain tasks, everything might be pre-written. And there is no end to our Karmic cycle until and unless one’s code (soul) is completely destroyed by the programmer which we think of as enlightenment or Moksha.
Zhuangzi, a Chinese philosopher from 4th century BC, came up with a very interesting theory which questions the distinction between reality and dream. He called it ‘Butterfly Dream’. This went as follows: Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things. So, in case if you are dreaming many of your views and beliefs about the world are incorrect or you might be dreaming your entire life, in which case everything you perceive as ‘Real’ is an ‘Illusion’ albeit a very persistent one.
So, we have read different myths related to the concept of reality as an illusion, various philosophers promoting the same and a fascinating Oscar awarded movie which very beautifully describes this concept in the form of humans living in the Matrix. All pointing to Einstein’s famous quote ‘Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.’ We can never actually know if, we truly are living in a real world or everything we perceive as real is nothing but just an illusion. An atom consists of 99.99999…% free space. Still we can see each other, touch each other and feel each other. Human civilization can never be able to reach its Zenith and will fall before realizing that who or what made us. But till then it would be better for us to consider everything as real and enjoy these little and precious moments with our loved ones, because
‘Reality may be an illusion’…But… ‘Feeling of being loved is real.’
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