Dr. Ravi Ravindra
Ravi Ravindra obtained degrees of B.Sc. and M. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, before going to Canada on a Commonwealth Scholarship to do an M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Toronto. Later, he did an M.A. in Philosophy also, and at different times held Post-doctoral fellowships in Physics (University of Toronto), History and Philosophy of Science (Princeton University) and in Religion (Columbia University). He is now Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University in Halifax (Canada) where he served for many years as a Professor in the departments of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and of Physics.
He was a Member of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla, and the Founding Director of the Threshold Award for Integrative Knowledge. He was a member of the Board of Judges for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. He is an Honorary Member of the Scientific and Medical Network and a Fellow of the Temenos Academy, England.
Ravi's spiritual search has led him to the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, G. I. Gurdjieff, Zen, Yoga, and a deep immersion in the mystical teachings of the Indian and Christian classical traditions. He is the author of several books on religion, science, mysticism, and spirituality.
Ravindra was invited for an interview by conscious.tv in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2015. The video can be viewed at http://conscious.tv/single.php?vid=4477923450001
A journalist in California, Cynthia Overweg, has published an article in the winter 2013 issue of the Quest Magazine on some aspects of the spiritual search of Ravi Ravindra. You can read that article here.
For an interview with Ravi conducted by Richard Smoley and published in Quest Magazine in 2018, please click here.
For a detailed CV of Ravi Ravindra, please click here.
Ravi Ravindra was invited to contribute to the Global Chorus: 365 Voices on the Future of the Planet; ed. Todd E. MacLean; Rocky Mountain Books, 2014. As one would expect, the contributors include luminaries like the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela among others, and some quite ordinary folks. There is a one page response from each of the contributors, one for each day of the year.
Read Ravi's response on the page for June 11 here.
In his latest book “Blessed by Mysterious Grace: The Journey of a Pilgrim” Ravi describes how he has been blessed with a lot of time, attention and energy given by many exalted personages such as Krishnamurti, Jeanne de Salzmnann and some other people responsible for the Gurdjieff teaching, two highly regarded Zen masters, some significant Theosophists, an Archimandrite on Mount Athos, and many other wise people.
For Ravi the mystery remains about his previous incarnations about which the Zen Master Chulloong Sunim spoke about and why he insisted on giving Ravi some money and an antique image of the Buddha because he had done something for the Zen Master in a previous life. And many other mysteries.