Abstract for Madras University

HAre Krsna!

Here is Abstract for our presentation January ~7th atg Bhagavatam Symposium organized by K. Ksetra Swami and Radhika ramana Das at Madras University.

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ABSTRACT

IRON HORSES AND TALKING WIRES
Teaching Srimad Bhagavatam in the Industrialized World.

Hanumatpresaka Swami (Professor Huber Hutchin Robinson)
ISKCON – North American Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies

Presenter has been studying and teaching Srimad Bhagavatam in the industrialized world in North and South America, Europe and India for over 40-years. This has included programs with Nobel Laureates, ISKCON Temples, Universities, Museums and many others. He will outline three major areas where the message of the Bhagavata has been successfully introduced amongst the highly analytical, mechanized and scientific people of these worlds.

First is the area of Science and the Bhagavata. Here there has been colossal work for many years. The current ripened fruit has been in developing relations with the community of psychologists and scholars who are followers of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung. Jung appreciated Indian mysticism greatly but was also very concerned how to translate these things into a format comprehensible and useful to science. We just finished an intense, international symposium on “Psychology and the Sacred” in Lima, Peru and are scheduled for bigger events of this type in 2017 and 2018. Along with this a journal “Solaris” is being published, and along with other academics presenter is working on a very serious presentation of the Sankhya of Lord Kapila and others in the Bhagavata that will allow practical realization of Bhagavata Sankhya in the scientific world.

Second has been the Approach Through Drama. Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s presentation of the Bhagavata culture as broadcast by our Acharya, Srila Rupa Goswami, especially through his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu is Gandhava Veda: Music, Dance, Drama leading to ultimate realization of Krsna. This educational approach has been presented using Prof, David Haberman’s standard translations and annotations of the BRS which include the history of Rasa and theater from Bharata Muni to Abhinava Gupta, to Emperor Bhoja, to Sri Rupa Goswami. This in turn can be related with great clarity to a large Western audience through the Western theater tradition of Aristotle, Stanislavsky and Viola Spolin.

Third and finally, Academic Study of the Bhagavata through structured classes on a global basis using direct and distance education techniques. The diplomas given for these studies include Bhakti-vaibhava for Cantos 1-6 and Bhakti-vedanta for Cantos 7-12. Presenter will give a brief overview of this formal academic study and then a specific sample in the form of the natural analysis that students can learn of the very well-formed structure of the Bhagavata.