Author: Swami Lokeswarananda
Eminent Contributors/
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Swami Sarvabhutananda
Publisher: Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 239
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187332638
Description
There has been a deep underlying conviction in the Indian mind since time immemorial that beneath the ground of human life there lies a mine of gold, which proper digging and tilling, is to be brought upward if we want to remove all our wants. But unfortunately most of us are unaware of our richest heritage and spend our lives in utter penury. In our time, it was left to Swami Vivekananda to remind us of it once again, when he defined education as ‘the manifestation of the perfection already in man’.
The Upanishad ages back, told us of the same thing through beautiful imagery: ‘As those who are unaware of the worth in gold of the land or field, over which they move all the time again and again, under which lies embedded a mine of gold, similarly all beings, though day after day, go to Brahmaloka, never attain it, being engulfed by the falsity, that is ignorance.’ In age after age the perennial values have thus been voiced to remind us about them.
Everyone is thus looking to the East, specially to India, for the light and that is because it has enshrined the perennial values in its culture through all the ages. In the pursuit of culture, the need and purpose of every man’s efforts were found to be fourfold, which were called Purusarthas. They have been named as dharma-artha-kama and moksa. These are the caturvargas, but for men in general trivarga was set forth as the goal, leaving out the last one, moksa, liberation or freedom, for the chosen few, who had achieved or attained in full all the previous three.
This present volume, The Perennial Values of Indian Culture, is a collection of seventeen annual Surrendra Paul Lectures delivered by eminent personalities at our Institute during the period 1991-2007, covering diverse aspects of Indian life and culture. These lectures commemorate Surrendra Paul, a noted industrialist and a staunch follower and admirer of Indian culture. Originally the lectures were published as separate monographs. Now to have them under one cover they are presented in this single volume.
Contents
1991 : Inauguration of Surrendra Paul Chair for Ideological Studies and Research
Benediction
-SRIMAT SWAMI BHUTESHANANDAJI MAHARAJ INAUGURAL ADDRESS
- SWAMI GAHANANANDA KEYNOTE ADDRESS
- SIBAJIBAN BHATTACHARYYA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
- SWAMI LOKESWARANANDA
1992 : Work Culture
– D. P. CHATTOPADHYAY
1993 : Place of Values in Modern Life
- SWAMI LOKESWARANANDA
1994 : Science and Spirituality
- N.V. C. SWAMY
1995 : Transformation of Religious Sensibilities in Nineteenth Century Bengal
- TAPAN RAY CHOUDHURI
1996 : Western Response to the Bhagavad-Gita
- R. K. DASGUPAT
1997 : Fifty Years on: Some Reflections on the National Identity
– AMALENDU DAS GUPTA
1998 : Influence of the Ramayana Culture in South-East Asia
SATKARI MUKHOPADHYAYA
1999 : Fundamentals of India Culture: Its Relevance in Today’s Context
- K.P.A. MENON
2000 : The Spiritual Values in Indian Culture
- NRUSINGH CHARAN PANDA
2001 : The Perennial Values of Indian Culture
- GOVINDA GOPAL MUKHOPADHYAYA
2002 : Indian Values in the 21st Century
- THE RT. HON. THE LORD SWRAJ PAUL OF MARYLEBONE
2003 : Indianness and Contemporary India
- INDRA NATH CHOUDHURI
2004 : Business as a Part of Society
- S.M. DATTA
2005 : Advanced Health Care for All
- R.D. LELE
2006 : Science in India: Problems and Prospects
- A.P. MITRA
2007 : Civil Society and its Transformation in India: From Citizen to Beneficiary
- DIPANKAR GUPTA