Bali Sankirtan Festival

The Bhaktivedanta Institute Foundation at Denpasar is organizing the International Seminar on Spirituality and Science - Exploration from Science and Spiritual of Human Life in Denpasar, November 21, 2009. It is an interdisciplinary project and scholars from various fields of science and spiritual disciplines of the world will participate in this Congress. Most scientific studies and conferences on Life and its Origin are focused on examining whether life, a living cell, could be a product of complex molecular reactions of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, water, etc. through chemical evolution. However, the present knowledge of molecular paradigm of life alone is unable to fully describe and understand life and its origin.

Although scientists can synthesize some basic chemicals in the laboratory which are important components for living beings, the answer to the fundamental question, 'what is life?' is still quite far away. The purpose of the present conference is to examine seriously the deeper insights of life and its origin through the inter-disciplinary approach of science and spirituality/theology incorporating the religious principle that life is a spiritual particle. This will be done by drawing inspirations from major religious/spiritual traditions of the world, especially from the ancient Vedantic tradition of India. Also a part of the purpose is to carefully examine the scientific data from the religious viewpoint and to generate some new research projects for the scientific study of life, its meaning and purpose, consciousness, and God.

The existing molecular paradigms for explaining life and its origin, such as Oparin's model of coacervates, Fox's model of protenoid micro spheres, Cairns-Smith's model of clay as our grandfather, Christian de Duve's thioester model, Miller's electrical discharge reactions to stimulate lightening in a so-called primordial gaseous mixture of H₂, H₂O, NH₃, CH₄, etc., of the presumed primordial or early earth, the RNA world, etc., seem to be quite insufficient for understanding life and its origin. The incredible improbability of the evolution of a living cell from a cosmic molecular soup against many odds of known laboratory chemical reaction conditions, for example, maintaining an optimum pH, reaction time, proper concentration of reacting molecules, reaction medium (solid or liquid phase), overcoming the thermodynamic barrier, isolation of reaction products, and so on, forces us to consider with utmost seriousness a deeper and broader study of life beyond the molecular paradigm.

According to the major spiritual traditions in the world, especially the ancient Vedantic tradition of India, there is a spiritual dimension to life which accounts for the purpose and meaning of life. The indication is that there is a fundamental spiritual particle of life called atman (in Sanskrit). According to Vedantic literatures, the seed of life atman or `spiriton' or the soul is injected by the Supreme Lord in the womb of Mother Nature and by the interaction of `spiriton' with the material particles; various life forms develop on earth. This paradigm will also form the scientific argument about the existence of God and His creation.

Registration fee for foreign delegates US $ 7.5 and for Indonesia Rp. 75 000,-

Local hospitality and accommodation will be provided for all those whose papers are accepted for presentation. We are trying to arrange funds for travel allowance. Foreign Scholars are also encouraged to arrange funds through other funding agencies. For further enquiry contact us through bellow email or postal addresses.

Delegates are responsible for booking their own hotel accommodation and settlement of the bill. Block bookings have been made at the following hotels. Delegates must quote the Evaluations and Assessment Conference when booking: