Recording - Swami Sarvapriyanada & Bernardo Kastrup in Conversation
This session was really special, reconciling many Buddhist and Vedantic ideas, and bridging Eastern and Western approaches to metaphysics, meaning and more.
The recording, transcript and chat from this session are all below.
We primarily explored the rich history of debate in India between Buddhists and Hindus, and how Swami Sarvapriyananda reconciles them. The topics included:
- Self or no self?
- The value and drawbacks of both schools
- Eastern vs Western approaches and what each can learn from each other
- How individuation and realisation are complimentary
- How engagement with the world goes alongside transcendence
- Bernardo stayed on to discuss how he has navigated suffering.
To join events with Swami Sarvapriyananda: https://www.vedantany.org/
An apology
I had agreed with Swami that he would attend for just 9o minutes, which is what his scheduled allowed, but in my enthusiasm totally forgot, and it may have looked like he had made a mistake. The mistake was mine!
About Swami Sarvapriyananda
Swami Sarvapriyananda is a widely respected monk of the Ramakrishna Order, currently serving as head minister of the Vedanta Society of New York. A dynamic teacher renowned for his ability to convey complex Vedantic principles with remarkable clarity, he regularly attracts global audiences through his lectures and online presence. His background combines deep scholarship in traditional Vedantic texts - particularly his illuminating talks on the Mandukya Upanishad and Drig Drishya Viveka - with an engagement with contemporary philosophy and science.
Before joining the Vedanta Society of New York, he served as assistant minister of the Vedanta Society of Southern California and prior to that as Principal of the Probationers' Training Center at Belur Math. He holds a degree in Business Management from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, and his talks seamlessly weave insights from modern fields like neuroscience and quantum physics with traditional Vedantic teachings.