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ISKCON Academics Travel the South American Lecture Circuit

Image: NIOS

Second row from front: Hanumatpresaka Swami in saffron robes. Gopala-Hari Dasa in maroon sweater. Behind him with glasses, Aruddha Dasi. In blue tie, Dean of Faculty of Science Immanuel Rodriguez. In grey on far left, Ananta-rupa Dasa.

Associates of the ISKCON devotee-run North American Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies (NIOS) toured South America from September to November this year, presenting educational and cultural programs in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

The NIOS group—which included ISKCON gurus and prominent academics such as Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, Hanumatpresaka Swami, Anantarupa Dasa, Aruddha Dasi, and Gopal-hari Dasa—visited six universities, five Municipal Cultural Centers, and the Indian Embassies in Chile and Argentina.

The group also attended three Jagannatha Rathyatra festivals and held programs in over one dozen ISKCON temples and households.

Presentations included “The Second Apple: The Theology of Sir Isaac Newton” by Gopala-hari Dasa, who is currently finishing his PhD in science and religion at Oxford University.

At a typical program at the Peruvian National Science and Technology Counsel—in one of Peru’s premier science universities—many of the professors were polite, yet agnostic. By the end of Gopala-hari’s presentation, however, their attitudes had completely changed. One professor commented that he had never heard such an interesting discussion of the boundary ground between science and religion.

Forty of the best high school students of Peru, who were present to receive awards, also asked many questions.

Gopala-hari’s mother, Arudha Dasi, was also met with an enthusiastic response during the tour.  Her slide presentation on home-schooling in the ISKCON tradition was so popular that while visiting Lima, she was asked to repeat it twice within a three-day period.

Turning a hat-trick and almost making the NIOS tour a family outing was Arudha’s husband and Gopala-hari’s father Ananta-rupa Dasa, who recently retired from a successful career in Hewlett-Packard’s marketing division.

Ananta-rupa’s slide presentation on the construction and growth of the ISKCON temple in Boise, Idaho, which he and his family started and provided the central drive for, was well received. But it was his second presentation, “Ethics in Business,” that proved the most popular, even earning him an invitation to appear with it at the Indian Embassy in Chile.

Meanwhile, Hanumatpresaka Swami’s presentations for the tour included Light of the Bhagavata, Minding Monkey: Oriental Psychology and Personal Meditation, and Hamlet and Arjuna, a dramatic comparison and contrast of these two famous figures of literature. Light of the Bhagavata was especially popular, with two universities requesting NIOS to make systematic presentations including art, topical workshops and a film at their combined campuses.

After the tour, Hanumatpresaka Swami and NIOS will continue to focus on developing presentations on the subject of “Bhagavata Psychology and Meditation.”

Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, for his part, lectured on the topic of reestablishing traditional culture in Peru and the rest of the world at Peru’s Universidad Alas Peruanas. Senior faculty, generals from the Peruvian army and other scholars attended the talk and asked precise questions.

At Ricardo Palma University, also in Peru, Hridayananda Goswami spoke on the philosophical and religious roots of our current ecological catastrophe. After the talk, both he and Hanumatpresaka Swami were made official Professors of the University.

Now, feeling exhausted yet accomplished after their lengthy tour, the NIOS team members have returned to their individual homebases to rest and recuperate, while preparing for their next tour.