Mysore will host around 500 scholars from across the globe for the 25th International Ramayana Conference.
The silver jubilee event will be held at the Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashram from November 27 for three days. It is being organised jointly by the Avadhoota Datta Peetham, Mysore, and Viswa Sahitya Sanskrit Sansthan (VSSS), New Delhi.
The Ramayana international conferences are being held across the globe for the last 25 years and 24 events have been conducted in 15 countries so far, including India, three in Thailand, two each in the USA and Mauritius. The 24th conference was held in Mauritius last year.
What is significant is that the conferences, started in 1984, have been held in countries of different faiths and political set ups like communist, socialist, Islamic and democratic countries like China, Surinam, Belgium, Indonesia, Netherlands, Trinidad (West Indies), South Africa, Zambia and the United Kingdom, Conference International president Lallan Prasad Vyas said in Mysore today.
“It has been a great global journey of the Ramayana cultural group of the world, political and other dimensions not having a bearing on fostering cultural and spiritual values. The great epic has been the basis of global cultural relations and human understanding. It had a universal appeal. It is against this background that these conferences are being viewed,” he said stating that a Communist country like China had hosted the Ramayana conference.
The Mysore meet will discuss spiritual and other dimensions of Ramayana, science and management of leadership in Ramayana.
Conference Secretary Radhakrishna said speakers from India, Thailand, the UK, the USA, South Africa, Netherlands, France and Mauritius will address sessions on Ramayana’s spiritual dimensions, Ramayana in Indian languages: basis of national unity, Ramayana as the basis of global cultural relations and human understanding, and divine experiences and inspirations.