karpitsky

On the 5th of March American professor Ravi Mohan Gupta delivered lecture in the Kyivan Vaishnava temple. Witnessing the kirtan performed by hundreds bhaktis he felt like making a leap in time, because such religious enthusiasm could have been seen only in America during times of Shrila Prabhupada. Originated from vaishnava family, mr. Ravi’s ancestors from generation to generation followed the tradition of gaudia vaishnavism.

The next day Ravi Gupta prabhu delivered lecture at the Institute of Philosophy named by G. S. Skovoroda as well as at the Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv in the presence of His Excellency Embassador of India. The interest of academic community to the professor’s persona is natural, because he is the author of very serious academic research on the text “Catuhsutri Tika” – commentary on Brahma Sutra of the famous Indian saint and philosopher of XVI century Jiva Goswami. The text had not been studied before. Ravi Gupta prabhu in the very scrupulous way has juxtaposed manuscripts which came to our times and took to the account all differences in interpretations. In the result the book “The Caitanya Vaisnava Vedanta of Jiva Goswami” had seen the world. It was translated by Yu. Yu. Zavgorodniy and O. Yu. Kukharuk. I had an honor to work on the planning imposition and general editing of the book. There is combination of spiritual vision, the tradition of religious practice and academic approach in Ravi Gupta prabhu’s book. Because of this it the book will be very interesting for the researchers as well as vaishnava bhaktis.

Unfortunately, there was no time to show Kyiv to the professor. Only after the sunset we were able to have a little walk from Zoloti Vorota (Golden Gate) to Maidan. Professor Ravi Gupta prabhu was really interested in the ancient Kyivan history as well as the relatively recent events on Maidan. I felt pride for the Ukrainian history. We reached Dnieper next day but still had less than an hour there to see the city. We came into the Temple of the Orthodox Church. It was pleasant to see with such respect Ravi Gupta prabhu treated Christian sacred symbols. I presented “ladan” (frankincense, olibanum) incense to him there.

Twenty minutes later Ravi Gupta prabhu started to deliver lecture for devotees with the question “Why the variety of religions exists?” Listening to many reasonable answers, Ravi Gupta prabhu proposed his one and I agree with him completely – God exists in His endless diversity and cannot be limited by only one image or representation. Different traditions have their revelations, true spiritual teachers and saints. Making a choice once, one has to be consistent on his way in the spiritual tradition.

( Foto )

Nikolai Karpitsky, 03/09/2017, Kiev-Dnieper-Kharkov

More publications about the arrival of Ravi Gupta in Ukraine

Николай Карпицкий. Встеча с Рави Мохан Гуптой
http://karpitsky.livejournal.com/169439.html

Ганна Ісаєва. Коли знання зустрічає відданість. Приїзд Раві Моган Ґупти до України
http://www.religion.in.ua/main/35986-koli-znannya-zustrichaye-viddanist-priyizd-ravi-mogan-upti-do-ukrayini.html

The Hindu. March 1, 2012. Vladimir Radyuhin

As the battle over a Russian translation of Bhagavad Gita continues, Russian scholars came out strongly in support of the book and condemned attempts to ban it as extremist literature. Over 60 Russian scholars gathered in the Siberian city of Tomsk for a conference on Bhagavad Gita. It adopted a resolution that voiced alarm over a court trial against the book “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” and stressed “the enduring historic value” of the ancient Indian scripture.

A court in Tomsk in December rejected a local prosecutor’s petition seeking a ban on “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” on the grounds that it incited “social hatred” and “violence against non-believers”. However, the Tomsk prosecutor has appealed against the verdict and the court is to hear his appeal on March 6. In a new petition the prosecutor is demanding a ban only on the Russian translation of comments in the book “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”, not the canonical text itself.

Russian scholars welcomed the Tomsk court verdict and said the prosecutor’s appeal was groundless because religious texts cannot be tried for extremism. They accused experts who prepared testimony against Bhagavad Gita of incompetence and bias and called for establishing an independent body of scholars and experts in religion, philosophy and social sciences, who would prepare objective and competent reviews of various texts. The scholars warned of “grave consequences the continuation of the trial may have for our friendly relations with India.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2950886.ece