Swami Hanumatpresaka (Professor H. H. Robinson) represented NIOS on a tour of India and Australia from 26th September to 11th November. This included lectures at the Asiatic Society in Kolkata, an interview with Dr. Kalyana-kumar Chakravarti, former head of India’s fine arts, Lalita-kala Academy, and programs at the powerful ISKCON centers in Pune, India, and Melbourne, Brisbane and New Govardhana, Australia, also detailed work with the Institute’s Principal Advisor, Professor Dr. Samaresh Bandyopadhyay on upcoming publications, and the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal, Manipur.
The tour took off from NIOS’s offices in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at 5.30 AM and trundled through the fields and hamlets of Tennessee, and through the skies of North America to arrive at the ISKCON Center in Houston, Texas. The campus and community are under continuous development with a two-story tall altar, six-story classical Vedic temple, pioneer primary school, and residential and guest accommodations of over two hundred local community members.
Two days later our intrepid explorer flew from Houston to Paris and then to New Delhi. Of course, there are many details of dialogs, meetings, and work along the way but here we will just touch on some of the highlights.
From Delhi, he visited the ancient and lectured, sacred, land of Vrindavana. Then about two hours were spent with Dr. Kalyan-kumar Chakravarty, former Director of Education for India’s Madhya-Pradesh State, the Indian Institute for Educational Development, and the national fine arts, Lalita-kala Academy. The result of the excellent discussions with Dr. Chakravarty and other scholars from O. P. Jindal University and ABES Institute of Technology was a 15-minute video interview on Art and the Sacred. This has been forwarded to NIOS’s very decorated collaborator in Peru, Director Oscar Natars, Integro, and will be enhanced with other interviews to form the basis for a promotional video for the Institute’s events in Peru in March and October.
Back in the aluminum sausage with the fortunate association of Swami Badri-Narayana who was headed for the ISKCON Governing Body Commission meetings in Ujjain, India. In Ujjain, there were three intense days of meetings with members of the Executive Committee of the ISKCON Ministry of Education designing forthcoming events and the Ministries magazine, Viplavah. ISKCON has over 250,000 school-age children now and of course, NIOS is very happy to try to serve this very classically oriented Society.
From Ujjain to ISKCON Pune which like so many ISKCON centers in India is breathtaking. The Temple campus has grown into what has been described as the Crown Jewel of Pune. The classical Indian architecture, the daily educational and religious programs, and gardens have attracted developers so that it is now surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings filled with residents or under construction. H.P. Swami had very intense meetings about NIOS’ cooperation for developing educational programs worldwide for the Indian classical literature such as Sanskrita Bhagavad-gita and the Bhagavata-Purana. Will you permit us to say that Western traditions have developed technology like a very robust strong moving fellow with diverse communication media and earth-moving tools, but he is short-sighted. Classical Indian wisdom can give our fellow the millennia of long-range perspectives that he needs to apply his muscle and fingers. Hence, NIOS’s essential contribution is bridging the gap between East and West, between C. G. Jung and the Bhagavata.
Back in the winter, Mumbai to Melbourne. We must offer our respects to such an old man, 70 years old, Hanumatpresaka Swami, taking so much trouble to travel so much for these educational programs. On the other hand, he loves it and thinks that if death is a certainty this is the best way to die and then be assured of at least as much as Socrates declares in the Phaedo, we shall go to live forever with the gods.
The programs in Australia were almost all internal ISKCON programs but this does not mean that they will not reach the outside cultural and educational communities. ISKCON in Australia has very successful programs with the larger world. In general, our observation is that culture in Australia is best spread with a basis in cuisine and music followed by erudite palaver, a practical, prosperous people.
Kolkatta, Imphal, back Delhi, and back to Houston. Swami resided in the ISKCON Kolkata Temple which is giving all facilities to help NIOS’s programs and worked with Dr. Samaresh Bandyopadhyay on forthcoming publications. Dr. Bandyopadhyay has been one of the two or three principal columns in the NIOS’s work. He is Chairman of NIOS’s Advisory Board and his impressive biography is available on the NIOS website. With the Professor and ISKCON, H.P. Swami finished the Advertising Brochure that its agent in Navi Mumbai, Goloka Education, will distribute to promote sales of its many publications, and the formatting of the Institutes next major publication, Siksadarsa, Education in Ancient India and Man-making in Modern Times. With Professor review of the Institute’s journal, Solaris, now in production for its third annual edition was also executed.