Debashish Banerji, PhD, is Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and Chairman of the East West Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He is author of Seven Quartets of Becoming: A Transformative Yoga Psychology Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo and also The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore, a book about his great grandfather. He edited an anthology about his great uncle, Rabindranath Tagore in the Twenty-First Century. With Robert McDermott, he has coedited an anthology titled Philo-Sophia: Wisdom Goddess Traditions.

Here he describes the historical context in which India’s greatest spiritual classic emerged. It was likely the product of an iteration of poet/sages. It is part of an ancient, epic poem, The Mahabharata. It addresses the moral dilemmas of violence, death, and warfare. However, it achieves a transcendant vision relevant to all times and places. The peak moment of the text is when the charioteer, Krishna, reveals his divine nature to the warrior prince, Arjuna.

(Recorded on November 24, 2021)

Published on December 27, 2021