Vaikuṇṭha Conference

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☞ Please download the full conference brochure PDF with abstracts for each speaker.

Vaikuṇṭha—A Non-Buddhist Felicity. Looking at Viṣṇu’s Paradise through a Critical Engagement with the Work of Steve Collins

Symposium General Abstract

This two-day conference will consider the concept of a Hindu heaven—Vaikuṇṭha—through the lens of texts, performance and the visual arts of the Śrīvaisṇava community. As with several other Hindu theistic traditions, Śrīvaiṣṇavism closely associates ideas of heaven or hell with those of salvation. Through a systematic theology building on a range of scriptural and devotional works spanning nearly 2000 years (vedic, epic, purāṇic, and post-puraṇic), Śrīvaiṣṇavaism has conceived of salvation as an entry into Viṣṇu’s dwelling—depicted as a paradisical cityscape, Vaikuṇṭha – where the benefits of opulence, proximity, community and infinite bliss can be experienced for eternity, in all their totality. There is a long textual tradition of the depiction of Vaikuṇṭha from Sanskrit mythic sources to the ecstatic Tamil poetry of the Divyaprabandham to the praise-poems and esoteric secret literature of the tradition’s most important teachers. This symposium seeks to examine the genealogies and instantiation of Vaikuṇṭha as a place on heaven and on earth within the context of the history of the Śrīvaiṣṇava community.

In his path-breaking study of Buddhist heavenly and earthly utopias in his 1998 book, “Nirvāṇa and Other Buddhist Felicities” Steve Collins provided us with a wide-ranging textual study the intellectual and cultural world of Pāli literature, the Pāli imaginaire as he called it. The study shows us that the ultimate, soteriological goal of nirvāṇa was but one among manifold “felicities” in Buddhism. Thus, the book pays attention to both worldly felicities as well as Buddhist heavens, to utopian narratives as well as millennial thought in Theravada Buddhism. He also makes the claim that “any notion of eternal bliss, whether timeless or endless, Buddhist or Christian, or of any other kind, cannot coherently become an object of imagination articulated in a narrative”. In this symposium on a non-Buddhist heaven, the Vaiṣṇava/Śrīvaiṣṇava Vaikuṇṭha, the panelists will also engage with and debate Collin’s work, particularly the non-narratability of utopia in relation to life in Viṣṇu’s paradise.

Conference Schedule

Day 1:

9:45 Welcome—Srilata Raman

10–11 Paper One – Vaikuntam Pukuvatu Maṇṇavar Vitiyē: The journey to Vaikuṇṭha in Tiruvāymoḻi 10.9
Suganya Anandakichenin, University of Hamburg

11–11.15 Coffee/Tea Break

11.15–12.15 Paper Two – Pāñcarātrikas on their way to Vaikuṇṭha: Catching a glimpse into the formation of Śrīvaiṣṇavism
Marion Rastelli, University of Vienna

12.15–1.15 Paper Three – Visions of Vaikuṇṭha: Salvation in Viṣṇu-Nārāyana’s Supreme Abode Sucharita Adluri, Cleveland State University

1.15–2.15 Lunch

2.15–3.15 Paper Four – The Significance of Vaikuṇṭha in Rāmānuja’s Srivaikuṇṭhagadyam and Nityagrantham
Francis X. Clooney, Harvard University

3.15–3.30 Coffee/Tea Break

3.30–4.30 Paper Five – The Cities that are Beyond the Darkness – Vaikuṇṭha and Śivaloka in the Purāṇas
Srilata Raman, University of Toronto

Day 2:

9–10 Paper Six – The Supreme Realm of Vishnu: The Vaikuntha Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram and Preah Vishnulok (Angkor Wat)
Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida

10–10.15 Coffee/Tea Break

10.15–11.15 Paper Seven – Life after Liberation: Vedāntadeśika’s Tamil Portrayal of Vaikuṇṭha in the Paramapatasōpāṉam
Manasicha Akepiyapornchai, University of Texas, Austin.

11.15–12.15 Paper Eight – The multisensorial experience of Vaikuṇṭha in Veṅkaṭanātha’s works Elisa Fresci, University of Toronto

12.15–1. Nirvāṇa and Other Non-Buddhist Felicities: How do we place the textual sources on Vaikuṇṭha within the context of a critical perspective on Steve Collin’s work?

1pm Lunch

Registration

Participation is hybrid with both in-person (limited) and online. Registration closes on November 23, 2022. Please direct your applications and all inquiries to Jinesh Patel at jin.patel@mail.utoronto.ca