The Department of Philosophy presents the Spring 2022 Jain and Hindu Symposium “Intricate Web of Life: Microorganisms to the Divine” at 4 p.m. Friday, April 22, in the North Gym. The symposium marks the first public event organized under the newly created Endowed Chair in Jain and Hindu Dharma, Dr. Veena R. Howard. Dr. Christopher Chapple, Doshi professor of Indic and comparative theology and founding director of the master of arts in yoga studies at Loyola Marymount University, will speak on “Jainism and sanctity of all life.” This presentation will explore Jain theories of life and their implications for arriving at a place of ultimate meaning. Dr. Vijaya Nagarajan, associate professor of theology and religious studies and environmental studies at the University of San Francisco, will follow with her talk “Hinduism and climate.” This lecture asks the question: Can there be individual and collective actions, at varying scales of operation, that a billion Hindus do that could act as a partial brake to present and future climate chaos? Following the lectures, the Chinmaya Mission Fresno Children will chant the first chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita in the Peace Garden. The symposium is generously supported by the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies and sponsored by the Philosophy Department, the College of Arts and Humanities, the Asian American Studies Program and Associated Students, Inc. at Fresno State.
