Studies in Vedanta Essays in Honour of Professor S.S. Rama Rao Pappu

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From the Jacket:

Professor Rama Rao Pappu, Who has been teaching philosophy in US Universities since the sixties founded the "International Congress of Vedanta" in 1986 at Maimi University, Oxford, Ohio, USA. Vedanta Congresses initiated and organized systematically and selflessly by Dr. Pappu during the past nineteen years have played a very productive and positive role. Most of the essays included here are the papers presented by the contributors at the "Fifteenth International Congress of Vedanta" apart from the invited essays contributed by Professor Pappu's friends and admirers in India and abroad.

Essays in this volume have been arranged in six sections covering the areas of Vedanta Metaphysics, Advaita Epistemology and Ethics, Schools of Vedanta and other systems, Global Parallels and finally Vedanta and the Contemporary World. Both intellectually stimulating and academically entertaining, this volume contains analytic discussions on Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Vallabha and Tyagaraja. Enlightening articles on Radhakrishnan, Sri Satya Saibaba and Sunderlal Bahuguna are also included. As a whole, covering the concepts of Adhyasa, Saksi, and Jivan-mukti, perspectives of Sruti, Yukti, and Tarka, discussions on Yoga, Tantra and Music and the East-West Parallels have culminated in Sartrean Existentialism and Chinese Dao.

About the Author:

Professor P. George Victor has been on the faculty of philosophy at Andhra University since 1981, from which he earned MA earlier (1978) and PhD later (1986). Padma Vibhushan Professor K. Satchidananda Murthy was his mentor, under whose direction his doctoral dissertation on the social Philosophy of Vedanta, a study of the Prasthana-trayi and Sankara's commentaries was published in 1991. His published books include - Life and Teachings of Adi Sankaracarya (2002) and Moral Science (1994). He is the editor for "Andhra University Philosophical Studies" series and has edited Saints and Gurus, Social Relevance of Philosophy, and Teaching Philosophy in the Twenty-first Century.

Professor V.V.S. Saibaba did his PhD (1985) on Faith and Devotion in Buddhism, directed by Professor K. Satchidananda Murty. Since 1981 he was on the faculty of philosophy at Andhra University. From 1987 to 1989, he was Head in the centre for Mahayana Buddhist Studies at Nagarjuna University, where he taught Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Texts. He has participated in many international and national conferences, seminars and summer schools, and has contributed several research articles in Indian and foreign journals. Professor Saibaba is the author of Theravada Buddhist Devotionalism in Ceylon, Burma and Thailand; Faith and Devotion in Theravada Buddhism; and Facets of Buddhist philosophy: Theravada and Mahayana.

THE importance of societies and organizations, both formal and informal, for the promotion of scholarship, exchange of ideas and spread of knowledge needs no emphasis. Imagine a poet who finds no forum to read his work and no publisher to print and distribute his books. His world is indeed a lonely world, his creativity will find no recognition and he will have no admirers. Scholarship and creativity cannot flourish in the absence of societies, forums and organizations, which promote scholarship. Those who start academic societies and organizations do so with a vision; and the International Congress of Vedanta is the product of such a vision.

When Professor Rama Rao Pappu, who has been teaching philosophy in US universities since the sixties realized that scholars of Indian Philosophy in the West were studying texts and conducting research in relative isolation, or at most with negligible interaction at professional Western philosophical associations, he had a vision to start a forum which will bring together Indian Philosophy scholars on a common platform. Professor Rama Rao Pappu has organized for the first time a panel on 'Perspectives on Vedanta' during the "Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, October 11-13, 1985." Later on he translated his vision into reality with the founding of the 'International Congress of Vedanta' in 1986 at Miami University; and over the past two decades, he had organized sixteen such conferences. One of the special features of these conferences was the celebration of the life and assessment of the contributions of various Indian philosophers, ancient and modern, like Sankaracarya and Jnanesvara, Radhakrishnan and Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Krishnamurti. Though Professor Pappu is a scholar pursuing his own scholarship in Indian and Comparative Philosophy, Philosophy of Law and Ethics, he takes pride in assembling the scholars together in the forum he named 'International Congress of Vedanta.'

'Global Understanding with Vedantic Spirit' has been the motto and tradition of the Philosophy Department of Andhra University, starting from the foundation head, Professor Sailaswar Sen, inculcated in the works of Padma-bhushan P.T. Raju and Padma-vibhushan K. Satchidananda Murty. Accordingly Professor Rama Rao Pappu thought it fit to organize the "Fifteenth International Congress of Vedanta" at Andhra University in Visakhapatnam during January 3-6, 2005 with local assistance from the faculty of the departments of Philosophy, Sanskrit and Physics, and Prof. George Victor assuming the role of the Conference Director. The conference was a great success. It was during the conference, the Andhra University's philosophy faculty expressed a desire to honour Professor Rama Rao Pappu by presenting him a festschrift in his honour for his contributions to advance Vedantic studies in particular and Indian philosophy and culture in general around the world. This idea was also supported by professors V. V. Raman, George A. James, J. S. R. L. Narayana Moorty, Klaus Witz, R. Puligandla, Patricia Reynaud, and Sarada Puma Sonty from USA, and professors A. Ramamurty, Godabarisha Mishra, and K. Srinivas in India. A festschrift to Professor Pappu by the Andhra University faculty was also thought fitting because Visakhapatnam is his hometown, and great academicians of Vedanta like S. Radhakrishnan, P. T. Raju, K. Satchidananda Murty, and Saileswar Sen taught at Andhra University.

Most of the essays included here are revised papers presented at the "Fifteenth International Congress of Vedanta," in addition to the invited essays contributed by Prof. Pappu's friends and admirers. Space limitation however has prevented the inclusion of all the papers presented in the Vedanta Congress; and language limitations also made it impossible to include several excellent papers presented in Sanskrit. Starting from the analytic explanations, the essays in this volume have been arranged in six sections covering Vedanta Metaphysics, Advaita Epistemology and Ethics, Schools of Vedanta, Other Indian Systems to Global Parallels and Contemporary World. Covering the entire gamut of Vedanta philosophy, the essays were written by both young and senior scholars of India and America.

We have included Studies in Vedanta: Essays in Honour of Professor 5.5. Rama Rao Pappu in the" Andhra University Philosophical Studies" series, which was started a few years ago to expound the spiritual and ethical issues of our tradition and its contemporary relevance. Volumes already published in this series include Life and Teachings of Adi Sankaracarya, Saints and Gurus, Social Relevance of Philosophy, and Teaching Philosophy in the Twenty-first Century. The last volume consists of the Proceedings of an international conference "Teaching Philosophy in the Twenty First Century" which was jointly organized at Andhra University by Professor Rama Rao Pappu and Professor George Victor.

Our special thanks are due to Professor A. Ramamurty, University of Hyderabad and Professor Godabarisha Mishra, University of Madras for selecting and scrutinizing the papers. Professor V.V.5. Saibaba has made considerable editing of the essays and even changing the title of the essays in some cases. Professor P. George Victor has procured the papers and formalized the contents. Being the editors of this volume, while the former took care of transliteration problems, the latter has made changes in the translation of Sanskrit words and was responsible for the overall editorial tasks. The administrative help given by professors S. Satyanarayana, T. Christanandam, and S. D. A. Joga Rao, and the executive assistance of Dr. G. Veerraju and Mr. B. Ravi Babu are immense. We would be failing in our duty if we do not express our thanks to Mr. B. Raju for typing the entire manuscript. We are extremely grateful to Shri Susheel K. Mittal, Director, D. K. Printworld, New Delhi for undertaking the publication.