Rupaka Mahalingaiah, a techie-turned-spiritual guru, said on Saturday that the social revolution of the Basava philosophy remains unparalleled even today.
Delivering a special lecture on the penultimate day of an international conference on ‘Recent Trends in Science, Engineering, Business Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences’, organised by Sharnbasva University here, Ms. Rupaka said society today is struggling with various kinds of discrimination. “Basaveshwara and his contemporaries dismissed these as irrelevant and created a society that was beyond such insular notions,” she said.
Recalling her journey to the world of spirituality, Ms. Rupaka said she was driven by the dream of “resurrecting and spreading the affirmative interpretation” of the vachanas of Basaveshwara. “I was impressed by the Vedanta preachings at the Ramakrishna Mission during my childhood. My life got transformed after I attended a discourse by Allama Prabhu Swamy in Bengaluru. Now, I dedicate my life to spreading the Sharana philosophy,” she added.
Ms. Rupaka said the Basava philosophy and its practices are universal and eternal. “While the 12th century witnessed the unfolding of this spiritual path, the percepts of this tradition seem to have been buried with time. Basaveshwara seems to have foreseen this possibility and preserved the concepts in the form of Vachanas,” she said.
“We need to spend time for spiritual development, and purify ourselves by positive actions and thoughts. One should reap the benefits by adopting the principles of Vachanas our daily life,” Ms. Rupaka said.
Delivering a special lecture on ‘Emerging Challenges in the Changing Situation Faced by Print and Electronic Media Journalists’, S. Bageshre e, Chief of Bureau of The Hindu, Bengaluru, said the telecast and publication of unverified news werecausing havoc and pleaded for a foolproof mechanism to prevent it.
