Dr. Sangeeta Menon
Indian Institute of Science
Speaker's biography
Sangeetha Menon is a professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Her educational background is in biology, philosophy and psychology. Her doctoral work was on the concept of consciousness in the Bhagavat Gita. Her research expertise is in consciousness studies with focus on Indian psychology, philosophy and art.
She is widely travelled and presented her work at conferences in Europe, the United States and South Asia. She is a broad member of the International Board for Transpersonal Psychology, International Society for Science and Religion (Cambridge), and Asia Consciousness Society. Her books include The Beyond Experience: Consciousness in the Gita. Apart from her academic interests, she is an artist and a photographer.
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Philosophy and Psychology of Bhagvad Gita
Students of GITAM Institute of Management
15.7.2013
Dr. Sangeeta Menon addressed a list of questions as part of this series of lectures. This series brought the philosophy and psychology of the ideas and ideals presented in the Bhagavad Gita for discussion and debate from the vantage point of both the ironies and capabilities of human mind and self. She promoted an understanding of the different experiences that Arjuna underwent in the narrative of the Gita - why he faced them, and how he responded to them.
The lectures focused on the themes of Sorrows and Ironies of Life, Desire and its Discontent, Agent and Action, Body and Consciousness, Knowledge and Freedom and posed questions including among others as follows: Without expectations is there joy in life and living? Is grief also a force of change that can invoke creative expressions and out of box thinking? What is it to be happy, and how is it influenced by the nature of our desires? Are assumptions about the nature of the outcome a central factor in leading us to actions? Can we explain body, mind and their physicality without the help of a deeper self whose primary function is to aware, observe and experience? Do we understand the meaning and purpose of life and living with the help of these two fundamental life requisites – knowledge and freedom?
