The Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies Sponsors its Third Cosmology Workshop
In 2019, the Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies (BIHS) sponsored its initial cosmology workshop, “Taking the 5th… Canto!” This gathering explored the study of Puranic cosmography within ISKCON as an outgrowth of interest raised by the development of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) in Mayapur, West Bengal. The second workshop in 2020, “Models and Memes and Maps: A Modern Journey through Ancient Cosmography,” aimed toward developing a unified framework for intellectual discourse aspiring to enrich scholarship exploring Puranic cosmology.
This third in the series examined Puranic perspectives on the nature of spacetime and the origin and fate of the universe. With a growing acknowledgment in the academic and scientific discourse of the opportunity for further research, it is important for Vaishnava scholars to actively engage philosophical, mathematical, and experiential frameworks that appreciate both traditional Indic as well as a modern scientific theory.
The Big Bang model currently dominant within contemporary discourse begins with a singular event followed by a rapid period of expansion, known as inflation. While inflationary theory attempts to resolve challenges to earlier models, inflationary models, in turn, invite numerous empirical (and philosophical) concerns. That being said, arguably every purely physical model contains shortcomings in an attempt to explain how or why the universe fully manifests. In response, this workshop put forth sastric perspectives and their teleological implications in a collaborative examination of the potential for a fuller appreciation of cosmological origins and the nature of spacetime.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/bihs-third-cosmology-workshop/
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