Invitation: Dharma Education & Training Seminar_Jan 11 2014 (Pearland_TX_USA)

DC5

Dharma Education & Training Seminar

“Rituals, Festivals, Astronomy and Psychology”
And
“Sankranti: Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya”

FREE ADMISSION ● DONATIONS WELCOME

REGISTRATION REQUIRED RSVP: events@ldfsa.org
                                                          Sri Meenakshi Temple (Old Library Room, Next to Cafeteria)

About the Program
Bedrock of Dharma traditions is adhyatmic (spiritual) pursuit by individuals, and in households. Due to dis-tractions of modern life, individual pursuit of adhyatmic practices suffer. Many observe rituals and cele-brate festivals without knowing their adhyatmic purpose and connectivity to the larger cultural context. Without this background knowledge, over time, individuals drop practices at home, resulting in an irrepara-ble loss of Dharma traditions. The Lokadharma education and training program is designed, specifically for parents with young children, to educate and spread Dharma awareness, in addition to providing necessary training on how to pursue the rituals and celebrate festivals in households. The program is also a useful resource for those in American mainstream who want to partake the pursuit of adhyatma (Dharmic spiritu-ality) without the baggage of “organized religion”.

FEATURED SPEAKER
Dr. N. R. Joshi
The speaker holds a Ph. D, degree in Materials Science and Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University of Balti-more, Maryland. He has 60 research publications and three patents. He is the fellow of American Society of Non-destructive Testing. Dr. Joshi has pub-lished many articles on Hindu religion, Sanskrit and Mahabharata in local eth-nic weeklies of Houston. He attended many WAVES conferences and present-ed his research about Sanskrit and Mahabharata. He had education of Sanskrit in his early part of life. Be-cause of Sanskrit he is also interested in various aspects of Hindu religion. He has published papers on Sanskrit se-mantics in journals like Vedic Science of Dr. Ravi Prakash Arya and Dhimahi of Chinmaya Research Foundation from Kerala, India. He attended the 14th World Sanskrit Conference in Delhi in 2012 and presented paper. Although he is by profession scientist and engi-neer, he has keen interest in the an-cient Indian philosophy and religion.

FEATURE PRESENTATION Rituals, Festivals, Astronomy and Psychology
By Dr. N. R. Joshi
Rituals and festivals of Dharmic traditions are increasingly being no-ticed in the American mainstream, including the celebration of Diwali in the White House. On the other hand, the youths within the Dhar-mic traditions are either nominally observing these, or they just drop them due to monotony and disinterest. It is necessary to educate and spread awareness about the larger Dharmic context of these rituals and festivals, in order to gain proper acceptance of Dharmic tradi-tions in American mainstream, and amongst the youth within these traditions. For that, knowledge about logic and reasoning behind Dharmic calendars is necessary. That leads to the knowledge of as-tronomy, and then to astrology. Awareness of these knowledge sys-tems is necessary for development of spiritual psychology. The disci-pline of spiritual psychology is important because of its symbiotic connectivity to the rationale for Dharmic rituals and festivals. It is important for parents and others in the society to know these factors in order to build, internalize and express the rationale behind rituals and festivals. In addition to these topics, the speaker will discuss briefly his research about internal beauty of Sanskrit.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION: “Sankranti: Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya ” By Chenniyangiri Kuzhanthaiswami
The speaker will present the history and importance of Makar Sankranti. He will also provide practical guidelines for householders on how the festival can be celebrated in the hectic modern life.

RSVP / FURTHER INFORMATION:

Rajiv Varma (281-576-7496) ● Dr. Bala Aiyer (832-465-0432) ●

OR Please send e-mail to EVENTS @ LDSFA.ORG

BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Loka Dharma Seva Foundation of America

 

Source: Loka Dharma Seva Foundation of America