Bhakti Yoga from a Professional's Perspective

Dr Hegde’s talk is based on Chapter 12 Bhakti Yoga of Bhagavd Gita. Bhakti means Devotion which is love directed towards a higher principle, which is considered reverential or sacred like parents, Guru, Nation or God. Dr Hegde will elaborate how God love will become equal to Self love. And since self love is the most intense love, that form of love is called Uttama Bhakti. (Highest form of devotion)

The other meaning is Bhakti as a course of discipline to achieve the spiritual goal, the ultimate goal of liberation. First stage of Bhakti Yoga is Karma Yoga. The second stage is Upāsana Yoga the last stage of is Jnāna Yoga. Bhakti Yoga is the common name for all the three because, Bhakti is the common atmosphere in which all these three Yogas are practiced. It is not that Bhakti is separately practiced in a separate time but Karma Yoga, Upāsana Yoga and Jnāna Yoga have to be imbued in Bhakti.

He will then explain how God is worshipped – from a single Form (Eka Rupa) to several Forms (Aneka Rupa) and ultimately to No Form (Nirupa). The devotee will then realise God is formless yet present every where in the Universe that has been created by God.

Dr. Thimappa Hegde is presently the Director and Senior consultant Neurosurgeon at Narayana Hrudayalaya  Institute of Neurosciences . He was earlier the Additional Professor of Neurosurgery at NIMHANS, Bangalore. He had his basic medical and neurosurgical training in India & later acquired specialised training in the United States of America, Japan and the Netherlands. He has authored 30 scientific publications in leading journals and has written one book on the history of neurosciences. He is the Past  President of the Neuro Spinal Surgeons Association.

His interests include the history of medicine and the humanities of medicine. Thimappa is keenly interested in badminton, trekking and travelling, having travelled to various places connected with the life of Buddha and Adi Shankaracharya. He has also trekked to various places in the Indian Himalayas, including to Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash. Dr Hegde is keenly interested in Indian Philosophy and gives lectures based on the ancient scriptures including Bhagavad Gita.

Dr. Hegde has been awarded "Outstanding Citizen Award" by the Lions Club of Bangalore and was selected as a member of the Group Study Exchange Program of the Rotary International to visit USA and Canada in 1997.

He was invited by the Vatican to speak at an International Meeting in November 1999 at the Vatican City and had a special audience with the Pope His Holiness John Paul 2.

Every human being is endowed with the faculty to understand and appreciate what is right and what is wrong. Notwithstanding this understanding born out of common sense, they are still engaged in doing wrong things. In spite of the fact that they want to refrain, are there certain factor(s) that influence them to engage with such wrong doings? If so what are those factors? Is there a way safeguard from those factors and save oneself from getting sucked into them ?

These are some of the questions that have been posed long back by Arjuna to Krishna in Bhagavad Gita. 

In his reply, Krishna systematically explains to Arjuna that it is indeed possible to get out of this self-defeating rat race by carefully nurturing and cultivating a bunch of values referred to as daivi sampat (the spiritual wealth). 

Prof. Ramasubramanian holds a doctorate in Theoretical Physics, a Bachelors in Engineering, and a Masters in Sanskrit. Presently he is Professor at IIT Bombay in the Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit, Department of Humanitites and Social Sciences.

For completing a rigorous course in Advaita Vedanta (a 14 semester program) he was honored with the coveted title “Vidvat Pravara” by the Shankaracharya of Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham in the year 2003. He is one of the authors who prepared detailed Explanatory Notes of the celebrated works Ganita-yuktibhasha (Rationales in Mathematical Astronomy) and Tantrasangraha which brings out the seminal contributions of the Kerala School of astronomers and mathematicians in the field of Mathematics and Astronomy.

Besides this, he has edited other works in Indian Astronomy and Mathematics, as well as authored several research papers, both individually and jointly with others. In 2008, he was conferred the prestigious award of Maharshi Badarayan Vyas Samman by the President of India in recognition of his scholarship as well as the outstanding research work done by him to the process of synergy between modernity and tradition. In 2010, the National Academy of Sciences India, honored him by conferring upon him the R. C. Gupta Endowment Lecture Award. He got elected as a Council member of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology in the year 2013. He was a Member of the Second Sanskrit Commission formed by the MHRD, Government of India, in the year 2014, and is a Member of the Central Sanskrit Board formed in 2015.

Date: Sunday, 16 October 2016

Venue: PGP Hall, Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple, Serangoon Road

Program:

09.00 am   Arrival of delegates

09.30 am   Prayers, Inauguration of the Forum, Keynote Address by the Guest of Honour Swami Vimokshananda, President, Ramakrishna Mission, Singapore

10.00 am   Bhakthi Yoga from a Professional's Perspective by Dr Thimappa Hedge followed by interaction with audience

12.15 pm   Lunch break

01.15 pm   Open Forum 

02.30 pm   Can we avoid the portals that shackle us? by Prof Ramasubramanian followed by interaction with audience

05.00 pm   Conclusion

Attendance at the Event is free, but registration is required. 

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