Wisdom traditions
Studies of the Veda, Gita, Yoga, Tantra, and related wisdom traditions of India and the world.
Sri Aurobindo Chair
A Flagship Collaboration at Vedere University
Dedicated to interdisciplinary research, lectures, and publications on consciousness and human evolution.
Flagship Academic Collaboration
A platform for consciousness studies and human transformation
The Sri Aurobindo Chair (SAC) is the flagship academic collaboration between Vedere University and Access Health Care Physicians LLC. Conceived by Dr Maria Scunziano-Singh and Dr Pariksith Singh in association with Dr Nawtej Dossanjh, it aims to promote interdisciplinary research, lectures, and publications in subjects and topics relating to consciousness and human evolution.
It serves as a collaborative platform for scholars, seekers, and similarly oriented institutions worldwide.
Sri Aurobindo's vast oeuvre and experiments in this field are the underlying inspiration and guiding light, but not the restriction or limit of its ambit.
The Chair has been initially endowed by the non-profit Auroveda Operating Foundation, whose trustees are Dr Maria Scunziano-Singh, Dr Pariksith Singh, and Dr Manjusri Vennamaneni. It is affiliated to Vedere University, whose president is Dr Nawtej Dossanjh.
Purpose
A living platform for study, reflection, and dialogue
“SAC is a platform for research, studies, conferences, seminars, lectures, publications, courses, and conversations at whose heart lie the work of transforming consciousness, both individual and global.”
Core Interests
Themes that shape the Chair's work
Around its core inquiry into consciousness and human evolution, the Chair brings together spiritual, scholarly, literary, and civilizational perspectives that speak to the needs of the present moment.
Among its central interests are the Veda, Gita, Yoga, Tantra, and related wisdom traditions, alongside broader questions of philosophy, literature, linguistics, history, hermeneutics, and cross-cultural dialogue.
Healing and wellness
Inquiry into wellness, health, and forms of human flourishing that connect body, mind, and consciousness.
Planetary futures
A conversation linking science and spirituality, conscious evolution, literature, technology, and intelligence.
Dialogue across cultures
Cross-cultural, civilizational, philosophical, literary, linguistic, historical, and hermeneutic exchange.
A conversation for modern times
One of the Chair's core interests is a conversation on planetary futures, bringing together science and spirituality, wellness and health, conscious evolution, life and literature, ancient wisdom in modern times, technology, and intelligence.
Science and spirituality
Wellness and health
Conscious evolution
Life and literature
Ancient wisdom in modern times
Technology and intelligence
How the Chair will engage scholars and the public
The Chair plans to initiate conferences, seminars, symposia, dialogues, publications, lectures, podcasts, and other channels that connect rigorous study with public intellectual life.
Research and dialogue
Research, studies, conferences, seminars, symposia, lectures, courses, and sustained conversations.
Public intellectual life
Lectures, podcasts, and dialogues that connect scholarly inquiry with wider publics.
Publishing platforms
Book series, reprints, new titles, a YouTube channel, Substack, and other means of publication.
Current Activities
Work already under way
Amazing Veda
A series of talks, recordings, and posts led by Dr Pariksith Singh exploring the living relevance of the Vedic tradition.
Kaavya Poetry Series
A poetry book series launched by the SAC. The inaugural volume is Dr Pariksith Singh's Satya: Poems to My Father, released in early 2026.
Rooted in endowment, partnership, and aspiration
The Chair is designed as a long-horizon platform for research, studies, conferences, seminars, lectures, publications, courses, and conversations.
Through Vedere University, the Auroveda Operating Foundation, and partner publishers, the Chair aims to support both scholarly work and public-facing initiatives across media and formats.
In time, the Sri Aurobindo Chair aspires to expand and form the nucleus of an Institute of Integral Studies.
Professor Makarand R. Paranjape
Professor Paranjape is the inaugural and honorary incumbent of the Sri Aurobindo Chair, bringing a 45-year track record in higher education, research, and publishing. He was educated at St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received his Masters and PhD.
He served as Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (2018–2021) and was the seniormost professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, before taking voluntary retirement. He joined Access Health Care Physicians as Director of Education in 2024.
The author or editor of over 50 books, he has published nearly 200 academic papers or book chapters and over 1,000 op-eds, columns, and articles in mainstream newspapers and periodicals in India and abroad. A poet, novelist, critic, and public intellectual, he currently writes regularly for Open magazine, The New Indian Express, and FirstPost.
Learn more about the Sri Aurobindo Chair
Connect with Vedere University to explore the Chair's vision, emerging programming, and its place within the university's wider mission.