Ageless Mind and Timeless Ideas (Life and Legend of Koneru Ramakrishna Rao)

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Ageless Mind and Timeless Ideas Contains the the reflections and reminiscences on the life and legend of prof. Koneru RamaKrishna Rao by some of is students, colleagues and fellow scholars who are familiar with him and his work. The volume also includes as an Epilogue a recent address of prof. Rao at the Centenary conference on Psychology at Calcutta University in October 2015 –“ Indian Psychology; A Case Study of Mahatama .’’

Prof. Ramkrishna rao is both a visionary and a missionary with an incredible ability to conceptualize and concretize his ideas and the gift to live his dreams. He is an internationally acclaimed academic visionary who excelled in Vastly different areas that include Psychological , Philosophy, Yoga, Education, and library and information sciences at 83 , Prof. Rao is still active as a scholar and administrator. He published over 5,000 pages during the last ten years, and currently serves as the Chancellor of GITAM University.

Prof. V. Balamohandas is a teacher of business management for nearly forty years. He retired as a professors of Management Studies at Andhra University (1978 -2005). He also served as a vice – chancellor of Acharya Nagaarjuna University (2005,08) and as AICTE Emeritus fellow at Andhra University. He is Author of eleven books over 80 research papers and a recipient of numerous national and state awards including Best Teacher Award , and Life Time Archevement Award at national open Distance Education Summit.

Prof. K. Remi Rajni. Is Curently Professors and Head of the Department of Philosophy at Andhra University. She is Also the Director or prof. K.S. Murty Centre For Religious Studies. She served earlier as the Director of Durgabhai Deshmukh Centre For Women’s Studies at Andhra University. Prof. Rajani published nine books and many research Papers . She is a recipient of many honours including Best Teacher Award , and best Academician and best Researcher Awards.

This excellent Complimentary work in honour of the erudite Scholarship of Padma shri Prof. (Dr) Ramakrishna Rao is a Befitting mode of paying respectful regards to a Multi feathered personality who is not only a learned intellectual gifted with subtle philosophical acumen, deep thinking and profound meditation but also a very able , effective and competent educational administrator and thinker. As a Valiant crusader of reforming education to reach to the lowest strata of the society, he tried to link education with the community.

Author of many world renowned seminal works , Prof. Rao is a prolific writer of several high – quality publications . He is rightly hailed as India’s eminent contemporary thinker, pioneer and leader in the field of parapsychology .conscious studies and cognitive science. He is fittingly regarded as the father of Indian Psychology. He has rebuilt rich , complex, deep and sophisticated traditions of Indian psychology and left indelible impression on his students and colleagues opening a way to future research by blending science and spirituality and linking intuitive insights with empirical research and laboratory experiments. As a Gandhian scholar he is unparalleled.

He is internationally acclaimed as a visionary academic of very long standing who has made innovative contributions in the field. Of knowledge and who stands before us as an inspiring leader and an outstanding role model. Regarded by his students as a teacher par excellence , he is deeply committed too reading , teaching and research.

Recipient of several Festschrifts, Awards and honours he stands on a high pedestal of academics. His friends, admires, colleagues and students have great regard for him and their reminiscences are contained in this book. It contains essays by several outstanding person like prof. J.P. das, Fellow of Royal Society, Canada and former vice – chancellors who worked with him. They speak volumes of his statures and their respectful regards for him.

This apart , this book contains depiction of some of the events in his life and career. Few Indian academicians have excelled in the international arena; and he is one of them.

Prof Ramkrishna Rao is eminently qualified to deal with India’s very rich cultural heritage. He provides scientific and systematic international of classical Indian wisdom in contemporary context. In addition, he also bridge cross- cultural and interdisciplinary approaches with his profound insights and encyclopaedic knowledge.

With his mind active and body intact, I wish him a very long healthy and creative life. May his indefatigable spirit and versatile genius fructify in the best outcome from him with flashes of brilliance. The title of this book very aptly epitomizes his personality and I fully endorse this. Finally I congratulate him for his achievements and again wish him the best.

It is our fortune to serve as editors of this Festschrift for Prof. Koneru Ramakrishna Rao, an academician par excellence to celebrate the sixty – five years of his continuing association with our alma mater, Andhra University. Prof. rao needs no introduction in academic circles. He is a reputed psychologist, well Known for his outstanding contributions in India and abroad . Prof. Rao is righty considered the father of Indian psychology, as he helped to trace it origins from classical Indian thought, shape its conceptual framework and draw its contours as a new academic discipline. His recent book along with prof. (Dr) Anand C. Paranjpe Psychology in the Indian Traditions (spriger , 2015) bears testimony to this.

We recognize that there are several other Festschrift in honour of Prof. Ramakrishna Rao. These include New frontiers of Human Science (ed. By Gowri Rammohan and published by McFarland , 2002), studies in higher education, Indian Psychology and Consciousness (ed. By K.S. chalam and Published by Andhra University Press , 2002 ) Mind and Consciousness (ed. By K.R. Rajni and Published by Aksnsha Publishers, 2013) and consciousness, Gandhi and Yoga: an Interdisciplinary, East – West Odyssey of K> Ramakrishna Rao (ed. By Sambaisava Prasad and Published by D.K. Printworld, 2013).

We belive that this volume is somewhat different. It contains the reflections and reminiscences on the life and legend of prof. K.R. Rao by some of his students and colleagues , who are familiar with him as a person and his contributions to the advancement of knowedge. This volume is not evaluation but an appreciation of his work. Nearly all Contributions are invited and written specially for this volume. The only exception is the one by david Lorimer. We printed here his review of prof. Ramakrishna Rao’s Book Cognititve Anomalies, Consciousness and Yoga published in the prestigious journal of Consciousness Studies in 2014. We have selected this review as an example of many international reviews of his twenty plus books. To include a collection of all the major reviews of his books would on its own make a volume of Considerable size.

The Present vlume is in two parts, Following a general introduction by K.R. Rajani and Photographs depicting some of the events in prof. Rao’s life and career. The first part contains the contributions by people who worked with prof. Ramakrishna Rao outside of Andhra University. The Seond partshas the refelections and aeminisceces of people who know Prof . Rao at Andhera University.

Finally, we offer to the reader in the Epilogue a piece from Prof. Rao’s recent work to savour the flavour of his writing s, to have a glimpse in to his ageless mind and to gain some insight into the way he timeless ideas in classical Indian Tradition and shows their reflections on contemporary issues. “ Indian Psychology: A case study of Mahatma Gandhi” is the keynote address prof . Ramakrishna Rao gave at the Centenary Conference on Psychology at Calcutta University to commemorate 100 years of academic psychology in India.

This volume has been in the making for a few years , in part because of our other Preoccupations. During this period , two our contributors passed away. One of them is Prof. Subba Rao, Former Chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Educational; and of human Science (USA) and the Institute for Religious Psychology, Tokyo. We regret that we unable to bring out this volumes When they were around us. We thank them Profoundly for their contributions which significantly enrich this volume.

We also express our gratitude to all other contributors who responded to our invitation and wrote for this Festschrift, and some of them at a very short notice. We thank shri Susheel Mittal and D. K. Printworld for bringing out this so well within such a short time. We also thank Mrs. V.K.V. Prasanna Kumari for generously attending to all secretarial works.

We offer this volume as a humble tribute to Prof. Ramakrishna Rao, a great academician, an inspiring teacher and a role model for several of us . His life illustrates that the mind does not age, unlike the body . Prof. Ramakrishna Rao Published. Another on Colonial Syndrome in Indian Education, Philosophy and Psychology is in the Making. While offering this Modest tribute to him, We Wish Prof. . Ramakrishna Rao many more productive years of scholarly work.

K.R. Rajani Professor Koneru Ramakrishna Rao is both a visionary and a missionary. He has the incredible ability to conceptualize and concretize his ideas, and the gift to live his dreams. His life is a legend . There are far too few such persons I consider it my privilege to have known him and worked with him.

Prof. Ramakrishna Rao is currently National Fellow of the Indian Council of social Science Research, Chancellor of GITAM University and Honorary Distinguished Professor at Andhra University. Preceding this, he served for two consecutive terms as the Chairman of the Indian thinker Prof. Rao’s work in in Indian Psychology, Philosophy and education is well Known around the world . As he travels the seventh decade of his academic journey, We thought that it would be appropriate to bring out in a small volumes the reminiscences of his colleagues, students and fellow travellers since he has been a role model for several of us . This exercise is more a tribute to him than an assessment of his work. A Scholarly book containing an in –depth discussion of prof. . Rao’s work was published recently by prof. Sambasiva Prasad (2013).

Considering the large circle of Prof . Rao’s students, Friends and colleagues, it is impossible to have the reflection of all those who would have liked to contribute to this volume. Therefore , we had to be very selective. We selected a few representing the broad sections from prof. Rao’s universe of academic colleagues . Some of these are outstanding and internationally acclaimed scholars and experts in the area of Prof. Rao’s interst and some are simply those who happened to be his students or colleagues who got inspired by him. We also avoided for the most part including tose who already expressed their views in previously published volumes.

In this chapter, I provide a brief introduction to prof Ramakrishna Rao’s family background and some facts I gathered during the course of my interactions with him and his general, broad academic profile.

Family , Background and career

Koneru Ramakrishna Rao is the son of shri Koneru Nagabhushanam and Smt. Annapurana. Shri Nagabhushanam was the son of shri koneru Veraiah, then village munsif (head) of Enikepadu, a small village about 10 km from Vijyawada and now a part of metropolitan Vijayawada city. Smt. Annapurna was the daughter of shri Saggurti Narasaiah, village munsif of Ravannapalem, which is still a tiny village near Tiruvur, Prof. Rao’s mother died when he was only nine years old. His father did not marry again. Ramakrishna rao ‘s was brought up by his grandparents in Enikepadu. He recalls how he missed his mother’s love and suffered equally from over –pampering by the members of his joint family that included, beyond his grandparents and father, four uncles and their wives.

Ramakrishna Rao married Sarojni Devi in 1950 when he was 18 and his bride was 15 years old. They have two daughters and one son and six grandchildren. His eldest daughter Rani Rao is married to a Psychiatrists, Sarath Babu Gangavarapu and they live in Chattanooga, TN, USA. They have two daughters shilpa and Kavya who works with J.P. Morgan bank and IBM respectively. His second daughter Vani Rao is professor of Neurology at duke University Medical Centre. She is married to a family Physician Dr Murali Mohan Chilukuri. Their son Vivek works for the State department of rthe US Government and daughter Sunila works for national Democratic Institute in Washington, DC. Prof . Rao’s son Sarat Koneru, the Youngest of all, is the CEO of a company with 20,000 employees. He is married to Mridula who is a Pharmacist and they have a daughter, Mira, a student at Indiana University and a son, Tarun, who is in high school.

Some of his early traumatic experiences in his life , he recalls, a part from the death of his mother first and his brother later, are:

1. He nearly drowned himself as a kid when he was attempting to swim in Rys Canal in his village;

2. Rolled down the steps coming down from Panakala Narasimha Swamy Temple in Mangalagiri, and escaped only with a minor cut on the head;

3. Kicked by a cow while attempting to milk it during his childhood; and

4. Fell on the way side from bicycle attempting to race a bus escaped miraculously without any injuries when he was 17 years old.