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For the Community Luncheon Reception for Professor Anantanand Rambachan

April 11th, Saturday, at 11 am – at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, San Jose 

Dear Ashutosh Gupta

Please register using the link shown above, or RSVP by responding to this e-mail confirming your participation at the Community Luncheon Reception,on April 11th, 2015 for Professor Anantanand Rambhachan. The event will feature the following: 

   1.  A talk by Professor Ananatanand Rambachan on transmitting Hindu Dharma across the generations in the diaspora. 

   2.  A talk by Professor Rita Sherma on the progress of activities at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley 

   3.  A preview of activities to come – this year and early next year, in this initiative. 

Dr. Anantanand Rambachan is a Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College, Minnesota. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Academy for the Study of World Religions, University of Hamburg, Germany, sine 2013. He was born in Trinidad and is a 4th generation Hindu Trindadian. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. He has served on the Theological Education Steering Committee of the American Academy of Religion. Among his many public roles, Professor Rambachan is an advisor to Harvard University’s Pluralism project, a member of the International Advisory Council for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and President of the Board of Arigatou International, NY. Dr. Anantanand Rambachan also studied for three years at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, a Hindu Seminary of the Chinmaya Mission in Mumbai, under the guidance of Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati, and remains his life long disciple. He has traveled and lectured widely in many countries including Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Mauritious, South Africa, Kenya, India, Trindad, Brazil, Japan. Italy, Spain. Canada and the United Kingdom. A series of 25 of his lectures was broadcast internationally by the BBC. Professor Rambachan also led the first White House Celebration of the Hindu Festival of Diwali in 2003. Professor Rambachan is the author of several books, numerous book chapters and journal articles. With his wide ranging travels, teaching and disseminating Hindu Dharma and Civilizational Values, and his upbringing in Trinidad which has preserved the Hindu heritage for many generations, amidst great adversity, Professor Rambachan will share his spiritual journey across the globe and his perspectives on the importance of preserving and passing forward the Hindu heritage.  

With your support, Dharma Civilization Foundation has enabled the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley to launch an accredited Masters Degree Program in Hindu Studies. Dr. Rita Sherma, who completed her tenure at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles as the Swami Vivekananda Visiting Professor in Hindu studies, has now moved to the GTU, Berkeley and taken over as the Director of Hindu studies. With approvals being completed lightning fast, under the stewardship of Professor Rita Sherma, this M.A. Program in Hindu Studies is now officially open for registration for students beginning the fall semester of 2015. 

What is unique about this program is that it is the first time, that a program on Hindu studies, in North America will offer courses on Hindu Philosophy of Religion, Hindu Theology, Spirituality, Yoga, Art, and cover major Hindu Thinkers within the framework of the principles of Dharma and Yoga. The program will emphasize the innovative application of Hindu ideas drawn from the principles of Dharma and Yoga towards addressing the major global challenges of our time. Perhaps for the first time in North America, this program will depart from the established academic norm where studying Hinduism has heretofore had an excessive emphasis on communal violence, abuse of women, Freudian psycho-analysis of the Hindu Gods and Gurus, the Dalit problem, Hindu oppression through the Caste system, Human rights violations of the Hindus etc. In this program, Hindu students will be able to recognize their heritage and apply it to their current day lives, as well as contemporary global issues. A certificate program will also be announced shortly and we anticipate that the Ph.D. program will also be approved and be open for registration in january of 2016. 

We hope that you will be able to attend this event and continue to support the progress of activities at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). 

With warm regards, 

Bay Area DCF Organizing Team: 

Kalyan Viswanathan, Executive Vice President, DCF, GTU Project In-charge

Ajay Shingal, Member of the Board of Trustees, DCF, Bay Area

Dr. Ushakant Thakkar, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, DCF, Los Angeles

Dr. Shiva Bajpai, President, Board of Trustees, DCF, Los Angeles

Dr. Manohar Shinde, Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees, DCF, Los Angeles

Bay Area Team members: Sreejit Kurup, Ashutosh Gupta, Sanjay Tripathi, Gnanakumar Rajaram, Ravi Ranjan, Shivang Vasihnav, Reena Rao

info@dcfusa.org

614-668-1668 (cell)