Brahmacharya: A Window to Life and Society

Amidst the chaos prevailing in our world whether within the individual, community and larger human organizations - this book makes a candid case for considering the value of an ancient Dharmic concept, Brahmacharya, to address maladies at these multiple levels. While aiming at a reevaluation of the concept in the context of our modern era of globalization, social media and artificial intelligence, the book also, in the process, seeks to address many of the misconceptions surrounding it. Drawing from the author's personal journey on the Brahmacharya path, and from available Dharmic and other relevant literature, the book is at once personal as well as universal; providing an invocation to the human community to reconsider life, thought, and social organization in light of this concept. Along these lines, it also makes a case that, in the progressive march of human civilization, Brahmacharya is neither a pariah concept nor a taboo that some have claimed, but is instead a deeply spiritual commitment that can reorganize human life and society for peaceful living, guided by a higher divine principle.

About the Author:

DEBIDATTA AUROBINDA MAHAPATRA holds PhD degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Massachusetts. He authored Sri Aurobindo at 150: An Integral Vision of Evolution, Human Unity, and Peace (Springer, 2023); and Conflict Management in Kashmir: State-People Relations and Peace (Cambridge University Press, 2017); co-authored Beyond Othering: A Gandhian Approach to Conflict Resolution in India and Pakistan (Syracuse University Press, 2023); and Sensual Austerity and Moral Leadership: Cross-Cultural Perspectives from Plato, Confucius, and Gandhi on Building a Peaceful Society (Palgrave, 2021); and edited Conflict and Peace in Eurasia (Routledge, 2012). He is a Professor of Political Science at Florida State College at Jacksonville.