Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 22: More than 100 devotees from the city Sunday thronged the Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Sabha ground at Secretariat Road to hear the famous spiritual guru, Swami Paramhansha Prajnanananda Maharaj, delivering a lecture on Bhagvad Gita.
Swami Paramhansha is known for his mastery in Kriya Yoga lineage. He has written more than 40 books on religion and spirituality. The spiritual leader mesmerised the audience through his discourse on Gita, which started after 6pm on the premises, Sunday. Several bhajans were sung to make the ambience more spiritual.
One of the organizers said, “We have organised the discourse in order to de-stress the people. Many people now-a-days are often stressed out due to their hectic and fast life style. We have planned bhajans, discourse by Swamji and a question answer session with the audience where people can directly ask Swamiji questions.”
A devotee Ravi Behera, a shopkeeper from Palasuni who attended the event said, “I love to take part in these events as I feel calmness pervading me after attending these sessions. I get solutions to many of my troubles after attending discourses given by some of the spiritual leaders.”
In a separate event, Swami Paramahansa Prajnanananda said, “Simply reading Bhagwat Gita is not going to help anyone; understanding the concept of Gita is very essential. One should understand Gita and then practice the ideology practically”.
He was speaking at a two-day national seminar on ‘The philosophy of the Gita: its Relevance to the present day scenario’, sponsored by UGC and organised by the department of philosophy of Rama Devi Women’s Autonomous College that began at the college auditorium here Sunday.
In his key note address, retired professor and former HoD of philosophy department , Utkal University, Ganesh Prasad Das said, “Srimadbhagavadgita is a compendium of applied philosophy. There are some metaphysical postulates like what is not true does not have existence and what is true is never non-existent. Hence truth and existence are assumed to be transposable.”
Comparing the philosophy of Hegel, a German philosopher, about the birth and the death, with similar concepts in Gita, Prof Das said, “Hegel is silent and not sure about their birth being inherent in their death whereas the Gita is sure and assures that the hour of their death is the hour of their birth.”
Pointing out that the Bhagavadgita lays emphasis on reason and intellect, he added that the Gita makes a division of attributes into divine and demoniac. The human being is an interface between the two limits of existence. “If one cultivates the good attributes, one can rise to the divine height. On the other hand, if one cultivates evil attributes, one falls down to the demoniac. The Gita gives a list of twenty-six divine attributes as also characterises six attributes typical of a wise a man.”
In the two days seminar different aspects and ideology of the Gita will be discussed by participants from different colleges and universities.