JNU to hold lessons on Bhagavad Gita

After conducting lessons in Ramayana, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is all set to take a leaf out of Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita on handling the coronavirus or COVID-19 crisis. The lecture will be held through a webinar by Padma Shri award-winning professor Subhash Kak from Oklahoma State University, USA. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council since 2018.

The lecture is scheduled to be held on May 7 from 6 pm to 7 pm. It is being coordinated by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship and Centre for Media Studies, JNU. The registrations for the programme are on and will be held through the Zoom app.

The institute is organising a series of lectures to create awareness against the coronavirus. The line-up also includes ‘Extracting cream out of corona crisis – Position the India of future’ by director, Institute of Advanced Science, Dartmouth, USA. The Special Centre for Molecular Medicine, JNU is hosting a lecture on ‘COVID-19: India’s challenge and response’.

Earlier, the varsity had held a series of lectures on Ramayana, which faced some opposition. The varsity V-C had said in a reply to ANI, “Mahatma Gandhi emphasised how Lord Ram taught us to uphold truth, justice, equality and equanimity even in an adverse situation. When we’re fighting COVID we thought there are great lessons to learn from Ramayana to strengthen ourselves. I see no reason why anybody should oppose it.”

The university is currently closed and exams are being held over digital mode. JNU is among the first varsities to hold digital exams. For those who could not attend the exams, certain provisions are likely to be made. The varsity in an official statement informed that over 800 students are currently staying at the varsity campus.