Renowned spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi has urged the scientific community to conduct their research with a balanced mix of awareness and compassion, stressing the importance of technological advancement as a means to uplift the poor.
Addressing at the United Nations international conference in New York yesterday, attended by more than 700 delegates, she focused on the vitality of reducing a continuing divide between science and spirituality.
This has been detrimental to society's sustainable growth she told the gathering at the event co-hosted by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI)and Amrita University which she heads as the Chancellor, according to a release issued here today.
Amritanandamayi said science and spirituality should have gone hand in hand as two main branches of knowledge.
"Today universities and their researchers are ranked mainly based on the amount of funding they receive or the number of papers they publish and their intellectual calibre," she said.
The conference featured presentations by top academic institutions, including Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge, on specific areas of cutting-edge technology and innovation, including nanoscience and molecular medicine, biotechnology and wireless networking.
Led by UNAI chief Ramu Damodaran, the delegates from 93 institutions signed a group statement confirming their positive intention to co-operate on all aspects of information and research data sharing for humanitarian benefit around the world in line with the UN-mooted Sustainable Development Goals.
Amrita University, which is headquartered at Ettimadai near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, has campuses in Bangalore, Mysore, Kochi and Kollam.
