Dear list members,

On behalf of colleagues and professors at IIT Tirupati, please find below some information about an upcoming online course and the extended deadline for registration (if interested, please consult the link with the pdf for a complete description of the course).

"An online GIAN course on the theme ‘The Advaita Vedanta Tradition and the Possibilities for a Hindu Theology of Liberation’ is organised by Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,  Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati (India)| April  25- 29, 2022 

The Advaita Vedanta tradition is traditionally understood as concerned with liberation (mokṣa) and not with issues of injustice in this world. The latter is the concern of liberation theology. Some Advaita interpreters minimize the significance of the world by suggesting that the knowledge of brahman requires and results in the disappearance of the world of diversity. The world is likened to a sense-illusion that we conjure and experience because of our ignorance. When the reality of the world is denied in this manner, it is not consistent for one to be affected by events within it. To respond the world is to grant reality to the world; it is to treat as real that which does not, in reality, exist. Interpretations like these provide justification for world-renunciation rather than world-affirmation, and have been most strongly and clearly articulated in the many of the monastic and ascetic strands of the tradition. Taken to their extremes, these interpretations make it difficult to take the world and its issues seriously.

Teaching faculty: Anantanand Rambachan is Professor of Religion at Saint Olaf College, Minnesota. He was also Visiting Professor at the Academy for the Study of World Religions at the University of Hamburg in Germany (2013-2017). His books include: Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Shankara, The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Authority of the Vedas, The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity, A Hindu Theology of Liberation and Essays in Hindu Theology. His scholarly interests include: the Advaita (Non-dual) Vedanta tradition, Hindu ethics, liberation theology, and interreligous dialogue.

Course description and objectives:

https://gian.iitkgp.ac.in/files/brochures/BR1643679435GIAN_Advaita_vedanta.pdf

Registration 

The participation fee for taking this online course is as follows:

• Students: Rs 500/-
• Faculty members: Rs 1000/
• Participants from abroad: US $ 50

Deadline

• Interested candidates can fill the google form  https://forms.gle/4PcS5jkWb9J1zuf68
• Last date for receipt of applications: 24 th April 2022.
• Shortlisted candidates will be intimated by e-mail for registration."

Best regards,

Elise Coquereau-Saouma