Hinduism And Lost… Again by Cadence1

Hey all! Wow, what a ride this has all been. I absolutely loved that ending. I know many of you didn't; however, I'm sure that we can all agree that it was an incredibly wonderful journey with a very emotional ending. I’m not sure how coherent this will be as I am both emotionally drained and physically exhausted.

In my previous post I drew a parallel between Hinduism and the meaning of the light in the cave. Tonight I would like to connect Hinduism to the ultimate ending of the show. For an introduction, here is my description of some key parts of Hinduism.

Hinduism has at its core the idea that everything in this universe is made up of one eternal substance known as Bhraman. We all have what Westerners would call a “soul”, called the “Atman”, which is part of Bhraman. The Atman is eternal and the goal of life is to achieve enlightenment and find one’s Atman, which is our “true self”.

This can be achieved in many ways. One way is to rid yourself of all needs and attachments that you have left in the material world. The point of enlightenment is that it allows you to escape from an eternal cycle known as “Samsara.” Samsara is the cycle of reincarnation. If you don’t “let go” and find your Atman in this life, no problem, you get to do it again in the next life. Depending on how closely you followed your life’s duty (your Dharma) you are reincarnated as something more or less awesome. Escaping Samsara allows your Atman to return to Bhraman, which means no more reincarnating.

The castaways and characters that made it to the church had shed all of their worldly needs and attachments and had become enlightened enough to rejoin Bhraman. Jack let go of the son he never had. Locke let go of Helen. Sayid let go of Nadia. Etc.

I can see some people arguing that these aren't examples of worldly possessions, since they were part of the ALT. The key to escaping samsara is not necessarily getting rid of the possessions themselves; it's in getting rid of the attachments. Jack's son represented an idea. He was Jack trying to work out his father/son issues. When Jack accepted that he would never have a son and that he loved his father (even with his flaws) he was ready.

On the other hand, Ben still had things that he “had to do.” He was still attached to worldly possessions (i.e. Alex and Rousseau). He wasn't happy with the things he did and so he couldn't "let go." As such, he simply rejoined the cycle and waited for another time to escape.

Characters like the freighter four might not have been ready to move on either. I don't really know why. Maybe Daniel wanted a shot at being a musician and was still attached to that idea. Miles seemed to have a good relationship with his father in the flashsideways. Maybe they didn't want to let go of those things. These are things neither of them had, but that they wanted very much. They still had their attachments and so they couldn’t let go this time around. Eloise and Widmore would definitely fit into that category too.

Others still had yet to truly achieve enlightenment (like Michael and Ana Lucia). They definitely need another go at the whole letting go and accepting and redemption thing.

Hinduism is not the only way to look at that ending. The chapel with the coffin had a HUGE number of objects from a large number if faiths… I for one am excited to keep parsing the show for ideas for years to come J.