Tag: Hindu
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Vijnana Vedanta: The Theology of Sri Ramakrishna
In this conversation, we discuss Swami Medhananda’s milestone publication on Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa which brings the thought of this esteemed saint in conversation with debates in Western philosophy of religion. We discuss how what can be termed Sri Ramakrishna’s ‘Vijnana Vedanta’ differs from the other schools of Vedanta such as Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita. Swami…
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Chaitanya Vaishnavism and Islam: The Path of Bhakti / Devotion
Dr. Saad Ismail is joined with Dr. David Coolidge who is a leading Muslim voice in Hindu studies. They focus on his area of specialization i.e. Chaitanya or Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Among other things, they explore the Vaishnava path of Bhakti or devotion to the Lord and discuss how it differs from other models of Hindu…
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Perilous Intimacies: Debating Hindu-Muslim Friendship After Empire with SherAli Tareen
In this conversation Prof. SherAli Tareen joins Dr. Saad Ismail for a succinct survey of key theoretical motifs in Prof. Tareen’s most recent ground-breaking book which explores how leading South Asian Muslim thinkers imagined and contested the boundaries of Hindu-Muslim friendship from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. He argues that often what was…
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Sadhguru and the Politics of Spirituality
If you listen to Sadhguru enough times – as I have – you come away with the impression that spirituality is the only sensible alternative to the regressive and old-fashioned belief in religion. Religions, and in Sadhguru’s view, Abrahamic religions in particular – with all their notions of a traditional creator-god, scriptural morality, and heaven…
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The Muslim self and its Hindu neighbours: amity and antagonism in the homelands of Bengal
Earlier this year, I published a book with the title “The Hindu Self and its Muslim Neighbors: Contested Borderlines on Bengali Landscapes”. When the manuscript was nearing completion, I realized – somewhat to my shock – that I had unwittingly written a book with the title “The Muslim Self and its Hindu Neighbors”. In other…
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The Hindu Self and its Muslim Neighbors in Bengali Landscapes
What do we learn from Rabindranath Tagore’s copious yet lesser-known writings on the Hindu-Muslim question? What do we learn from the fascinating interplay of Hindu-Muslim interactions in the history of Bengal? How do the behavioral patterns between the two communities fare and change over the course of history, particularly entering into the modern period? What…
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The Island of Remembrance
On a rainy afternoon in July, Reginald took a wrong turn at the busy intersection. Instead of walking in the direction of the noisy marketplace that would take him home in a few minutes, he accidentally stepped into a narrow lane that drew him towards a small garden shaded with leafy trees. As the golden…
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How Not to Do Hindu-Muslim Dialogue
Dr. Nick Sutton, director of the Oxford Center for Hindu Studies, offers a critical and respectful response to some of the gross misrepresentations of Hindu Traditions knowingly or unknowingly employed by Zakir Naik in his talks on Hinduism and Islam. The figure of Zakir Naik remains a paradigmatic example of how not to go about…
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Who is a Hindu? What is Hinduism?
Prof. Arvind Sharma and Dr. Saad Ismail continue their conversation on Hindu-Muslim dialogue. This conversation explores the central role of the historical encounter of the two traditions, and asks whether history is essential or accidental to our encounter. If history is accidental, then this opens up great possibilities for better interfaith relations in the present.…
Project Noon 