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. His newest anthology is titled Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures.
Here he describes the historical context in which the Upanishads were produced, originally as elaborations on the Vedas and Brahmanas. The changing literature reflected changing social conditions among the urban dwellers, forest dwellers, priests, and rulers. New concepts are added as Vedantic thinking reflects back upon itself. The beginnings of Indian philosophy emerge, combined with an emphasis on various spiritual practices such as chanting.
(Recorded on May 22, 2019)
Published on May 31, 2019