An international seminar to commemorate the Sesquicentennial Birth Anniversary of the great freedom fighter, educationist and saint, Sri Aurobindo Ghose was organised by Women’s College, Shillong.
The seminar was held under the theme, ‘Sri Aurobindo Ghose: Past and Present’ in collaboration with the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies yesterday in blended mode.
The resource persons included Prof. Dilip Kumar Mohanta, Former Vice-Chancellor, Kalyani University and Founder Vice-Chancellor, Sanskrit College and University, Kolkata; Prof. Debashish Banerji, Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and Doshi Professor of Asian Art, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco; Prof. Sachidananda Mohanty, Former Vice-Chancellor of University of Orissa; Anurag Banerjee, Founder and Managing Trustee, Overman Foundation, Kolkata; Peter Heehs, Independent Scholar, Pondicherry; Prof. Sushmita Sengupta, Department of Political Science, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong; and Alex Wolfers, King’s College, University of Cambridge.
The resource persons spoke on ‘Some Introductory Remarks About Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy and His View on the Status of the World’; ‘The Crisis of Humanist Thought and the Posthuman Imperative of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Philosophy’; ‘Sri Aurobindo and the Problem of Self-Determination’; ‘Sri Aurobindo on Religious Nationalism and Communal Harmony’; ‘Sri Aurobindo’s “Five Dreams” In 2022: Scorecard of the Second Innings’; ‘Role of Sri Aurobindo in the Nationalist Movement and Relevance of his concept of Nationalism in Recent Times’; and ‘Aurobindo Ghose, Swadeshi and the Revolutionary Sannyasi’ respectively.
The seminar brought forth various aspects of the life and contributions of Sri Aurobindo and the relevance of his ideas in the twenty-first century. The speakers spoke on Sri Aurobindo Ghose as a versatile personality – a nationalist, an internationalist, an educationist, and most significantly the yoga guru.
