#4 Dharmic references in Neon Genesis Evangelion
This is not a review post
(Here have your review post--10/10 + greatest animated thing i ever watched + real art+ masterpiece + divine= its a cult classic, please go watch* it).
*And this is the viewing order i followed= 26 original episodes (TV series) + The End of Evangelion (movie).
Ok.
The show has many many themes- beautifully crafted and overlapped layer by layer- religious iconography, dharmic concepts, psychology, philosophy and science fiction. And the show is very direct about these references in episode names, dialogues etc.
There are many resources on the internet listing all of these, their interpretations, their significance but there isnt a single article/sentence anywhere pointing out the use of Indic themes. I found a published paper by a History of Art major in America talking about interpreting the themes in a "Japanese Buddhist context rather than a Western one". That paper(which was confusing, not entirely correct and was probably filled up with images to cross the minimum size cap to get the thesis passed) led to this post, why does nobody review/critique/write on pop culture from an Indic perspective? Surely we must have our own interpretations. Or is the 'American' cultural lens ipso-facto 'Universal' cultural lens?
[Popular Culture can fuse/learn/grow in reactive ways-often time the dominant one(fortunately, not solely based on economy) completely overtakes/digests the other or a hybrid is produced, but the Deep Culture- the fundamental core basis of a society- the DNA of all subsequent designs- is the soul of the nation- and fortunately due to many many great people in our case has survived, evolved its designs and mechanisms (ours is fundamentally liberal) and preserved the core truth through many millenia of glorious highs and brutal lows]
Forget even about writing a scholarly criticism/praise through the viewpoint of an Indian school of thought- do people even point out things/ideas that are OBVIOUSLY inspired from our heritage? I found this quite weird - any normal person from India if he/she sees the show would clearly get the religious/philosophical act that the show pulls off but there is ZERO talk of it everywhere. All we see is mostly ignorant Abrahamics rooting for "mind blowing ideas that are out of this world" and Americanized Indians in awe of things that they should be aware of. Nobody has written/posted even a single line that how many of the core concepts were developed here in India over thousands of years.
No I am not saying that this is the ONLY paradigm of this show-you can see many different concepts from different fields in this show (I personally liked the science fiction aspect the most- they made it very believable) neither am I saying that the show in some way misrepresented something in anyway nor that even out of the hundreds of interpretations that you could lay out, talking about this particular thing is essential or necessary-it is irrelevant tbh. But the problem is nobody on the Internet seems to be aware of this maybe BECAUSE-
(1)I did not search in a large enough sample space-maybe there's another blog out there talking about the same thing but I couldnt find it OR
(2) People cant make out these connections- improbable as Internet is flooded with our people (most of the West lives in a bubble and is largely ignorant of other civilizations other than gross mischaracterizations and stereotypes) and all this is very directly implied
(3) EVA is not mainstream and people dont generally talk about it ("they dont on talk on the internet at all" is very very wrong in the Indian context xD)
(4)These are small useless things that no one cares about (not likely- every little detail is scrutinized minutely- there are CRAZY fan theories)
(5)I am overthinking stuff and have nothing better to do as i dont want to write a review or explain the plot (highly probable, but again, this blog is not supposed to be serious about stuff)
Granted the show is filled with Abrahamic symbolism, the crosses and all the Kabbalah mysticism, and there are many Freudian analogies to look out for BUT I just found it weird and unsettling that nobody has listed things that are totally relevant to Dharma.
(1)For eg look at this:
Do I even need to explain this one? Any Dharmic can connect Rei having multiple births and this particular stylistic imposition and get 2+2=4 here.
(2)Then there is the final goal- the HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY PROJECT- to end individuality and separation and to join with the Absolute Reality where all is one and one is all. They are talking about moksha. Now one has to understand here that the show portrays moksha(Hindu) and not nirvana (Buddhist), as even after everything turns into fanta (everbody bursts into orange primordial soup of life and their Ātman(s) {very close translation=soul} unite), there is a singular all encompassing consciousness- brahman(infinity) whereas in Buddhist thought, there is no consciousness after Nirvana just shunyata(zero). Both the existence of a self and the existence of a supreme consciousness after liberation are Hindu ideas and not Buddhist. It is important to take note of that too. I am not aware of the position of Shintos on this but I would guess they are very Buddhist like. Buddhism is a sub school of Indic thought and Shinto mixed very easily with Buddhism and the syncretic beliefs retained many ideas.
(3) Then there was the "Lingam/Yoni" from the movie.
Three eyes and the end of the world is an obvious reference to Shiva. Look at the shape of the third eye and read on
The primordial beings- male and female- Adam and Lilith's souls merge
(4) Lots of references to Arthur Schopenhauer - his Hedgehog's dilemma is even the name of an episode and is quoted several time. To be noted is that Schopenhauer himself was an admirer of Hindu philosophy and borrowed heavily from it. He said,“In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life. It will be the solace of my death.”An early champion of Indian-inspired thought in the west, he advocated ethics based on an "Aryan-Vedic theme of spiritual self-conquest" as opposed to the ignorant drive toward earthly utopianism.
#UPDATE(27/10)
I keep finding more n more
(5) The Black Egg is the Hindu tantric symbol for atma (soul)
(6) The supercomputer has three parts- named after the three Biblical travellers but in Indic philosophy, mana(mind) = citta (state of mind) + manas (intellect) + vinnana (consciousness). Hmmmm
*is this related to id, ego, superego? Probably not. On a related note, there was once an attack on Hindu Dharma (distorted version of course to make their task easy) using psychoanalysis by racist whites which Infinity Foundation repelled successfully.
There are many many more subtle uses of concepts but neither do I have the knowledge/skill nor the resources to write a paper like that guy wrote. But the paper invokes a very cathartic sense of reality- it challenges the assumption of mainstream reviewers/analysts/critics of looking at this show only from a Judeo Christian view point and not from the viewpoint of a Dharmic school of thought which borrowed heavily from Judaism(Kabbalah), other Abrahamic faiths and mixed in a lot of psychoanalysis(last two episodes are literally a soliloquy like therapy session) and 18-19th century European philosophy.
Basically, this masterpiece is not something to be fought over- not like mine idea, not yours- but the scary thing is the absolutely no mention of ideas/dialogues which were very much started by us- either they have been appropriated ("Japanese ideas") or everyone is unaware of these stuff. I wrote this just to make a record of connections that I could make out.
The show is a work of art and this rant should be wholly ignored while watching it. After watching the 26 episodes (ending cut short) and the movie (perfect ending), you would not understand most things (neither did I). Here is a handy guide- https://docs.google.com/document/d/15-ndEuP0QjaS-yCucpA_7k7o5taEXBtrb3_XEypXXpU/edit#
ok this ends today's rant. Sayonara!
Fun fact: the ED in every single episode is tweaked and different.
Update: similar themes in Akira, Eden, and almost all other works
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