Room 008, Amrut Mody School of Management
Central Campus
The talk will focus upon the cultural heritage of Vraja, the area known as the land of Krishna, largely the area falling between Agra and Delhi. With its rich history of literature and philosophy, art and architecture, economy and religion, Vraja has been always there on the cultural map of India. The talk shall dwell upon its various layers of history, which unfolds through the multilateral dialogue of religion and politics.
Acharya Shrivatsa Goswami comes from the family of eminent scholars and spiritual leaders at Sri Radharamana Mandir of Vrindavan. He is a leading figure in the Vaishnava tradition.
He has toured extensively to participate in conferences on philosophy and culture and lecture in major universities around the world. Sri Goswami had been visiting scholar at the Harvard, Heidelberg and other major universities around the world. His book Celebrating Krishna was received with much acclaim.
He is Director of the Vraja Prakalpa, a multi-year, multi-disciplinary research project in collaboration with the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, New Delhi. 8 volumes are published so far on various facets of Vraja culture and history.
Among other commitments, he is devoted to Inter-faith relations worldwide and is presently working in the field of making alliance of religion and conservation and is connected with several important international peace and environmental movements. Goswamiji was invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the President of the World Bank to represent Hinduism at a historic meeting of world religions at Lambeth Palace, London. He was a resource person for religion to the meeting of over 40 heads of state in Vienna. He was a Plenary Speaker at the Centennery Celebrations of the American Academy of Religions at Montreal. Pope Benedict 16 invited him to the Vatican. He was one of the main speaker at the Interreligious Harmony Week at the special function of the General Assembly at the United Nations.
The President of India gave the lifetime award of the Sangit Natak Akademi for overall scholarship and service to Indian culture. He is also an Honorary President of a world body Religions for Peace.
