Holland Sentinel

CONFERENCE: Swami Brahmarupananda, of the Vendanta Center of Washington D.C, signs an autograph for Marybeth Flynn, of St Louis, Missouri, at the Vendata In The Third Millennium meeting in Ganges.
Sentinel/Brian Forde

 

The future of civilization may depend on whether technology can be harnessed by ethics and steered into doing good for mankind, said a Hindu leader on Saturday during a three-day conference in Ganges, a small town in western Allegan County.

"The safety of everyone and everything is far more dependent now than before on the sanity of everyone else," said Swami Brahmarupananda of Washington, D.C.

He was one of 14 leading swamis -- Hindu religious teachers -- attending the conference at the Vivekananda Monastery and Retreat in Ganges. It was only the third time a group of hierarchy of Vedanta has met. The first was in 1970 in New York and the second in 1987 was at Ganges.

The Vivekananda retreat center is affiliated with the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago, which is sponsoring the event. The society is a branch of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, with headquarters at Belur Math, India. It has 127 centers worldwide, including 12 in the United States.

This year's retreat drew leaders from India, Bolivia and across the nation. More than 800 others attended the conference as delegates or visitors.

Swami Brahmarupananda was one of several speakers at the three-day event.

"Technology has expanded so rapidly and it can do enormous good, but also enormous bad to the population," he said.

"We must have a national policy on ethics in technology and other professions. Ethics must be mandatory for students of any study," he said.

Technology allows the individual to cause great harm to others at unprecedented levels, he said, citing the recent bombing of a government building in Oklahoma City that killed 168.

"It is becoming crucial to the survival of mankind. Without ethics, it could lead to the demise of the world," he said.

The rise in biogenetics and nuclear warfare accelerate the need for ethics and he claimed drug companies are doing research using human organs purchased from people in poor countries.

"Some companies are testing on humans and paying the people with a few bars of soap," he claimed.

Swami Gautamananda, head of the Ramakrishna Math in Chennai, India, said he was pleased at the number of delegates interested in "religion and serious things."

He claimed democracies need spiritual values to succeed.

The values and teachings of the Vedanta see God in everything and in everyone and he believes the teachings will become more important in the new millennium.

Vedanta evolved from the main scripture of the modern Hindus and means spiritual wisdom. Followers believe the spiritual laws deal with moral, ethical and spiritual relationship between the individual soul and the supreme soul.

Bill Rhodes and Chris St. John, both from Holland and members of the Episcopal church, found the teachings similar to the Christian teachings.

"We are taught to be good stewards of the land and resources," said St. John. "That is very important to the Eastern religions and Vedanta."

The conference continues today.

The Vivekananda Monastery and Retreat Center is on 108 acres at 6723 122nd Ave. in Ganges Township, about three miles south of Douglas.

The temple complex covers 30,000 square feet and includes a chapel, auditorium, kitchen and dining area, museum, library and bookstore. The monastery was founded by Swami Bhashyananda in 1968. The entrance to the museum features two 12-by-4-foot doors made of brass, copper and bronze. They were doors used on the Indian pavilion at the 1965 World's Fair in New York City