Conference 2017
Synthesis of Science & Spirituality for Holistic Development
IISc Bangalore
September 9, 2017
The first annual conference ‘FUSION 2017’ with the theme “Synthesis of Science and Spirituality for Holistic Development”, was organized by Bhaktivedanta Institute, Bangalore on Saturday, 9th September 2017. The one-day conference took place at Satish Dhavan Auditorium in the prestigious Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore. The conference was organized as a humble tribute to Dr. T. D. Singh (His Holiness Bhaktiswarupa Damodar Swami) on his 80th birth anniversary celebrations. This conference brought together many distinguished personalities having scientific as well as spiritual backgrounds to address more than 300 students and professionals in many thought provoking sessions.
The conference was inaugurated by recitation of beautiful prayer to Lord Vishnu by children having special training in Indian classical music. His Holiness Sri Sri Sri Nirmalanandanatha Maha Swamiji from Sri Adichunchanagiri Mahasamsthana Math, Karnataka was the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony. Sri Murali M., Managing Director, Shriram Properties Ltd and Dr. N. R. Shetty, Advisor, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology were the guests of honor. On this occasion, Prof. P. B. Sharma, Vice Chancellor of Amity University and President of Association of Indian Universities; Prof. Sudipto Ghosh, IIT Kharagpur; Sri Prabhakar Ballapalle, President of Bhaktivedanta Institute, Bangalore; Dr. Kalicharan Nayak, The conference secretary; were also present. The distinguished guests honored Dr. T. D. Singh, Founder Director, Bhaktivedanta Institute as well as His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acharya, Bhaktivedanta Institute by offering flowers and lamps.
During inauguration, Dr. Kalicharan Nayak gave a welcome address. Then Sri. Prabhakar Ballapalle addressed the gathering by explaining the purpose of this conference. During his inaugural address, His Holiness Sri Sri Sri Nirmalanandanatha Maha Swamiji emphasized the need of integration of science and spirituality in every aspect of scientific endeavor. He explained the deeper understanding of senses, mind, intuition, intelligence and consciousness as reality beyond ordinary comprehension. Sri Murali M. explained the need of fusion of science and spirituality in our day to day activities, with special attention to present scenario of national and international government policies regarding globalization and trade. Sri N. R. Shetty elucidated the need of synthesis of science and spirituality in modern education with moral and ethics. Prof. P.B. Sharma expounded the pathway to integrate capabilities with values with special attention to our prayers for others to achieve peace and prosperity in society. The quality of a true spiritual person was elaborated by Prof. Sudipto Ghosh. He also focused on the need of such conferences for achieving better guidelines for scientific research. The inauguration ceremony ended with the publication of conference souvenir document.
God is very personal. He has very personal interactions with us … I think there is continuous interaction between God and this universe, especially with us personally. That is very important to our lives. … I believe that and I feel it.
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Inventor of laser and maser
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The second session of the conference consisted of keynote addresses. The keynote address was given by Prof. P. B Sharma on ‘Importance of Synthesizing and Spirituality in Modern India’. In this presentation, he discussed about need of integration of spirituality in education system and the relevance of ancient Indian value system in modern times. He concluded with the hope to build a better world by establishing centers of ethics and professional morality in universities and institutions of higher learning. The second presentation in this session was given by Sri Prabhakar Ballapalle, President of Bhaktivedanta Institute, Bangalore on ‘Dr. T. D. Singh and Glimpse of Activities of Bhaktivedanta Institute’. In his presentation, he briefly reviewed the life of Dr. T. D. Singh and his vision of organizing conferences on synthesis of science and spirituality. He also reviewed the past and recent activities of Bhaktivedanta Institute including its publications as well as various programs conducted in educational, corporate and research institutions across India.
The theme of the third session was ‘Role of Science and Spirituality in Pursuit of Happiness’. The first presentation in this session was given by Prof. Sudipto Ghosh, IIT Kharagpur on topic ‘Science, Spirituality and Happiness: Vedantic and Western Perspectives’. In this presentation, he explained the fundamental sat-chit-ananda nature of the soul and how a log lasting happiness can be achieved by realizing the knowledge about self, Supreme Lord and nature. He also shared experiences from his personal life about his spiritual journey. The second talk in this session was given by Sri Dinesh Kashikar from Art of Living foundation on ‘Science, Spirituality and Pursuit of Happiness’. In his talk, he conducted a simple experiment of clapping hands in synchronization with audience and demonstrated how we can be happy and satisfied although we fail to achieve our objective. He also gave some insights into yoga system based on Patanjali yoga sutras.
The theme of the fourth session was ‘Health and Spirituality’. This session was chaired by Colonel Dr. Jai Prakash from Sri Siddhartha Medical College, Tumkur. The first presentation in this session was given by Prof. B. N. Gangadhar, Director, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) on topic ‘The Role of Yoga in Schizophrenia: Correcting Connectopathy’. In his talk, he discussed several case studies on how the practice of yoga has contributed to improving the overall health and social behavior of Schizophrenia patients. The second talk in this session was given by Prof. B. M. Hegde, Padma Bhushan, Former Vice Chancellor, Manipal University on topic ‘Science, Spirituality and Health’. In his talk, he explained the limitations of some of the methods and practices used in modern medical science
and how the spiritual lifestyle accompanied by healthy diet is important in well being of a person. He also shared his experiences when he had a stroke attack. The third presentation was given by Dr. V. Harish, Assistant Vice President, Mediassist India TPA Pvt. Ltd. The topic of his presentation was ‘Spirituality Research in Health Care’. In his talk, he emphasized on the fact that the practice of yoga and meditation is prescribed as a daily activity in Ayurveda for having a perfect health and prolonged life. He concluded that the people with no worries tend to have healthy life and spirituality enables people to worry less.
The fifth session of the conference consisted of presentation of selected papers by students. This session was chaired by Dr. Upendra Behera, Centre for Cryogenic Technology, IISc, Bangalore. Two papers were selected for the presentation. The first paper was presented by Mr. Digvijay and Mr. Ravi Prakash Dwivedi from National Dairy Research Institute, Bangalore. The title of their paper was ‘Integration of Science and Spirituality in the Technological Society’. The second paper was presented by Mr. Adarsh M. Kalla, National Dairy Research Institute, Bangalore on topic ‘Contribution of Indian Sastras and Scriptures in the Field of Science’.
The last session consisted of a panel discussion on a theme ‘Need of a New Science for Holistic Development’. The following distinguished personalities were present in the panel:
- Prof. P. B. Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Amity University
- Dr. R. Balasubramaniam, Founder and Chairman, Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement
- Prof. Sudipto Ghosh, IIT Kharagpur
- Prof. R. Srikant, Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research
- Dr. A. G. Ramakrishnan, Dept. Of Electrical Engineering, IISc Bangalore
- Dr. T. S. Mohan, Director and Founder, Pragyan Datalabs
Each of the panel members briefly expressed his views on synthesis of science and spirituality for holistic development. This was followed by questions by participants to the panelists.
Each session of the conference was highly appreciated by the participants. Many interesting question-answer discussions took place at the end of every session. All the participants were served with the first class meals and snacks prasadam. The table presenting the publications of Bhaktivedanta Institute was visited by many enthusiastic participants. Finally the conference ended with presentation of gifts to the guests and valedictory function. The conduction of the conference program was smooth and successful due to the dedicated efforts of the organizing team. Fusion 2017 was the first of its kind one-day conference. Also, the experience gained during this conference will be valuable for organizing such a conference in future.
Moments
Some memorable moments of conference
