This post is from the files of Mr. ‘Everything Comes From India’ and the chest-thumpingly nationalist father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
An author who’s a Hare Krishna is penning a tome on how Star Wars was inspired by Hindu myths. In his formulation, The Jedi and the Lotus, the Force comes from Brahma, Yoda and Luke are guru and disciple, Jedi training is yoga and the Jedi rules are the warrior code of the kshatriya.
[J]ust as Star Wars takes place in deep space, most of the battles in the Ramayana take place in sophisticated aircrafts, and Arjuna, too, in the Mahabharata, is said to engage in many battles while in outer space… Ancient Indian myths are perhaps the earliest examples of these world myths, while Star Wars is merely among the most contemporary… I look at George Lucas’ major influences, from Flash Gordon to Joseph Campbell, and how Indian tales form the central core around which his series is modelled.
So much sci-fi rips from warrior mythology (samurai, cowboys), I find it hard to believe a claim of exclusive inspiration, although there’s an interesting argument for the ferengi and Klingons in Star Trek being desi in origin.
George Lucas was inspired by reading Joseph Campbell’s works, particularly those dealing with Hinduism and related religions. So this Hare Krishna author isn’t saying anything fundamentally new. He is inventing specific correlations which probably were not in Lucas’ mind, though (given that Lucas is not reported as having read Mahabharata, etc.). It’s one thing to use Star Wars as a metaphor for teaching eastern philosophy, but another to claim that he’s decoding every specific influence and intent of George Lucas/elements of the movies.