"Ecology and the Sacred", Radhika Raman Das in Chile 2024
Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my respectful obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
It's a great pleasure for me to receive your association in Nueva Vrajamandala, a beautiful place and tremendous Vaishnava community project. I'm very happy for this new opportunity that God gives me to be close to you.
Below I'm writing the report of the first visit of Radhika Raman Das to Chile (Professor Ravi Gupta) from October 23 to 26, your disciple who is now in charge of leading the academic preaching of NIOS. Radhika Raman came to Chile accompanied by his family, his wife Amrita Keli, their two children and his father Ananta Rupa.
HpSwami ASA--He is 'in charge of'?
We had not heard this.
Is it a post given by President, Directors?
There are so many nice preachers in NIOS, including you.
Of course, Prof. Ravi Gupta is a unique example!
None of us would like to work in NIOS without his energy!
🐂👍👍👍
Your disciple Arjuna Das again naturally took charge of the leadership of the coordination and management for the events at the universities, IF and Iskcon Chile.
On Thursday, October 24th at noon, the first talk was held at Universidad Católica. There was no audience, so Radhika Raman decided to change the format and instead of giving the conference, a very entertaining conversation spontaneously developed between him and Claudia Lira about the main topic “Ecology and the Sacred” and other related topics. Vishvanatha from Dhatri school of yoga was the translator. Lily Jiménez, professor at Universidad de Chile in the area of Art and Religious Studies and from the Center for Judaic Studies, also participated. I met professor Lily in 2018 just a week after “Art and the Sacred.” She is a student and active participant in Dhatri and that time when she told me that her specialty is religious art, we connected and wanted to work together someday.
Same Thursday by night, the conference “Ecology and the Sacred, the care of the environment from the ancestral Vaishnava philosophy” was held at IF. Vishvanatha was the translator. Your disciple Jagad Guru Das was the host. Your disciples Manjuali Devi Dasi and her husband Lalita Madhava Das were in charge of the cocktail and once again surprised everyone with a luxurious prasadam. There were about 70 people in the audience, most of them new people, some influential people, businessmen, academics, artists. The conference was held at a new IF headquarters in Las Condes, an upper middle class area in Santiago, near to the Las Condes Cultural Center where we produced the "Psychology and the sacred" in 2016 and one of the days of the "Art and te Sacred" in 2018
On Friday 25th at noon the conference “Ecology and the Sacred, principles of environmental care from a Vaishnava theology, theoretical and methodological perspectives” was held at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Universidad de Chile, thanks to the efforts of Professor Lily Jiménez and her friend, Professor of Anthropology Francisco Araos, who is focused on the practical development of the concept of Conservation Anthropology, focusing on research and dissemination of the human dimensions of biodiversity conservation. About ten students from this school came. Your well-wisher Sruti Priya Devi Dasi was the translator.
We had very little time to do the production and promotion. I found out at the end of August that Radhika Raman was coming to Chile to organize these events. So, although the participation at the universities was very low, I consider that the events were successful. With better organization and more time for production and adequate economic resources, we will be able to organize larger events with Professor Ravi Gupta, including a tour of Chile visiting different universities.
In any case, academic events have ceased to be attractive in Chile, as we have been told by professors from different universities with whom we have a relationship, even important events organized by the same university have very low attendance, is the tendency after pandemic. Perhaps it's necessary to think about and design a new strategy for academic preaching.
After the Universidad de Chile we went to the temple to take prasadam and during the afternoon Amrita Keli mataji gave a conference about Homeschooling at Iskcon Chile and after Gaura Arati Radhika Raman gave the Bhagavad-gita class.
On Saturday 26th, after Mangalarati and Govinda, Radhika Raman gave the Srimad Bhagavatam class, the temple was almost full. After breakfast we took the whole family to get their luggage and for a sightseeing tour of different attractive places, such as the Church of the Dominicans and San Cristobal Hill. They got on the cable car, they seemed happy and enthusiastic about getting to know a little of the city quickly, because then we took them to the airport to take their flight back to Utah.
The congregation in Chile greatly appreciate Radhika Raman and his family, they are lovely and he had a very positive impact on the teachers and scholars with whom he had direct contact during the conferences. Radhika Raman is a very special devotee, he is a genius and a very loving and humble human being, and he is also a master, he is a Guru.
Ananta Rupa Das stay at Iskcon Chile until Friday November 15.
Thank you very much Guru Maharaja for the opportunity to do this service and allow me to associate with such special devotees.
Please accept my respectful obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Your aspiring servant,
Carlos.
ASA - Thank you for this fantastic journalism.
If you continue like this Krsna will kidnap you and you will become one of the Newscaster green parrots on Vrndavana?
Krsna will decide when to send the people, massive crowds,
🐂🐂🐄🦍🦍👺🌞🌴🌴🐒🐕🐒🐵,
our job is to be academically prepared to receive them, and invite them as best we can?
