BIHS to Hold Cosmology Conference in November | ISKCON News

Executive Director of BIHS Brahmatirtha Das speaks to contributors

The Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies (BIHS) will host a world convention, “Vedic Cosmology: Historical Perspectives and Current Research,” on November 17–19, 2023, on the BIHS Headquarters in Gainesville, Florida. This occasion is a pure outgrowth of three prior BIHS cosmology workshops – “Puranic Cosmography: Taking the fifth…Canto!” (2019), “Models and Memes and Maps: A Modern Journey by Ancient Cosmography” (2020), and “The Nature of Spacetime and the Evolving Universe: Exploring Puranic Cosmology” (2022). These workshops examined conventional and up to date research of cosmological points positioned in Sanskrit texts such because the Puranas (notably Srimad-Bhagavatam), the Jyotisa Sastras, and the Mahabharata. They have additionally impressed publications that characteristic current work by ISKCON students, comparable to Purva-paksa: A journal that includes current work by students related to the Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies, Volume 1 (working title), and Vedic Cosmography in a Modern Context: Virodha-parihara Revisited. The November convention will invite established students from around the globe to debate educational analyses in discourse with inner cultural appreciations.

This convention seeks to pursue two objectives: First, to additional develop matters thought of in earlier workshops and broaden analysis to incorporate further matters of curiosity. These seminars examined correlations between the esoteric cosmology described within the Puranas with each present and conventional conceptions of 1) the character of spacetime, 2) the cyclic universe, 3) gravity, 4) planetary movement, 5) chronology, 6) Jyotisa accounts of the cosmos, and 6) epistemology of Sankhya.

The second goal is to ask additional dialogue regarding the following 4 themes:

1. History and philosophy of cosmology because it bears on the Puranic universe
2. Puranic and Siddhantic cosmology
3. Archeoastronomy and chronology
4. Understanding science in sastra: epistemology and hermeneutics

A primary goal of this convention is to community with established students acquainted with Puranic and different historic and fashionable cosmological constructs, with the goal to foster collaborative tasks that may result in a richer understanding of the Vedic view of the universe. This in flip will assist develop productive narratives recognized with the Puranas for ISKCON tasks just like the Museum of the Vedic Planetarium, which is able to characteristic descriptions from conventional texts such because the Fifth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. The BIHS will publish proceedings to facilitate analysis meant for constructively exploring human expertise in relation to the cosmos.

For convention particulars and data on registration and summary submissions, please go to the BIHS convention net web page https://bihstudies.org/events/cosmology-conference/