भारतीयज्ञानप्रणाल्स्ट्राकेन्द्रम
भारतीयज्ञादीगरीसंस्थानम, खडगपुरम
Netaji Auditorium
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
Upaniṣadic Futures: From Svānubhūti to Pedagogy emerges from a sustained research programme developed through three nationally funded projects (November, 2023 – March, 2027) under the aegis of the Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC) Cell, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur — supported by the Indian Knowledge System Division of the Ministry of Education, the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and the Faculty Start-up Research Grants, Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy, IIT Kharagpur.
Despite major advances in explaining cognitive and neural processes, the subjective character of conscious experience continues to pose a distinctive explanatory challenge. Alongside the question of how such experience can be explained lies another: how might it be accessed and examined systematically in its own right? These questions gave particular relevance to disciplined first-person inquiry and provided an important conceptual impetus for the study of svānubhūti undertaken through the research programmes.
Through this research trajectory, a civilizational-scale firstperson archive has been developed through engagement with approximately one hundred and eighty renunciate sādhakas across nine sanātana dharma sampradāyas — the Baul Tradition, Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), Chinmaya Mission, ISKCON, Nirmal Ashram, Ramakrishna Order, Sri Sarada Math, The Art of Living, and Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. The archive brings together first-person experiential narratives, longitudinal ethnographic observations and audio-visual documentation, engaging with renunciation, sādhanā, śāstric grounding, transformations in Consciousness, cognition, and the emergence of niṣkāma sevā.
A short film drawn from the research corpus that underlies the conference.
Lived Wisdom from the Renunciate
Traditions of sanātana dharma —
Consciousness, cognition and
niṣkāma sevā.
The conference represents the next stage of this research trajectory: bringing the accumulated corpus into a wider interdisciplinary, institutional and civilizational dialogue. At its centre is a fundamental question: how might first-person experiential knowledge — svānubhūti — enter into meaningful conversation with contemporary academic, scientific, pedagogical and societal knowledge frameworks?
The conference will serve as a platform for knowledge validation and interdisciplinary deliberation, bringing renunciate practitioners, scholars, scientists, psychologists, educationists, policymakers, institutional leaders and publication stakeholders into dialogue around the research corpus. Through their respective experiential and disciplinary lenses, participants will examine the questions that different knowledge domains bring to this body of experiential knowledge; the insights and further questions that may emerge from it; and the interdisciplinary research, pedagogical, publication and dissemination pathways that may follow
Across two days, the deliberations shall move systematically from the presentation and examination of the research archive to interdisciplinary inquiry, thematic consolidation, knowledge translation and publication planning — with a continuing orientation towards education, wellbeing and societal application
Session Themes
Purpose, knowing, renunciation and disciplined first-person inquiry
How sustained sādhanā generates experiential knowledge across lived pathways.
Critical scrutiny of first-person experiential accounts as research data.
When, and in what sense, can experience constitute knowledge?
śāstric frameworks for transmission; curriculum, policy and the future of education.
Reaching contemporary and global learners without dilution.
SCHEDULE
| 08:00 - 08:50 AM | Registration |
| 09:00 - 09:20 AM |
Inaugural Session Lamp lighting |
| 09:20 - 10:00 AM | svāgatam and pṛṣṭhabhūmi |
| 10:05 - 10:55 AM |
Session 1
|
| 11:00 - 11:25 AM | alpāhāra |
| 11:30 AM - 01:25 PM |
Session 2 sādhanā to svānubhūti: pathways of lived transformation |
| 01:30 - 02:45 PM |
paṅkti bhojana Traditional community lunch |
| 03:00 - 05:10 PM |
Session 3 svānubhūti as first-person data: possibilities, fallacies and validity |
| 05:15 - 06:15 PM | alpāhāra and virāma |
| 06:30 - 07:45 PM |
upaniṣad raṅgamañcaḥ Special theatrical presentation |
| 09:00 - 11:10 AM |
Session 4 svānubhūti as knowledge: first-person experience, śāstra and epistemic validity |
| 11:10 - 11:40 AM | alpāhāra |
| 11:45 AM - 01:55 PM |
Session 5 svānubhūti to śikṣā: knowledge, pedagogy and future education |
| 02:00 - 03:15 PM |
paṅkti bhojana & poster presentation Traditional community lunch and poster publication interactions |
| 03:30 - 04:30 PM |
Session 6 upaniṣadic futures: svānubhūti to contemporary and global pedagogy |
| 04:30 - 05:00 PM | alpāhāra |
| 05:00 - 06:00 PM |
Final co-creation sabhā - from
svānubhūti to pedagogy co-creating the publication matrix & roadmap |
| 06:00 - 06:30 PM | Valedictory session |
* The programme schedule, session composition and speaker allocation are subject to change.
आत्माान्वेेषण याात्राा : जिज्ञाासाा → स्वाानुुभूूति → शिक्षाा
प्रस्तुुतिः संंस्कृृत रङ्गमण्डलम्, केे न्द्रीीय संंस्कृृत विश्वविद्याालयस्य, भोोपााल परिसर:
Patrons & Welcome Address
Director
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Dean, Research and Development
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
INVITED SPEAKERS — INTERNATIONAL
Founder and President
Centre for Contemplative Research, USA
Doctoral Researcher, Centre for Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience
Brunel University London, UK
Assistant Minister and Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy
Vedanta Society of Sacramento, California
Harvard Medical School | Lazar Lab for Meditation Research
Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
Minister-in-Charge
Vedanta Society of New York
INVITED SPEAKERS — NATIONAL
President, Trustee, Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth
Chinmaya International Foundation
Head
BAPS Swaminarayan Research Institute, Akshardham, New Delhi
Monastic Member
Sri Sarada Math
National Coordinator, IKS
Division, Ministry of Education IIT Indore
Formerly Head, Department of Psychology
University of Delhi
Professor-in-Charge, Centre for
Traditional Indian Knowledge and Skills IIT Bombay
Director
IIT Mandi
Distinguished Visiting Professor
IIT Kharagpur
Guru and Founding Acharya
Sanatan Siddhashram Adhyatmika Vishwa Vidya Satra
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Bṛhat
Vice-Chancellor
Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi
adhyakṣa
Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati
Call for Abstracts — Research Papers & Posters
The upaniṣadic Panorama:
From jijñāsā to svānubhūti
sādhanā to svānubhūti
Pathways of Lived Transformation
svānubhūti as First-Person Data:
Possibilities, Fallacies and Validity
svānubhūti as Knowledge: First-Person
Experience, śāstra and Epistemic Validity
svānubhūti to śikṣā: Knowledge,
Pedagogy and Future Education
upaniṣadic Futures: svānubhūti to
Contemporary and Global Pedagogy
Submit an abstract of 250–300 words with: Title · Author(s) & Affiliation(s) · 4–6 Keywords · Conference
Theme (01–06) · Submission Category (Research Paper / Poster).
The abstract should clearly indicate the central question, argument, objective, the approach or
methodology where applicable, and its contribution to the selected conference theme. Only abstracts
are required at this stage — detailed guidelines for full papers and posters will be communicated to
authors of accepted abstracts and made available on the conference web page
250–300 words
viṣaya 01–06
Research paper/poster
30 November, 2026
Scholarly scrutiny
Thematic alignment
Relevance
Conceptual clarity
Notification
31 December,
2026
Paper or Poster
Full manuscript or
A0 portrait poster
31 January, 2027
26 February, 2027
There will be no oral presentations of submitted research papers. Full papers submitted following abstract acceptance will undergo a separate scholarly review process. Selected full-length manuscripts will be considered for publication through the conference publication pathway. Accepted posters will be presented during the designated poster session at the conference
The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.
Technical Committee Members
Director of IKS Research
Br̥hat Educational Trust
Core Faculty & Assistant Professor
Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems, IIT Kharagpur
Registration & Participation
per participant · all inclusive
Registration closes
26 February, 2027
*Non-refundable. Transferable only with prior written consent of organisers via email.**Breakfast and dinner not included
Modest accommodation will be facilitated by the conference organisers within the IIT Kharagpur campus, on request and subject to availability.
shared accommodation.
26 February, 2027, from 12:00 hours onwards
1 March, 2027, before 12:00 hours
*Accommodation charges to be paid directly by delegates to the respective accommodation facility
For accommodation requests
CONTACT & LOCATION
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Kharagpur 721302 · West Bengal · India
By Air — Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata; approximately 130 km from IIT Kharagpur
By Rail — Kharagpur Junction, approximately 5 km from IIT Kharagpur
Upaniṣadic Futures From Svānubhūti to Pedagogy: An International Civilizational Conference across Sanātana dharma Sampradays Brochure