Seventh Annual
NIOS Symposium
Cultivation of the Human Spirit
27th August and
This year’s Symposium will
serve to initiate papers and presentations on our extended topic: Counselors, Codes and Kings. It is an
opportunity to organize future events and publications.
More information about this
general topic is available at: http://www.bhati.org/archives/news_07_xx_09.htm
CALENDAR
The Seventh Annual Symposium will be organized as a series of events.
·
Thursday, 27th August,
we will start with a small celebration of the annual Vaisnava Radhastami festival. Radha is
the consort of Krishna as Sita
is consort to Rama or even Mary to Jehovah. Besides traditional Sanskrit songs,
ornamentation and culinary delicacies, there will be a brief presentation by H.
H. Hanumatpresaka Swami (Professor Huber H. Robinson). Professor Robinson is
Visiting Lecturer with the Institute for
Oriental and Occidental Classical Studys with Ricardo Palma University Lima , Peru
· Friday, 28th August, we continue with the visit of Dr. Harold
Resnick[1]
(H. H. Hrdayananda Goswami), graduating
in Sanskrit from Harvard University University of California Florida
·
Saturday, 29th August
is a visit to the Murari Sevaka[2] rural community, which, along with its Amish
neighbors is an attempt at actually implementing a classical way of life.
·
Sunday, 30th August
will be the annual NIOS Board of Director’s and Organizing Meeting.
·
Monday, 31st August to
Thursday, 3rd September we are planning a series of informal
reunions and dinners.
· Friday, 4th September inaugurates the traditional akhanda sankirtana. This is a very popular, uninterrupted choral
repetition of hymns or Mantram which
will culminate after 24-hours on Saturday with a big feast of peerless India
· Saturday, 5th September finishes this year’s Symposium with an
academic session at 3:00P.M. The Call for Papers follows. Selected papers will be
presented Saturday. Those and others will be collected into one volume
for release the same day.
HOSPITALITY: All of
these events except for the visit to the Murari project will be hosted in Murfreesboro , Tennessee
CALL FOR
PAPERS
Considering all the preceding
descriptions, NIOS invites all interested persons to write on this theme of Counselors, Codes and Kings. Please
submit a summary of your paper to jayarama108-nioscck@yahoo.com.
Some
suggested topics are:
1. Historically all great human cultures have failed. Should we try again to
create utopia??
2. An overview of moral and social codes from diverse religious and secular
traditions including
for example even systems imbedded in science and the military.
3. How NIOS should proceed with its efforts.
4. Respond to the following position:
In
the classic Indian Bhagavata-purana
(1.2.9) the Sage Suta Goswami describes the proper human dharma in this way:
dharmasya hy
apavargyasya
nartho
’rthayopakalpate
narthasya
dharmaikantasya
kamo labhaya
hi smrtah
“All
occupational engagements [dharma] are certainly meant for ultimate liberation.
They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, one who is
engaged in the ultimate occupational service [dharma] should never use material
gain to cultivate sense gratification.”
The
first step in human civilization consists of occupational engagements performed
according to the scriptural injunctions. The higher intelligence of a human
being should be trained to understand basic dharma.
In human society there are various religious conceptions characterized as
Hindu, Christian, Hebrew, Mohammedan, Buddhist and so on, for without religion,
human society is no better than animal society.