Computer Science, Vedanta & Logic [TARKA SHASTRA]

By Sri Chiraan 2009/05/09

If Sun or Mars are second lord aspected by Jupiter or Venus in vishesha amshas one becomes adept at TARKA shastra. When not in vishesha amshas, people usually dabble in computer programming.

Similarly Jupiter or Venus as second lord aspected by Sun or Mars  in mooltrikona or own house gives one mastery in TARKA shastra. 

Given the large number of people working in the IT industry, it has to be concluded that combination of Jupiter, Venus with either Sun or Mars gives indulgence with computers .

I consider computer science as pure logic. Its enumeration and developments follow the usual theorems in TARKA shastra. In fact TARKA shastra elaborates even better models then what is currently available in the raw  field of Computing.

One of the interesting fields in the realm of Computer vision is "Virtual reality". Virtual reality is slowly gripping the society although its current applications is limited to games and war simulation. This fascinating world of Virtual Reality ultimately triggers a greater debate on philosophy, and especially Vedanta as practiced in INDIA.

Let us first understand the term Virtual Reality. Virtual and reality are mutually contradicting terms. What is virtual cannot be real and what is Real cannot be attributed Virtuality. But computers boast pf achieving the marriage between Virtual and real. How ?

In the the field of simulation, all the real world objects can be simulated onto a software driven platform [platform can be video, laser, or 3 D models]. With a specialised glasses, user experience can be enhanced to give rich feeling of Virtual world as seen through gasses. Or alternatively User can be seated in an auditorium with a giant screens and acoustics surrounding him , transporting him into a virtual world.

• This world is simulated
• Objected in this world are created through software
• They follow the algorithms of the software in their behaviour and interaction
• The software assumes certain mathematical models depicting human behaviour 
• The whole world inside the podium [video, auditorium etc] are interactive and event driven 
• Your own self can be simulated through what is popularly known today as *Avatar*
• This avatar of yours can trigger live feeds [drive events, initiate interaction] through sensors attached to your fingers, limbs, and other body parts
• With binoculars on your eyes, and sensors to limbs, your avatar can be seen by you and controlled by you in the Virtual World
• Your avatar acts as you say, as move and feel to interact with the virtual surroundings of the simulation
• Slowly as the simulation progresses, you become a part of it
• You get engrossed into it 
• You get identified attached to your avatar 
• The life led by avatar, is the virtual life that you lead
• The happiness and unhappiness of avatar is what you experience as emotions while viewing the avatar interact 
• As your involvement increases, you mistake the whole process and experience as a Reality 
• Your involvement is more if you are not allowed to blink, momentary blinking may give self consciousness 
• In a movie theatre people get engrossed by identifying with a character, here your own self is character, so involvement is more almost inseparable 
• When Identities merge

Thus it becomes a Virtual reality

Now The philosophy:

Advaita Vedanta [By Sankara and others]

1. The avatar is not real 
2. The experiences are false
3. As the game is over [i.e. as you come out of the auditorium, or remove your glasses, binoculars etc], you have gained nothing or lost nothing. C’ mon it was just a game 
4. The experience of happiness and unhappiness was owing to your excessive attachment to the avatar 
5. As long as you felt the avatar as your real self and not mere body, you have feeling of happiness and unhappiness, the moment your mind is conscious that your self is not the avatar, its just a simulation, you cease to identify with it and happenings of pleasure and pain of the character are no longer bother you.
6. So leave attachment by conscious practice of the knowledge that it was Virtual and not Real.
7. Such complete consciousness of the fact that this is not real saves you from misery.

Dvaita Vedanta [By Madhvacharya and Sri Raghavendra Swamy]

1. Avatar is manifestation and real
2. The experiences are a reality and truth
3. As the game is over, the lesson learnt and memories of experiences are still real. It was just not a game, there was a higher purport in the formulation of the game 
4. Though the experience was owing to the attachment of self to the avatar [dehabhimana], yet the happiness and unhappiness owing to pain and pleasure of the avatar was real and experienced by the self 
5. Though the knowledge of self being different from the body [avatar] helps in mitigating the pain to some extent, yet it does not relieve one from the experiences of pain and pleasure as long as the game continues. If without the master’s blessing such a state is not possible because the show goes on and we are a part of it willingly or unwillingly, so better to gain master blessings to gain pleasure and equanimous leading of life by avatar. Mere liberation from the attachment to pain and pleasure does not gives an understanding of purport of the game/show. One cannot live a vegetable life by being indifferent to pleasure and pain, without purpose 
6. Goal is not defined or gained by the knowledge that it was Virtual and not real, But by accepting it as real and different from self, happiness is achieved in the form of grace of MASTER running the show
7. Accepting it as virtual may relieve temporarily from the misery of avatar, but gives rise to misery of wasting time into the virtual world without knowing the purport. BY ignoring the presence of MASTER and his designs we are self and its purpose and end up in destruction of self. On the contrary by accepting the reality and the designs of nature [software simulations] and its creator is known and an relationship unfolds with the creator and his purpose. Thus a new beginning of self awareness is achieved.

Krishnarpana