Central University of Punjab organized special lecture on Jagadguru Shankaracharya

Bathinda, March 21, 2024: The Central University of Punjab, under the patronage of Vice-Chancellor Prof. R.P. Tiwari, and with the joint support of the Bhartiya Bhasha Smiti, Ministry of Education, Government of India, and the Bhartiya Bhasha Manch, organized a special lecture titled ‘Unity and Languages Inherent in the Philosophy of Jagadguru Shankaracharya’ as a part of the Jagadguru Shankaracharya Lecture Series.

On this occasion, Dr. Satheesha K.S., Professor & Head, Dept. of Advaita Vedanta, National Sanskrit University, and Dr. Mukul Sharma, Associate Professor, Department of Hindi, Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University, Delhi, participated as the chief guest and keynote speaker respectively.

Addressing the participants, Dr. Satheesha K.S. mentioned that Acharya Shankar, famous as the incarnation of Lord Shiva, was a powerful personality of the Indian knowledge tradition who worked to connect society with the stream of knowledge. He divided his lecture into three parts. In the first part, he shed light on the personality of Acharya Shankar, who has renounced all opulence and has given equal importance to emotions as well as logic. In the second part of the lecture, he highlighted the Jagadguru form of Acharya Shankar and introduced everyone to his major works. Dr. Satheesha K.S. believes that Acharya Shankar, through his thinking, authored spiritual texts for welfare of humanity.

The second speaker, Dr. Mukul Sharma, presented the devotee aspect of Acharya Shankar. On the one hand, he shed light on the life of Acharya Shankar and vividly depicted many incidents of his life, while on the other hand, he described the life of Acharya Shankar in a very interesting manner through examples of mythology and spiritual philosophy. He says that great men like Acharya Shankar give the message of reverence, devotion, and detachment to society through their thoughts, which helps fast-paced people live their lives in today's changing times.

In his presidential address, Vice-Chancellor Prof. Raghavendra Prasad Tiwari expressed gratitude towards both the guest speakers and underlined the contribution of Nath Acharya Shankar in re-establishing the ancient Indian values found in the Indian knowledge system in society. He remarked that the foundational essence of Bharat resides in our ancient Indian values, and the same is evident in the life and philosophy of illustrious individuals like Acharya Shankar.

At the outset, Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay from the Dept. of Hindi delivered the welcome address. Thereafter, Dr. Kulbhushan Sharma presented a brief outline of the program and introduced everyone to the topic. The coordinator of this program was Dr. Sameer from the Hindi Department and the co-convenor was Hindi Officer Mr. Rupendra Sharma. Towards the end, Prof. Rajendra Kumar Sen, Head, Dept. of Hindi, delivered a formal vote of thanks underlining the contribution related to Acharya Shankar. Faculty, researchers, and students from various departments of the university participated in this program.