Post Doc researcher in philosophy of Mind&Consciousness AOS : Yoga

Pre-Script

What I Bring To Your Students

Being equipped with two very important Post-Grad subjects, Literature &Philosophy, I can be a comprehensive guide for the students: I help them to discover the strewn jewels of Wisdom in Philosophy; and then offer them the String of Language to make a garland out of them. Literature helps me to imbibe the students with a passion for language & expression.

Knowledge can flow primarily through articulation of ideas. Alongside, as a philosopher, I encourage my students to think for themselves, to question, to rationalize and analyse and then synthesise; to transcend from mere bookish knowledge to a realm of self- ignited creativity.

My Value Addition To You

As a Counsellor

I have counselled quite a few students with chronic depression, stress, fear, anger and lack of motivation, even suicidal and addictive, during my tenure at Jadavpur University, in the lights of Yoga therapy and philosophy. I would definitely consider myself very blessed if I can continue doing the same in future.

As a Supervisor to M Phil students

I am keen to act as a Supervisor to M Phil students and help them with their dissertation. M Phil thesis writing is the preparatory step to authoring a PHD thesis. Hence students need to be guided and taught the methods and rules to do so with a lot of patience. I will be happy to spare that time and commitment which a senior Professor may not.

The-Script

Education

Ph.D. (Philosophy), Thesis titled "Philosophy: Theory and Practice (An Analytical Study of the System of Yoga", from Jadavpur University, Jan 1995 - Jan 2002

B.Ed., Jadavpur Vidyapith, Kolkata, Jan 1993 – Jan 1995

M.A. (Comparative Literature), Jadavpur University, Jan 1990 – Jan 1993

M.A. (Philosophy), Jadavpur University, Jan 1987 - Jan 1990

B.A. (Honors in Philosophy), Jadavpur University, Feb 1984 – Jan 1987

Higher Secondary, South Point High School, Jan 1982 - Jan 1984

Secondary, West Bengal Board of Secondary Examination, (equivalent to 10th Grade),

South Point School, Kolkata, Jan 1972 - Jan 1982

Experience (Teaching from 1994 – 2016)

Guest Faculty of the M. Phil Course, in the School of Cognitive Science, Jadavpur University, from Jan 2016 to June 2016.

Subject Taught: “Consciousness”

Guest Faculty of the M Phil Course, in the School of Cognitive Science, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Course taught : “The Brain Science of Meditation” from Jan 2014 to June 2014.

Guest Faculty of the M. Phil optional course in the School of Cognitive Science, Dept. of Philosophy, Jadavpur University, January 2012 – April 2012.

Course taught: “The Brain Science of Meditation”

Taught Philosophy in the Graduation levels from 1995 – 1999 at the Jadavpur University as a Junior and Senior Research Scholar.

Awards / Scholarships

General Fellowship awarded by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), New Delhi, on 1st August, 2013. Worked as a GF at Jadavpur University. Fellowship terminated in September, 2015

General Fellowship awarded by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research

(ICPR), New Delhi, July 2003 - Jan 2007 for a post-doctoral research project, 2003-2007 ( project submitted- 2007)

Qualified the National Eligibility Test (NET) conducted by UGC for both

Scholarship & Lectureship in 1994 in Philosophy

Publications

“Astanga Yoga in Synergy with Medical Science”, published in Logic, Mind and Cognition: An Interdisciplinary Sharing, a Festschrift volume in honor of Prof. Amita Chatterjee, by D.K. Printworld, New Delhi, 2012.

“The Genesis of the Superman”, published in the Jadavpur Journal of Philosophy, vol. 23, no. 1, 2014-15

Lectures/Seminars/Presentations

Participated as a delegate and presented a paper on “Citta Vrttih” in the Second Congress on Traditional Sciences & Technologies of India , held at Anna University ,Madras in 1995.

Participated as a delegate and presented a paper, “What ‘Integral Yoga’ Integrates”, on Sri Aurobindo’s Contribution to Education and Culture in the National Seminar organized by the Center of Advanced Study in Philosophy, Jadavpur University, in 2005.

Participated as a delegate in the National Seminar on “Time and Consciousness” organized by UGC-CAS in Philosophy, in Jadavpur University, Jan-Feb 2012.

Participated as a delegate in the National Seminar on “Society, Culture and Value” organized by CAS in Philosophy in Jadavpur University, on 20 th &2ist December. 2012.

Participated as a delegate in the 2-Day UGC – CAS National Seminar on “ Language and Mind: 20 th Century Perspectives”, in Jadavpur University, on 30 th & 31 st Jan, 2014.

Regularly present papers at the Research Scholars’ Seminar held weekly at the Dept. of Philosophy, Jadavpur University.

Presented a paper entitled “Compassion Meditation” at the Fellows’ Meet conducted by the ICPR, New Delhi, on 2 nd – 4 th April, 2014.

Area of Research & Activity

My research interests are Philosophy of Mind and Consciousness,; Current developments in Quantum Physics intrigue me and a study of the same vis a vis Indian philosophical traditions like the Tantra and Vedanta, Samkhya and Yoga, are my focal points.

The Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Ramana Maharshi, the notion of caitanya/cit/consciousness, the study of altered states of consciousness, and the empirical studies based on such concepts, implemented and conducted by persons like Pandit Gopinath Kaviraj, Gopi Krishna, Hiroshi Motoyama (the “Kundalini researchers”), are my vantage points.

Presently my focus is on ‘Contemplative Neuroscience’, which has flourished under the umbrage of Dalai Lama and to glean out the philosophical implications (within the Tantra-Yoga framework) of the results obtained from those experiments.

As a teacher as well as a researcher I have acquainted myself with the classical “Indian” concept of mind/consciousness and have tried to link the same concepts with the ‘discrepancies’ of today’s Quantum Physics which seems to baffle Newtonian Classical Physics.

Post-Doctoral Research Experience as General Fellow, Indian Council of Philosophical Research (New Delhi)

1. General Fellowship (2003-2007)

I got involved into my area of research and teaching since the year 1995, after qualifying the National Eligibility Test (NET) for Lectureship and was awarded the University Grants Scholarship for completing my PhD. My area of interest had always been the Philosophy of Mind in the Indian context, especially that of Tantra and Yoga. I consider myself a ‘spiritual person and rational’; not necessarily a ‘religious person’.

So Yoga appealed to me with its universal and scientific approach: the perfect example of ‘ ādhyātmya vidyā ’ – “the science and spirituality of man-in-depth”. My PhD thesis revolved around classical Pātañjala Yoga, the Bhagavad Gita and modern western theories regarding Philosophy of Mind and Consciousness starting from Descartes to J C Eccles, K Popper, F Crick, G Edelman, D Chalmers and R Penrose. The title of my doctoral thesis was, Philosophy: Theory and Praxis. (An Analytical Study of the System of Yoga) .

However certain metaphysical issues and discrepancies disturbed me as far as classical Sāṃkhya-Yoga was concerned. So after my doctorate I busied myself with another fellowship (General Fellowship) from the Indian Council of Philosophical Research in 2003 and started my journey towards understanding the experiences of real life mystics and philosophers like, Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramakrishna and of course Swami Vivekananda. An analysis of their testimonials led me into the cornucopia of Tantra philosophy.

Hence, the title of my first post-doctoral project was Consciousness From The Perspective of Yoga : and the work contains a detailed understanding of mind and consciousness from the perspectives of the above-mentioned adepts of Yoga as well as an endeavour to connect all of them in a common metaphysical string, which I conjectured to be a blend of Tantra and Vedanta. The project was submitted in 2007.

2. General Fellowship (2013 – 2015)

I found incredible similarity in the views of mystics of all times and places, from Buddha to Krishna to Christ. Interestingly also, the so-called spiritual testimonials from these great yogins seemed to resonate closely with the latest scientific discoveries of today.

A deeper study of the same brought me close to quantum physics and neuroscience. At this point I came across a new field of study “Contemplative Neuroscience” flourishing under the supervision of Dalai Lama.

It seemed an ideal field of research in so far as it brought Yoga, Tantra, Quantum Physics and Neuroscience under one roof. At last I got the empirical proof of what yogins had been claiming since time immemorial.

This is what comprises my second post-doctoral project titled, Contemplative Neuroscience:

A Philosophical Assessment.

It is never enough to report how contemplative experiments are being held in laboratories and how the brain scans of the meditators are being affected. My target here was to find out the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the revelations. In other words I have utilized the laboratory evidence to filter out mind-body relations and align them with the monolithic philosophy of Tantra– Yoga and the verdict of yogins This is also the course I teach my M Phil students, which takes an in-depth understanding of Kundalini Yoga as well.

The relationship between mind and matter has remained the pivotal point of speculation amongst thinkers since the era of ancient Greeks and our Vedic seers till the present day of Science and Technology. Contemplative Neuroscience is a new approach to the problem which aims to deal directly with the brains’ biophysics (matter), vis a vis certain specialized and altered states of consciousness (mind).

I propose to analyze what is given and suggest my philosophical views on the matter. In my survey of the western Philosophy of Mind nowhere I have found a theory where consciousness is considered as the fundamental element of Reality in the way we find it in our darśana . True, there are monistic philosophies such as ‘idealism’ and ‘panpsychism’; but they are also ‘reductive’ and ‘eliminative’ at the same time leading us to a bizarre situation. So the relation between mind and matter remained a puzzle.

If only instead of starting our enquiry from matter and helplessly discovering consciousness on the way as an ‘epiphenomenon’, we reverse the arrow and begin from consciousness towards matter, a lot of puzzles might be resolved. The oriental body of esoteric wisdom abounds in insights on cit or consciousness.

The Vedas contain the profoundest thoughts on the subject and we find support of them in the sayings of all saints and mystics. As Sri Aurobindo says everything is a play of consciousness; ‘involution’ of consciousness is matter; the only difference is in their rate of vibration. The Tantra metaphysics also discuss in details how the subject is related to the world; the relation between thought, language and object/events.

Tantra and Yoga uniquely explains psi phenomena and leaves room even for the Darwinian evolution. Realization of their wisdom leaves no space for violation of any laws of physics and there is no “explanatory gap” when intense emotions lead to hyperactive neural firings in the amygdala of the brain. Apart from taking ample help from the monolithic Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, I have, as allies to my speculations, the verdicts of significant people who may be described as ‘ kundalini researchers’, viz. Pt. Gopinath Kaviraj, Gopi Krishna and Hiroshi Motoyama, who have done considerable experimental research work on the subject.

Post-Script

Frequently Asked Questions

DOB: 21.09.1965

Position Looking For : Lecturer / Academic Counsellor

Joining Time Needed : Around 15 days

Salary: As per UGC norms

Relocation: Yes anywhere in India

Availability For Interview: Post a telephonic round if I am found suitable

Willingness To Travel within the country ?Yes

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