By Acharya S.P..Dwivedi
VANCOUVER – Jason Brown, a researcher from UBC, organized a four days conference in UBC to steer an academic discussion and debate on Spiritual Ecologies and New Cosmologies Convergence from September 22 – 29.
Speakers from several faiths, academics, story tellers and scientific presented their views on spiritual theory of creation while the supporters of the scientific reflected their own views and shared their experiences. On 22nd September, in the Conference, talk and discussion went around theme- “Beginnings”.
Lary Grant from Musqueam Native community welcomed the guests and narrated a personal story about his parents and grandparents how they practiced spirituality and believed in Spirit. He could not find any term/word for God in native vocabulary, Acharya referred holy Veda, Gita , Upanishads, Purana Mahabharata which shed light on creation and spirituality. All universe is created by Brahman ;and all living beings are divine, spiritual and equal. Rabbi -Joseph Saltoun read from Genesis (Holy Bible) how God created universe and human beings (Adam and Eve) in six days, Balwant Sanghera quoted certain verses from the holy scripture- Guru Granth Sahib to present Sikh perspective.
Jason Brown found some descriptions, about creation, in Old and in New Testament. But he felt it is a great sign that now there are some scholars who are coming with new interpretation of spirit and spirituality. He believed that there is only one creator who created us all. God’s creation is for all. Dr. Nasir Zaidi accepted that Islamic theory of creation is similar to Bible He quoted from the Quranic verses- . Who (God) creates and proportions; determines and directs. His kingdom spreads over the heavens and earths. Ben Pfeiffer focused on scientific theory of creation-evolution, bang, black-hole and new cosmic. He advocated that more importance should be given to creation than creator and spirituality.
