On Friday, March 21, 2025, the philosophical dialogue “Nature: dream or reality. A philosophical dialogue between Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo. Jñana - vijñana: two views of Advaita Vedanta”, by Juan Arnau and Raquel Ferrández.

Program: (download pdf):

16:00h: Advaita Vedanta Mayavada, Ramana Maharshi. By Juan Arnau

17:00h: Purna Advaita vedanta,Sri Aurobindo. By Raquel Ferrández

18:30h: Philosophical Dialogue between Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo, by Juan Arnau and Raquel Ferrández

Place: Graduate Hall of the Faculty of Letters - Campus Barri Vell ; Universitat de Girona. Pl. Ferrater Mora, 1

We present this dialogue between two of the most renowned specialists on Indian thought in the Spanish language. We want to open a debate on two of the most significant trends in contemporary Indian thought, which have a great influence in approaching not only the understanding of the nature of the ultimate reality, but also the inner research itself, both in the East and in the West.

One of the greatnesses of Indian thought is the capacity of coexistence between the most diverse interpretations and practices, without any problem beyond the healthy and logical dialectical discussions. These dialogues allow the tradition to be kept alive.

This year we will open a debate on the polarity that coexists in the non-dualist school (Advaita Vedanta), embodied in two of the most charismatic and influential personalities of contemporary spirituality. They lived barely a hundred kilometers away from each other, and both left the body the same year that India achieved its full independence, in 1950.

On the one hand Juan Arnau will present and defend the thought of Ramana Maharshi, who like Samkara is a clear representative of the Advaita Vedanta Mayavada tradition (radical non-dualism or illusionism) that denies the ultimate reality of manifestation in all its multiplicity (Maya - Lila) including individuality (Jiva).

On the other hand, Raquel Ferrández, will argue the thesis of Sri Aurobindo, maximum exponent of Purna Advaita Vedanta (integral or realistic non-dualism) that recognizes the manifested reality as the expression of the Divine in the most absolute multiplicity, as well as the spirit and the individual soul in a process of constant and decreasing, of actors and co-creators.