FORTHCOMING EVENTS - May 2013

FILM: FILMS ON SPIRITUALITY & FAITH a series of monthly screenings in collaboration with the India International Centre --------------   6th June, 2013, 6:30 pm Auditorium, India International Centre Max Mueller Road, New Delhi - 110003 SPIRITUAL WARRIORS  A film directed by David Raynr   99 minutes The film highlights the age old saying, 'Every life has a purpose'. It’s the story of Finn, an out-of-work actor involved in a messy drug deal, who forms an intriguing friendship with Roger- a compelling and patient spiritual teacher. It is under his guidance that Finn realises the truth of his spiritual nature and the purpose of his life. The film heralds love as the source of all inspiration, motivation and success.  Official Selection, Toronto Indie Can Film Festival, 2007 Official Selection, Tel Aviv Spirits Film Festival, 2007 Official Selection, Cairo International Film Festival, 2007           “The film is a terrific voyage, a memorable journey through the light and dark of our lives and ultimately to hope.”                                                 -    Victor Salva, director, Peaceful Warrior and Powder CONVERSATION: DIASPORA: A Tibetan Perspective An initiative to provide a platform to young Tibetans in exile to present and discuss their ideas and suggestions to stimulate dialogue & improve networks of the vibrant Tibetan diaspora. ----------------------------------------------------- 23th June, 2013, 2pm Seminar Hall 3, Kamla Devi Block India International Centre, Max Muller Road, New Delhi let's read & talk with   TENZIN NANGSYAL An Assistant News Editor with Hindustan Times based in New Delhi. An alumnus of Central School for Tibetans, she finished her graduation with English honours from St. Bede's College, Shimla. She completed her post-graduation in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. She started her career in Journalism by working with The Indian Express Newspaper at Chandigarh. an initiative of FOUNDATION FOR UNIVERSAL RESPONSIBILITY OF HH THE DALAI LAMA and EMPOWERING THE VISION in collaboration with INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE TALK: MAJOR SCHOOLS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHYTheir impact on India’s Civilizational Heritage and Contemporary Relevance a monthly lecture series in collaboration with the India International Centre The talk series will explore some of the important philosophical traditions and the impact they have had on the Indian Mind. We hope to help cultivate a deeper understanding of India's civilizational heritage in a manner that is accessible to a lay person. To start with we plan to look at Sāmkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeşika, Pūrva, Mīmāmsa and Uttara Mīmāmsa that advanced Vedic ideas & philosophies. In time we hope to look at the philosophies of The Mahābhārata, Śankara/Rāmānuja, Buddhism/Jainism, Ramakriṣhṇa/Vivekānanda and the four yogas (Karma, Bhakti, Raja, Hatha) etc. ----------------------------------------------------- 13th June, 2013, 6:30 pmAuditorium, India International Centre Max Muller Road, New Delhi Advaita Vedanta by Swami Atmapriyananda (Vice-Chancellor, Educationist, Scholar, Philosopher) Swami Atmapriyananda is the Vice Chancellor of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, a multi-campus University trying to actualize Swami Vivekananda’s educational vision and devoted to teaching and research in a variety of unique Faculties. On account of its unique features, particularly its emphasis on ‘gap areas’ (areas scarcely addressed by the conventional Universities in India), this new University has been awarded full membership of ‘Global University Network for Innovation’ (GUNI), a Europe-based global organization networking Universities with social commitment. Swami Atmapriyananda received his Ph.D. from the University of Madras, India, in Theoretical Physics for his work in particle theory and has a number of research publications in reputed international journals. Inspired by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideology, he joined the Ramakrishna Order of monks in 1978 and was posted at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, a premier college of Ramakrishna Mission at Belur Math, where he taught Physics for nearly 25 years besides serving as Vice-Principal and Principal for 19 years before taking charge as Vice Chancellor of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University in July 2005. As a monk and an educationist, his present interests are: (i) Swami Vivekananda’s educational vision education for character building in the youth (ii) Yoga-Vedanta vis-à-vis modern science, (iii) Ramakrishna-Vivekananda thought in the context of present day challenges, (iv) Consciousness Studies as taught in the Upanishads, (v) Synthesis of the four yogas as taught by Swami Vivekananda and Bhagavad-Gita, and (vi) Harmony of religions as lived and taught by Sri Ramakrishna. He has a good number of publications on the above subjects in the journals of Ramakrishna Order and of various organizations. Swami Atmapriyananda participates on invitation in various religious and educational seminars, symposia, colloquia, workshops and conferences in India and abroad organized by Universities, research institutes and religious organizations on the subjects of his interest as mentioned above. He toured Europe twice during 2008-2009 on invitation to act as a Resource Person at international and national yoga conferences in Italy organized respectively by Sarvayoga International and Italian Yoga Federation. As a member of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders, an arm of Elijah Interfaith Institute, a global organization working for interreligious understanding and peace, he attended on invitation a conference at Haifa, Israel, in October 2009 on The Future of Religious Leadership. He was an invited speaker at the Parliament of World Religions organized in Melbourne, Australia, in December 2009, on The Training of Religious Leadership in a Multi-religious World. He attended on invitation a meeting of religious leaders of various world religions at the ‘Guerrand Hermes Forum for the Interreligious Study of Mysticism and Spirituality’, a project of the Elijah Interfaith Academy and Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders, held at Marakesh, Morocco, during 22-26 February 2011. On his way back, he had lively talks and interactions with groups of interested spiritual seekers at Dubai and Abu Dhabi. During March-May 2012 and again in early 2013, he again visited the following countries abroad: 1. Marrakesh, Morocco, to attend the second meeting of the Guerrand Hermes Forum for the Study of Mystical and Spiritual Life, organized by Elijah Interfaith Institute, held during 15-18 March 2012,  2. Oxford, UK, to attend a meeting of the Elijah Board of Religious Leaders, organized by Elijah Interfaith Institute, held at Oxford during 18-21 March 2012, 3. Curitiba, Brazil, to attend the second meeting of the Executive Council as a member of ’World Day of Prayer and Action for Children’, a global      organization working for holistic welfare of children with Secretariat at New York, during 21-24 March 2012, 4. New York, USA, to attend the first meeting of the Executive Council as a member of ’World Day of Prayer and Action for Children’, a global organization working for holistic welfare of children with Secretariat at New York, during July 2011, 5. Assisi, Italy, to attend the third international yoga conference of ‘Sarva Yoga International’, Italy, held during 29 March – 1 April 2012, 6. Vedanta Centres of the Ramakrishna Mission in USA, viz., Ridgley Manor, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Olema Retreat, Berkeley, Los Angeles’ Hollywood centre, Santa Barbara centre, Trabuco centre for talks, discourses and interactions on spiritual matters, 7. New York to attend a High Level Meeting convened by the Royal Government of Bhutan, upon the invitation from the Prime Minister of Bhutan, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 2 - 4 April 2012 to discuss the developing of a new economic paradigm ‘Gross National Happiness’ in place of ‘Gross National Product’ or ‘Gross Domestic Product’. 8. South Africa during the first two weeks of May 2012 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the starting of the Ramakrishna Centre in South Africa. He visited and spoke at the main centre at Durban and the satellite centres at Chatworth, Phoenix, Pietermaritburg, Ladysmith and Johannesburg.  9. Marrakesh, Morocco, to attend the third meeting of the Guerrand Hermes Forum for the Study of Mystical and Spiritual Life, organized by Elijah Interfaith Institute, held during 18-21 February 2013. 10. Ukraine to attend the 3rd interfaith meet of the Kiev Interfaith Forum held during 23-24 April 2013. Highlights of the Talk: Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda’s Master and Guru, considered the Prophet of Harmony in the modern age, said, in his inimitable language, ‘Tie Advaita Jnana (the Knowledge of Advaita Vedanta) in the corner of your cloth and act as you please’, meaning thereby that Advaita should be basis of our daily life. It is not merely a system of philosophy to be studied for intellectual pleasure by scholars, it is not even a spiritual truth to be practised and pursued exclusively by monks and ascetics in the seclusion of caves and forests, but it is the highest truth about our existence, living and vibrant, to be put into practice and applied in daily life by men and women belonging to all strata of society and all walks of life. Defining his Ideal, Swami Vivekananda said, “My Ideal indeed can be put in a few words, and that is, to preach unto mankind its Divinity and how to manifest that Divinity in every movement of life.” In fact, the manifestation of this Divinity already present in every being is what Swami Vivekananda defined as ‘religion’, for which Advaita is the basis, the very foundation. Swami Vivekananda wanted Advaita Vedanta to be living and dynamic and that it should interpenetrate and percolate into every aspect of our individual and collective life. His famous words are:  “The dry, abstract Advaita must become living -- poetic -- in everyday life; out of hopelessly intricate mythology must come concrete moral forms; and out of bewildering Yogi-ism must come the most scientific and practical psychology -- and all this must be put in a form so that a child may grasp it. That is my life's work.” (Swami Vivekananda’s Complete Works, 5.104). On a similar note, he wrote on another occasion: “I want to give them dry, hard reason, softened in the sweetest syrup of love and made spicy with intense work, and cooked in the kitchen of Yoga, so that even a baby can easily digest it.” (Swami Vivekananda’s Complete Works, 5.104). Advaita Vedanta raises the awareness of humankind to the highest level of Oneness of Existence and Divinity of all beings not through philosophical reasoning or by metaphysical enquiry, but by opening up the unknown chambers in one’s own heart, by revealing the Ultimate Truth about our own inner Self, the self-effulgent, ever pure, ever awakened, ever free Atman (nitya shuddha, nitya buddha, nitya mukta). Since one’s own self is the dearest to oneself, enquiry into its real nature and discovery about the truth of one’s self is the most rewarding, most soothing, most liberating and the most delightful experience one can have in this modern life of mad rush and meaninglessness in which we seek to gain everything outside, but seem to have lost our own self! As the great psychologist Carl Jung’s famous book ‘Modern man in search of his soul’ tell us in a different language, Advaita Vedanta beckons the modern man to come back to his own Self and possess his Self (atmavan, as the Bhagavad-Gita puts it). As Jesus the Christ said, ‘What avails it if you possess everything but lose your own Soul?’ Now that the modern man is most panic-stricken, strife-torn and conflict-ridden, he would do well to listen quietly to the divine music of Advaita Vedanta that is constantly reverberating in the depths of his being.

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