The Past as Present | In Good Company

How we see the past shapes our understanding of the present. Scholarship defines the past as something shaped by temporal human forces, primarily politics, power, and market trends. Wisdom traditions, on the other hand, see the past as shaped by universal, timeless truths. In this dialog, religious studies professor Ravi Gupta and host Joshua Greene explore competing narratives of the past, their impact on the present and their role in shaping humanity’s future.

Guest: Ravi M. Gupta
Ravi M. Gupta (Radhika Ramana) holds the Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies at Utah State University. He is the author or editor of four books, including an abridged translation of the Bhagavata Purana (with Kenneth Valpey), published in 2017 by Columbia University Press. Ravi has received four teaching awards, a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship, three research fellowships, and a book award. He is a Permanent Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a past president of the Society for Hindu Christian Studies. His current research focuses on the Bhagavata Purana’s Sanskrit commentaries. He enjoys teaching World Religions, Hinduism, Sanskrit, and Religious Studies Theory and Method.

Host: Joshua M. Greene
Joshua M. Greene (Yogesvara). Retired teacher of philosophy and religion at Hofstra University. Former monk under the guidance of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Nationwide speaker on yoga-related topics. Author of books on paths to enlightenment.

Gita Wisdom – a community of like-minded yogis where we talk about making timeless, ancient wisdom applicable to our lives right now.

Bhaktivedanta Institue for Higher Studies – center for the research and dissemination of a non-mechanistic scientific view of reality.