Foundational Certificate Courses (FCC)

Henceforth, to elevate rationality to contentment, learning frameworks need to evolve and offer a balanced educational and research pedagogy. Needless to convey the dimensions of rationality and philosophy be explored in dimensions such as origin and evolution of cosmos, life and consciousness, mysticism, ultimate meaning and purpose of life, Western Philosophy and Vedanta. Through such systematic and rigorous exploration, the interfaces between science-philosophy, philosophy-spirituality, science-spirituality and science-philosophy-spirituality can be best understood to extend the existing know-how of these paradigms and how they can further suffice into the greater understanding of the one reality. Contemporary educational system does not elaborate on these and thereby result in the imbalanced and non-harmonious aptitude and attitude towards many elements of life’s journey and associated effects such as depression, lack of motivation, negative thinking, anxiety, stress and non-theistic solutions not offering stronger emotional quotient etc., Thereby, successful completion of any of the FCC course can suffice a person to enhance multi-dimensional and open ended thinking to enhance scientific spirit with philosophical analysis and spiritual and Vedantic wisdom. Thereby, customized solutions based on the science-spirituality synthesis paradigm can be explored and a purely rationality driven outcome can be replaced with a holistic and contentment based solution.

On the other hand, those who are into deeper practice into any spiritual discipline, would often find it difficult to correlate with other versions of spirituality. Thus, spiritualists also have disharmony and are not at peace due to disbelief or non-acceptance of other forms of spirituality advocated in various religious disciplines. Henceforth, an appropriate understanding of spirituality from a mature framework is required and without this, it will be difficult to achieve universality despite ensuring a science-spirituality synthesis based pedagogy.  Henceforth, to address mentioned issues, spirituality must be first understood properly and in a ladder type framework that connects all versions of spirituality. For this, Vedanta can be explored due to its most ancient status as a spiritual school of the Indian Knowledge System. Vedanta advocates on various forms of Yoga including Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Astanga Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. In this regard, it shall be noted that Yoga that became much famous in the contemporary lifestyle and habitat also needs to be analyzed upon its competence these issues. Thereby, the linkage between Yoga and Spirituality can be explored. Bhagavad Gita serves as an excellent repository for the delineation of various forms of Yoga in their spiritual context. Thereby, elevating any form of Yoga to the highest levels of spirituality can be sought.  So doing, the version of spirituality being practiced by any person can be contextually best understood and integrated to the one spiritual reality being advocated in the Vedanta and thereby elevate one’s realizations towards peace, sublimity and transcendence.

Considering the above mentioned perspectives, the following courses have been designed by the Bhaktivedanta Institute to serve as Foundational Certificate Courses (FCC):

1. Foundations of Science and Spirituality (FSS)
2. Nature of Reality (NR)
3. Philosophical Excellence (PHILEX)
4. Yoga and Spirituality – Explorations based on Bhagavad Gita (YS)

Among these courses, the first course (FSS) will serve as a very basic foundation towards the synthesis of science and spirituality based on their general characteristics or traits. Thereafter, the second course (NR) elucidates on deeper exploration of reality through science-spirituality synthesis. For this, the origin and evolution of cosmos, life and consciousness have been addressed in this course. The third course namely PHILEX aims to provide insights into the deeper aspects of the confluence of philosophical overview and spiritual foundations being elucidated in the Vedanta. Finally, the last course aims to provide very useful and deeper analysis into Spirituality and its relevance as Yoga. This will be taught through the 18 forms of Yoga being elaborated in 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. Thereby, foundations of science-spirituality and spirituality can be affirmed in the intellect of the delegate through the taught content.