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About Raj Balkaran

Scholar, Educator, Consultant

Raj Balkaran is a scholar, online educator, and life coach. For information see rajbalkaran.com.

Raj's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Raj:

Indian Religions August 4, 2022

Gods in the Time of Democracy

Kajri Jain

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
In 2018 India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, inaugurated the world's tallest statue: a 597-foot figure of nationalist leader Sardar Patel. Twice the height of the Statue of Liberty, it is …
Indian Religions July 28, 2022

Democracy and Social Cleavage in India

Ethnography of Riots, Everyday Politics and Communalism in West Bengal C. 2012-2021

Suman Nath

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Suman Nath's book Democracy and Social Cleavage in India: Ethnography of Riots, Everyday Politics and Communalism in West Bengal (2012-2021) (Routledge, 2022) explores the emergence of identity politics and violence at …
Indian Religions July 21, 2022

Marg Magazine

Readings on the Temple

Naman P. Ahuja

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
In October 1946, shortly before Independence, Mulk Raj Anand founded Marg, a magazine that soon became a pioneering forum for research on Indian and South Asian art and architecture. Over …
Indian Religions July 19, 2022

The Light We Give

How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life

Simran Jeet Singh

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
An inspiring approach to a happier, more fulfilling life through Sikh teachings on love and service.  As a boy growing up in South Texas, Simran Jeet Singh and his brothers …
Indian Religions July 14, 2022

The Hagiographer and the Avatar

The Life and Works of Narayan Kasturi

Antonio Rigopoulos

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
In The Hagiographer and the Avatar: The Life and Works of Narayan Kasturi (SUNY Press, 2021), Antonio Rigopoulos explores the fundamental role of a hagiographer within a charismatic religious movement …
Indian Religions July 7, 2022

Botanical Ecstasies

Psychoactive Plant Formulas in India and Beyond

Matthew Clark

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
In Botanical Ecstasies: Psychoactive Plant Formulas in India and Beyond, Dr Matthew Clark proposes that soma/hoama is instead an ayahuasca-like plant complex made from many different species. He discusses a …
Indian Religions July 5, 2022

A Conversation with Sravana Borkataky-Varma

Historian, Practitioner, Educator, and Social Entrepreneur

Sravana Borkataky-Varma

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
A candid conversation with Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma, historian, practitioner, educator, and social entrepreneur.  Women and Gender in Hindu TantraTantra: The Body and Release, an Esalen Signature Series Raj Balkaran is a scholar …
Indian Religions June 30, 2022

Soaring with Bharati in the Wisdom-Chariot (Ñānaratam)

Radha Raghunathan

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Mahakavi Subramania Bharati was a multi-faceted genius, an innovative poet who initiated a new era in Tamil literature. He was the first writer to have introduced to the Tamil literary …
Indian Religions June 29, 2022

Krishnamacharya on Kundalini

The Origins and Coherence of His Position

Simon Atkinson

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Krishnamacharya on Kundalini: The Origins and Coherence of His Position (Equinox Publishing, 2022) explores a distinctive teaching of 'the father of modern yoga', T. Krishnamacharya. Whereas most yoga traditions teach …
Indian Religions June 27, 2022

The Stories Behind the Poses

The Indian Mythology That Inspired 50 Yoga Postures

Raj Balkaran

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Raj Balkaran's 200th podcast episode: Christa Kuberry interviews him on his beautifully written new book The Stories Behind the Poses: The Indian Mythology That Inspired 50 Yoga Postures (Leaping Hare, 2022), and highlighting their …
Indian Religions June 23, 2022

The Transformation of Tamil Religion

Ramalinga Swamigal and Modern Dravidian Sainthood

Srilata Raman

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Srilata Raman's book The Transformation of Tamil Religion: Ramalinga Swamigal and Modern Dravidian Sainthood (Routledge, 2022) analyses the religious ideology of a Tamil reformer and saint, Ramalinga Swamigal of the 19th …
Indian Religions June 16, 2022

Rethinking 'Classical Yoga' and Buddhism

Meditation, Metaphors and Materiality

Karen O'Brien-Kop

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Rethinking 'Classical Yoga' and Buddhism (Bloomsbury, 2021) revisits the early systemic formation of meditation practices called 'yoga' in South Asia by employing metaphor theory. Karen O'Brien-Kop also develops an alternative …
Indian Religions June 9, 2022

Rebirth

A Guide to Mind, Karma, and Cosmos in the Buddhist World

Roger R. Jackson

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Although Buddhism is one of the religious traditions best known for asserting rebirth, the history and scope of Buddhist approaches to the idea has not received comprehensive treatment—until now. This …
Indian Religions June 2, 2022

Jewish Approaches to Hinduism

A History of Ideas from Judah Ha-Levi to Jacob Sapir (12th-19th Centuries)

Richard G. Marks

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Richard G. Marks's book Jewish Approaches to Hinduism: A History of Ideas from Judah Ha-Levi to Jacob Sapir (12th-19th Centuries) (Routledge, 2021) explores past expressions of the Jewish interest in Hinduism …
Indian Religions May 26, 2022

Sabdanugamah

Indian Linguistic Studies in Honor of George Cardona; Volume 1: Vyakarana and Sabdabodha

Peter Scharf

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Sabdanugamah (Sanskrit Library, 2021) is the first of two volumes of studies in honor of Professor George Cardona, the preeminent authority on Paninian grammar and the linguistic traditions of India as …
Indian Religions May 19, 2022

Constructing Kanchi

City of Infinite Temples

Emma Natalya Stein

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Emma Natalya Stein's book Constructing Kanchi: City of Infinite Temples (Amsterdam UP, 2021) traces the emergence of the South Indian city of Kanchi as a major royal capital and multireligious pilgrimage destination …
Indian Religions May 12, 2022

Holy Science

The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism

Banu Subramaniam

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
In Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism (University of Washington Press, 2019), Banu Subramaniam examines how science and religion have come together to propel a vision of the modern Indian nation …
Indian Religions May 5, 2022

South Asian Studies in Canada

Julie Vig and Andrea Pinkney

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Raj Balkaran speaks with Julie Vig (York University) and Andrea Pinkney (McGill University) about the Canadian South Asian Studies Association, a new development in association with the Canadian Federation for …
Indian Religions May 4, 2022

The Importance of Pali

The Language of Ancient Buddhism

Aleix Ruiz-Falqués

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Core Buddhist teachings are preserved in the ancient Indian language Pali. Listen in as Aleix Ruiz-Falqués speaks about its structure, its significance, and opportunities to study it with him online …
Indian Religions May 2, 2022

Jain Rāmāyaṇa Narratives

Moral Vision and Literary Innovation

Gregory M. Clines

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Gregory M. Clines' book Jain Rāmāyaṇa Narratives: Moral Vision and Literary Innovation (Routledge, 2022) traces how and why Jain authors at different points in history rewrote the story of Rāma and …
Indian Religions April 28, 2022

The Practice of Texts

Education and Healing in South India

Anthony Cerulli

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
In this interdisciplinary study, Anthony Cerulli probes late- and postcolonial reforms in ayurvedic education, the development of the ayurvedic college, and the impacts of the college curriculum on ways that …
Indian Religions April 21, 2022

Spiritual Empires in Europe and India

Cosmopolitan Religious Movements from 1875 to the Interwar Era

Perry Myers

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Spiritual Empires in Europe and India: Cosmopolitan Religious Movements from 1875 to the Interwar Era (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021) provides a comparative analysis of cosmopolitan (esoteric) religious movements, such as Theosophy …
Indian Religions April 14, 2022

Grhastha

The Householder in Ancient Indian Religious Culture

Patrick Olivelle

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Today I talked to Patrick Olivelle about his book Grhastha: The Householder in Ancient Indian Religious Culture (Oxford UP, 2019). For scholars of ancient Indian religions, the wandering mendicants who left home …
Indian Religions April 11, 2022

The Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions

Karen O'Brien-Kop, Brian Black, Avni Chag, and Kush Depala

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
What is the Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions all about? Who is it for? What is it’s past, present, and future? Find out as Raj Balkaran speaks with Symposium organizers …