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Since our last report in February 2007 many things have happened.
1) Promotional events for this years Festival were presented as planned at San Marcos University in Lima Peru on March 1st and 2nd. Many scholars and students of Oriental culture attended. Next the same events, Science, Politics and Philosophy: Where is Humanity Headed, were presented at two prominent universities in Argentina. Then returning to Lima and Miami a lecture presentation on Meditation and Stress: From the Existential to the Practical was presented, again with packed auditoriums and much interest generated for more expanded events by scholars and sponsors.
2) We are now editing the papers presented at these seminars and expect to have them available for distribution very soon.
3) By the mercy of our volunteers in California, Sanatana Sundaram and Gandharvika Devi Dasi, DVDs of last years Festival, The Bed of Arrows and History of the Vedas with Professor Ravi Gupta have been mailed out to everyone on our mailing list. If you did not receive these and would like to be on our mailing list then please write to:
NIOS - Secretary
304 Astor Way
Franklin, TN 37064
USA
4) By the efforts of Mr. Mohan Padmanabhan, Microsoft, has accepted NIOS as qualified to recieve their funding from an employee matching grants system. The first fruit of that was received in April with a check for $3,500.
5) After very strenuous round of meetings and discussions the Festival schedule and content for October is becoming very fixed.
Thursday, October 11th, Festival starts with invocatory events at La Cantuta National Education University.
Friday, October 12th, academic sessions at San Marcos University with presentation and round-table discussions on Classical Indian Epistemology from Jiva Goswamin by Professor Ravi Gupta with participation from national science counsel and scholars in education and philosophhy. Also, a dialog between H.H.Hanumatpresaka Swami and Professor Miguel Polo on Buddha and the Bhagavata. Papers and presentations on other related academic topics are invited.
Saturday. October 13th will focus on more cultural events with a presentation on the classical roots and manifestations of Hindi language by Dr. Ravi P. Singh, President of NIOS and the International Hindi Association. Students of the NIOS approved Anjana Suta Academy Hindi seminar which is now in its 6th week will also show there learning with songs and dialog. In the evening will be the main event, a cultural presentation with dances of Dasa Avatara, the Ten Incarnations by Jayadeva Goswami, and a new movie, based upon Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami's Light of the Bhagavata, produced by Oscar Natars, Anna et al.
Sunday, October 14th, will be in the ISKCON Temple and Cultural complex in beautiful Chosika 30-minutes from Lima including fire sacrifices, music dance and much more.
Throughout the Festival their will be an exhibition of the art of Light of the Bhagavata organized by the national ecology counsel that will later travel throughout Peru promoting a fundamental change in consciousness for a better ecology.
6) Oscar is working on the script for the movie at this point. A budget and copyright permission has been submitted to the book's publisher, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, and everything should be released by the first week in June.
7) International participants in the Festival can enjoy and help with all the Festival events but a cultural tour of Lima and afterwards of other exciting places in Peru such as Cuzco, capitol of the Inca Empire, are also being organized for a practical fee.
8) Investigating plans for the future San Marcos University is enthusiastic to continue the studies of classical Indian culture and after serious consideration on their part they suggest that NIOS and its agents in Peru propose a Specialization in Classical Bhagavata Literature as part of their exisiting Master's Degree in Culture.
9) Here in Tennessee, Hanumatpresaka Swami and Rabbi Rami Shapiro visited the Vanderbilt University Campus and had excellent experiences with contact and events organized by the newly formed Center for the Study of Religion and Culture. NIOS and the Center have many topics of serious interest in common such as Religious Elements in Ecological Solutions, Religion and Society, Religion and Science.
10) Finally Swami will be traveling in the USA, Washington D.C., Houston, Texas, Arizona, San Francisco, Idaho, Seattle for a few months and then return to Tennessee for August and September. During this time much promotion of NIOS and writing will happen and then in the last weekend of September NIOS will have its annual event in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
For more information please contact us:
e-mail: [email protected]
Corresponding Secretary
Thanu Subramanian
615 599-8424
304 Astor Way
Franklin, TN 37064
USA
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