International Ramayana conference begins at IIT Roorkee in Uttarakhand

DEHRADUN: An international Ramayana conference began on Thursday at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee in Uttarakhand, aiming to highlight its importance in education.

The three-day conference, jointly organised by IIT Roorkee and Shri Ramcharit Bhavan, USA, will see scholars, seers, and researchers from India and abroad deliberating on the Indian knowledge tradition and around 150 research papers will be presented.

Speakers at the conference emphasised the need for modern education to understand and internalise the values of the Ramayana. They said that the purpose of education is not merely to earn a livelihood but to serve humanity.

Addressing the conference, IIT Roorkee Director Professor K K Pant said that his institute's anthem is also inspired by a couplet from the Ramcharitmanas of the Hindu poet Goswami Tulsidas.

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150 research papers on Ramayana

He said, "The line from Ramcharitmanas, 'Parhit saris dharma nahin bhai' (There is no greater religion than serving others), and IIT Roorkee's anthem, 'Sarjan hit jeevan nit arpit' (Life is always dedicated to the welfare of creation), both underscore the importance of social service."

Pant said the principles of the Indian knowledge tradition are invaluable. He connected the values of the Ramayana, such as duty towards parents, social responsibility, honesty in public life, and the ideal of Ram Rajya, with contemporary issues like sustainable development, health, ethics, and nation-building.

The institute’s director urged the youth to consider knowledge not merely as a means to earn a high salary but as a means of serving society and building a developed India by 2047. Saint Mahamandaleshwar Swami Hari Chetananand spoke about the importance of the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and other religious texts for character building and inner peace in this era of chasing mobile phones and material possessions.

He praised the organisers for bringing together seers and scholars on the banks of the Ganges and said that the Ramayana is a complete guide to life that teaches values such as sacrifice, devotion, reverence for the guru, and social harmony.

The "Gita Shabd Anukramanika" (Gita Word Index) was also released at the inaugural session. Professor Om Prakash Gupta, founder of Shri Ramcharit Bhavan and professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, said that approximately 150 research papers based on the Ramayana and related spiritual literature will be presented at the conference.

The renowned Sanskrit scholar, Professor Mahavir Agarwal, was posthumously awarded the “Ramayana Ratna” award for his five decades of teaching, research, and service in Sanskrit literature and Indian knowledge traditions.