Caesar: "It's my fault"

Last week the movie - Dawn of the planet of the apes was released, as much as I acknowledge it was a fictional story, some very relevant lessons could be taken from it. The central character, Caesar was the leader of a community of intelligent apes who had made their home in muir woods above the San Francisco area, meanwhile the humans in the city were recovering from a virus which had wiped out the majority of their population.

As the movie progresses, the inevitable scenario develops where the two species run into conflict and on both sides they had peacemakers and elitists.  Caesar, being the central character and leader of the apes was a peacemaker but he had his opposition in the form of his right hand ape - Koba. This takes us up to the climax of the movie, where human is fighting human, ape (Koba) is fighting ape (Caesar), elitism vs peace. It prompted so many thoughts...

Being an ambassador for our particular faith is just as much about compassion for people of other faiths as it is our own, after all; the predicaments, problems and challenges in life on an individual basis are identical across all sectarian boundaries.

Koba's Consciousness

With the current state of affairs around the world, we are heading into dark times and unfortunately many of us are only concerned when the conflict or issue affects people who share some type of bodily designation as ourselves; if not, then we are seldom willing to extend our compassion, but when the shoe is on the other foot, we immediately want justice for our people. It's become habitual, and the root of this is our false identification with the mind and body. We are too concerned with feeding the ego our self made ideologies that our religion, race, nationality etc is superior to others and along with it, it's people.

This identification with the mind and body can condition us into a state of delusion, that being born into a particular nationality, religion, caste, creed or race with a particular genetic heritage places us in a special category above the rest of humanity. That the lives of certain other types of people are markedly less valuable than ours and that these "lesser" people pose an existential threat to the purity of our superior race and culture.‎

Caesar's Consciousness

I'm not saying that we should abandon our chosen path in favour of another, but we need to learn the art of unity in diversity, building bridges of understanding and individually recognising the unwanted tendencies of sectarianism which are deep rooted in the heart in the form of pride, envy and ego.

The reality is, we have all seen good and bad in our respective communities and learning to accept that we aren't superior to other communities by dint of our personal affiliation with our own, and the fact that none of us made the choice to take birth in our present situation, whether we are talking about race, religion, gender or whatever it may be, is further clarification that we're usually clutching at straws in our quest to stamp our superiority over others.

In this regard, Caesar, the leader of the apes gives us some wise words when addressing his fellow apes after learning that the cause of the war was due to the betrayal by his right hand ape Koba. It's something to contemplate.

"No... It's my fault... I chose to trust him because he is an ape, always thinking ape is better."


"The false ego makes a person think, “I am the best, therefore my family must be the best, my caste must be the best, my home must be best, my religion must be best and everything about me must be best.” This misconception of ‘I and mine,’ is the cause of great wars all over the world today. Everyone thinks they are the best" - HH Radhanath Swami