Discover the contemporary Relevance of Hindu Dharma

Course Content

The Vedic Hindu paradigm (or cosmology) represents an alternative to the Western paradigm. The paradigm of Western thought is centered on the idea of linear progress in time, that relentlessly renders tradition, and the thought of prior generations obsolete. It presents itself in opposition to tradition, on the principle that whatever value traditions might have had for humanity in the past, they have been decisively superseded by the progress of thought.

The Vedic Hindu paradigm presents itself as timeless i.e., that it encapsulates principles, values and ideas that do not age with time, and become relevant again and again, in every age and era, and even for all of humanity. The ground covered by this course will include a subset of the following themes, as selected through a democratic process by the students themselves:

• Purushartha – Living a whole, complete, and fulfilled life
• Ashrama Dharma – The Stages of a human life
• The Wheel of Samsara – Karma, Janma and Reincarnation
• Oneness and Identity – the conclusions of Vedanta
• Dharma versus Religion – A Categorial misalignment
• The Hindu concept of Brahman, and its unfolding into Purusha and Prakriti
• The transcendental and the Material worlds – in Hindu Dharma
• The Scope of the Vedas – Vedic Teachings about Teaching the Vedas
• Moksha, Freedom and Salvation – A comparative inquiry
• Yoga – A means for self-transformation
• Sanatana – Timelessness versus Historicism – The place of Hindu Dharma in world religion
• Cyclic Time versus Linear History – The central cosmological difference
• From the Vedas to NASA – Astronomy and Time and the antiquity of Hindu culture
• Avatars, Rishis, Yogis, Gurus and Acharyas – the continuously unfolding revelation
• People of the Book versus People of a Library
• Teaching Dharma versus Preaching and Proselytization
• Sanskrit – The mother of the World’s Languages
• The centrality of the Bhagavad Gita – the dialog between Krishna and Arjuna
• Speaking about the Epics – The Ramayana and the Mahabharata
• One God, Many Gods, Father God, Mother God, Angry God, and Friendly God
• Murti, Deity or Idol – Explaining worship through images
• Diversity, Plurality, Democracy and Hindu Culture
• The three Gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas – the basis for good and evil
• The three Doshas – Ayurveda and the interface to material nature
• Hindu Dharma, Holy Cows, and global Ecology and Sustainability
• Modernity according to the Hindu sages of yore
• Ahimsa – Non-violence and Vegetarianism in Hindu Dharma
• Jyotisha – Explaining Vedic Astrology to the uninitiated
• Darshana – Ways of understanding the Cosmos
• The Vedic Cosmology and the Dharma Traditions – Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism
• Progressivism and Historicism – Chronological Snobbery
• Colonization, Colonial Consciousness and Postcoloniality
• Who were the real Pagans? The world before Monotheism.
• Varna, Jati, and Caste – A clash of incommensurable paradigms
• The Guna, Karma paradigm of Varna and Jati
• The Aryan Race and the Racial Paradigm of Caste