A Vedic feel underlines the new Avengers movie : A review

Anyone familiar with Vedic themes and concepts would certainly travel back in time with Joss Whedon’s ‘The Avengers’  (Avengers Assemble in UK ).  The movie is a potent cauldron of opposing elements and forces that yet again brings back to life the epic battle of good and evil.

In Vedic metaphysics, the universe is segregated into many complex systems of lokas (realms), each housing beings and entities that reflect a certain state of consciousness. These different Vedic realms re-constitute the Puranic tri-loka (three worlds) where the Gods preside over the highest dimensions (devaloka), the demons or titans rule the infernal underworld (patala) and the earth (bhuloka) in between where humans strive with varying degrees and gradations of power and consciousness to ascend to greater heights of existence. In the ultimate evolution of worlds, the forces of one loka often collide with and clash against the forces of another leading to a disruption of the cosmic order, until some greater power (either in the form of superheroes from earth or avatars from heaven) manifests to re-establish the universal balance (dharma).

In ‘The Avengers’ such a battle between the forces of life incarnates on earth where the demon clans from other dimensions infiltrate and attack the planet to assert their supremacy leading to an alliance between the gods (Thor) and men with developed abilities (Iron-man, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow and others) to overthrow the imperial regime of evil.

The crux of the film also throws light on Tesseract – a secret, mysterious, infinite source of energy (Brahman in Hindu metaphysics) that the Gods, men and titans fight to get a hold of.

Unlike the stark dichotomy between good and evil created in most religions, in Hinduism and other Dharmic worldviews the Gods and titans are seen as related and originating from a common lineage (akin to the familial although more psychological connection shared between Thor and his evil brother Loki) Similarly in Hinduism, both the Gods and Demons belong to the same infinite reality and represent the light and dark side of the same underlying force of Shakti, thus becoming essential polarities of the churning wheel of life. The multiple dimensions and trajectories of life expressed in Indic worldviews such as battle-and-conquest, free-will-and-determination, good-and-evil, knowledge-and-ignorance, power-and-defeat and harmony-and-imbalance ultimately adorn a live expression manifesting in full-force in the movie ‘Avengers’ taking the viewer on a journey to the future albeit through arcane routes lodged in ancient worlds.

source:hinduhumanrights