1 hr 32 min
The Authentic Roots and Fruits of the Kālacakra Tantra: Niraj Kumar (Dakini Conversations, Ep.7) Dakini Conversations
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- Buddhism
Here is the seventh episode of the Dakini Conversations podcast, an in-depth discussion with the leading Indian Kālacakra scholar and translator, Niraj Kumar, who was also recently promoted to Joint Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Culture (after being the Director for a couple of years).
Niraj is a commentator on Shakta and Buddhist Tantras, and has been active with various facets of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism for more than a decade. His ongoing work is five volume pentalogy on Kalacakra Tantra, the first comprehensive English translation and new commentary of the Sanskrit text, for several centuries after it was said to have been first written down in the 11th century. The Kālacakra Tantra is said to be the climax of the Indian Buddhist Nalanda tradition and the last major Buddhist tantra composed in India. Niraj Kumar’s first volume on Kālacakra was published in 2022, and the second volume is expected to be released within next couple of months. Niraj is also a pan-Asian thinker and writer on geopolitics in Asia and was instrumental in organizing the First Asia Peace Forum in New Delhi (2015). He is also one of the key architects of ongoing exposition of the sacred relics of Shakyamuni Buddha in Thailand this year.
I first became aware of Niraj Kumar when he personally asked me to present his Kālacakra work at the Vajrayana conference in Bhutan in 2022, which he was unable to attend. Several people also suggested that I interview him about his work on Kalacakra. I then had the good fortune to meet Niraj in India last year for an Indian academic conference at which I was invited to be a keynote speaker. At that time, we exchanged our Kālacakra publications and on finally reading his work, I was amazed and fascinated by the research, ideas and revelations in the Introduction to his book. It was surprising that more people did not know about them and so part of the reason for this interview is to bring some of those ideas out to a larger more general audience. See also: https://dakinitranslations.com/kalacakra-2/
During our podcast discussion, we speak about Kumar's Introduction to the first volume, which is full of fascinating research and revelations, including some of the key concepts in the Tantra regarding time (kāla), the three realms (outer, inner and other), the types of breath/energy, and death itself. This is then followed by a discussion of the dating of the composition of the root Kālacakra text itself (1027 CE), the oldest extant texts available of it (one on palm-leaf currently housed at the British Library), and remarkably indeed the proposed authorship of the written root text being the great Indian Mahasiddha, Naropa, who received the transmission of it from his guru Tilopa, who is said to have been taught it in the Kingdom of Shambhala itself.
The latter part of the discussion relates to how the main lineages of Kālacakra came into Tibet, finishing with an analysis of contemporary practice and application of Kālacakra and how it has degenerated away from the words and advice of the root Tantra text with 20th Century mass empowerments to thousands of 'unqualified' people, for predominantly political, social and financial purposes in cohorts with the Chinese communist government. Kumar also states in his book that the empowerments given by the 14th Dalai Lama are also not 'correct' because they were not all given on the full moon, as advised by the root Tantra.
For the Youtube video of the interview (with English captions) and chapter outline of the discussion, see here: https://youtu.be/TJ4ec1wV-2o
For article about the interview, see here: https://dakinitranslations.com/2024/03/17/the-roots-and-fruits-of-the-kalacakra-tantra-niraj-kumar-dakini-conversations-ep-7/
To download a free pdf file of Kumar's Kālacakra Tantra Volume I book:
https://www.academia.edu/76581752/Kalacakra_Tantra_Vol_I
Here is the seventh episode of the Dakini Conversations podcast, an in-depth discussion with the leading Indian Kālacakra scholar and translator, Niraj Kumar, who was also recently promoted to Joint Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Culture (after being the Director for a couple of years).
Niraj is a commentator on Shakta and Buddhist Tantras, and has been active with various facets of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism for more than a decade. His ongoing work is five volume pentalogy on Kalacakra Tantra, the first comprehensive English translation and new commentary of the Sanskrit text, for several centuries after it was said to have been first written down in the 11th century. The Kālacakra Tantra is said to be the climax of the Indian Buddhist Nalanda tradition and the last major Buddhist tantra composed in India. Niraj Kumar’s first volume on Kālacakra was published in 2022, and the second volume is expected to be released within next couple of months. Niraj is also a pan-Asian thinker and writer on geopolitics in Asia and was instrumental in organizing the First Asia Peace Forum in New Delhi (2015). He is also one of the key architects of ongoing exposition of the sacred relics of Shakyamuni Buddha in Thailand this year.
I first became aware of Niraj Kumar when he personally asked me to present his Kālacakra work at the Vajrayana conference in Bhutan in 2022, which he was unable to attend. Several people also suggested that I interview him about his work on Kalacakra. I then had the good fortune to meet Niraj in India last year for an Indian academic conference at which I was invited to be a keynote speaker. At that time, we exchanged our Kālacakra publications and on finally reading his work, I was amazed and fascinated by the research, ideas and revelations in the Introduction to his book. It was surprising that more people did not know about them and so part of the reason for this interview is to bring some of those ideas out to a larger more general audience. See also: https://dakinitranslations.com/kalacakra-2/
During our podcast discussion, we speak about Kumar's Introduction to the first volume, which is full of fascinating research and revelations, including some of the key concepts in the Tantra regarding time (kāla), the three realms (outer, inner and other), the types of breath/energy, and death itself. This is then followed by a discussion of the dating of the composition of the root Kālacakra text itself (1027 CE), the oldest extant texts available of it (one on palm-leaf currently housed at the British Library), and remarkably indeed the proposed authorship of the written root text being the great Indian Mahasiddha, Naropa, who received the transmission of it from his guru Tilopa, who is said to have been taught it in the Kingdom of Shambhala itself.
The latter part of the discussion relates to how the main lineages of Kālacakra came into Tibet, finishing with an analysis of contemporary practice and application of Kālacakra and how it has degenerated away from the words and advice of the root Tantra text with 20th Century mass empowerments to thousands of 'unqualified' people, for predominantly political, social and financial purposes in cohorts with the Chinese communist government. Kumar also states in his book that the empowerments given by the 14th Dalai Lama are also not 'correct' because they were not all given on the full moon, as advised by the root Tantra.
For the Youtube video of the interview (with English captions) and chapter outline of the discussion, see here: https://youtu.be/TJ4ec1wV-2o
For article about the interview, see here: https://dakinitranslations.com/2024/03/17/the-roots-and-fruits-of-the-kalacakra-tantra-niraj-kumar-dakini-conversations-ep-7/
To download a free pdf file of Kumar's Kālacakra Tantra Volume I book:
https://www.academia.edu/76581752/Kalacakra_Tantra_Vol_I
1 hr 32 min