Jeevan Vidya Shivir at Hyderabad.... does JVM have any connection with it?

Namonamah,

Reproducing the content of mail forwarded to me by a friend
QUOTE

Subject: Jeevan Vidya Shivir in Dec at IIIT Hyderabad

Dear Friend,

We invite you to the Jeevan Vidya shivir, (an educational workshop) to be
held from 20th . 27th December, 2008 (both days inclusive) at IIIT
Hyderabad. A shivir is a platform for discussing a wide range of issues like
Education, Reality, Happiness, Success, Aspirations and gaining an
understanding on Our Nature, Relationships, Environment, Social Issues, and
Self-Confidence. Do they sound relevant to you? In the shivir we will have a
detailed and lengthy discussion on these, and in the process try to find a
holistic and sustainable solution in the light of Jeevan Vidya.

A note is attached about what a philosophy must include and how we can
evaluate a philosophy. This note will be a help in getting an idea of the
Jeevan Vidya philosophy, and will also throw light on the kind of workshop
one may expect. Please spend your valuable time in reading the note.

Cost of the Workshop:-
--------------------
This workshop is conducted with a feeling born out of responsibility &
always shared as a gift, so there is no fee for the workshop. However, the
cost of boarding for each participant comes to about (Executive Room:
Rs.150 per day, Double occupancy room: Rs.100 per head/per day, Guest house
room: Rs.500 per day). The cost of food comes to Rs.14/- per breakfast and
Rs.23/- per lunch or dinner. Participants who can may bear these expenses.
If you are able to contribute more, you can help support the cost of those
participants who are unable to pay. The cost of the whole workshop is thus
usually met by the participants. Nobody is ever denied participation in the
workshop due to inability to make a monetary contribution.

About the prabodhak:-
-------------------
Professor Ganesh Bagaria from HBTI Kanpur, will conduct the shivir. He,
besides being an excellent communicator and activist known from his student
days in IIT-K, is a pioneer in combining our tradition and values with
education.

He teaches electronics and communication at Harcourt Butler.s Technical
Institute, Kanpur. He has a deep understanding of Western as well as Indian
Philosophy. His research interests apart from theory of electronic
communication are (1) understanding of Human, Humanness, Human conduct,
Human education, Human constitution and Human civilization, and (2)
commitment to work for its realization.

He is an admired teacher and has an ardent student following, relating to
all aspects of life. His extreme simplicity and remarkable insight makes him
a unique person.

If you are interested in coming to this workshop, please reply to this mail.
If you know any friend or colleague or family member who would also be
interested in attending, please feel free to forward the mail.

Warms regards

Dr. Ramancharla Pradeep Kumar
Human Values cell
IIIT, Hyderabad

P.S. : Please note that the workshop is of an integrated nature and has to
be attended in its entirety. It may not be attended partially.

UNQUOTE

Content of the attachment

QUOTE

Evaluating a Philosophy

There are many philosophies and systems of living that are available to us. How do we
evaluate these systems and determine which can guide us best in living our life? This note
seeks to provide some benchmarks for evaluating a philosophy.
1. Fundamentals: A good philosophy addresses issues at the most fundamental levels of
existence. It motivates us to ask the most basic questions about ourselves. Who are we?
What is the purpose of life? How can we fulfill this purpose? A complete philosophy
would be one that provides satisfactory and acceptable answers to questions like these.
The idea behind this is that if the fundamental issues are sorted out, dealing with the
grosser particularities of life is rendered easy. On the other hand, if the fundamentals
remain nebulous then we are forced to deal uncomprehendingly with the grosser, more
conspicuously manifest problems of life that confront us everyday.
2. Understanding versus Faith/Belief: A philosophy based on understanding is more
likely to be acceptable than one based merely on faith/belief. Indeed, we take recourse
to faith/belief only when we do not understand something, or when we believe
something to be somehow beyond our conventional ways of understanding. A good
philosophy would be one that makes no demand upon our faith/belief and is based on
explanations that we can understand.
3. Communicability: The best philosophy in the world is likely to be of little use if it is
not easily communicable to people. If accessing the philosophy requires difficult
regimes of discipline or acrobatic feats of the body or mind, then the utility of the
philosophy gets reduced. An ideal philosophy would be easily communicable to any
ordinary person without requiring any special abilities.
4. Universality: The more culture-specific a philosophy is, the less likely it is to appeal to
a wider cross-section of people. Thus a good philosophy would be one which would be
universal in appeal and applicability, across cultures and civilizations.
5. Comprehensiveness/Holism: The more comprehensive a philosophy is, the more
acceptable it is likely to be. A good philosophy would be able to generate guiding
principles for all spheres of life, especially contemporary life.
6. Solutions versus Relief: An ideal philosophy must lead to a programme of solutions
rather than a programme of relief or respite.
7. Empowerment: A good philosophy must be empowering. It should be able to infuse
hope and confidence in people and prevent them from lapsing into misanthropy or
worse.
8. Realisability (Existential): A good philosophy must be realisable in the individual.
That is, the possibility of the philosophy being manifest in the lives of each and every
individual mus appear clear and evident.
9. Feasibility (Social): A good philosophy must be socially and logistically feasible; and
it must be demonstrably so, without any repressive or coercive methods being used.
10. Open Source: Like good software, a good philosophy must be open source, so that
once the fundamentals are understood, anyone can participate in the process of
developing, creating documentation for, and applying that philosophy.

-Vinish Gupta

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Thanks and regards
Milind Khadilkar