An Arihanta Institute Webinar

Presented by Professor Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD

Tuesday, September 10, 2024 | 9-10 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT

Śrīmad Rājcandra (1867-1901) was an important Jain Saint (emicly referred to as a Kśayika Samkita or a Śrutakevalī), and guru of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who founded a distinct and modern — yet also in many ways quite orthodox — movement of Jainism. Distinguishing features of Śrīmad’s teachings include the assertion of the primacy of the bhakti-marga, the spiritual path of devotion to the guru, and a revivalist approach to Mahāvīra’s teachings in an attempt to eradicate sectarianism from the Jain tradition. 

While Śrīmad and his followers followed many mainstream Jain teachings and practices, his teachings and the tradition that grew from them are unique with regards to their emphasis on non-sectarianism, the ability to attain self-realization as a profound experience of one’s spiritual essence in this life or shortly thereafter, understanding of liberation as an attainable goal within fifteen lifetimes, a critique of contemporary institutions of mendicancy, and the uniqueness of a bourgeoning lay movement where lay practitioners are the primary source of spiritual authority—a feature that has been widely appealing to modern Jain lay practitioners. 

This presentation by Professor Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD, will examine how the events of Śrīmad’s life gave shape to this movement and will look at the philosophical underpinnings of Śrīmad’s tradition and how Śrīmad’s philosophy was informed by notable events in his life, and how in turn these events and this philosophy have influenced the development of the tradition that has developed from this important modern Jain Ācārya.

About the Presenter:

Cogen Bohanec currently holds the position of Assistant Professor in Sanskrit and Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute where he teaches various courses on Jain philosophy and its applications. In addition, he is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Claremont School of Theology (CST) where he teaches Sanskrit and Gujarati, and he has taught numerous classes on South Asian Culture & Religions and Sanskrit language at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley. Dr. Bohanec specializes in the Jain and Hindu traditions, comparative dharma traditions, philosophy of religion, theo-ethics (virtue ethics, and environmental and animal ethics in particular), and Sanskrit language and literature, and has numerous publications in those areas, particularly in the fields of Jain and Hindu Studies amongst other disciplines. He has a PhD in “Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion” with an emphasis in Hindu Studies from GTU, where his research emphasized ancient Indian languages, literature, and philosophical systems. He also holds an MA in Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Studies at GTU where his research primarily involved translations of Pāli Buddhist scriptures in conversation with the philology of the Hindu Upaniṣads. He is the author of “Bhakti Ethics, Emotions and Love in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Metaethics” (Lexington, 2024), an interdisciplinary study that frames traditional Hindu themes of ecotheology, ecofeminist theology, feminist care ethics, within a framework of virtue ethics in conversation with a bhakti-based psychology of emotions. Currently he is largely engaged in publication and research on various aspects of the Jain tradition, emphasizing translations and analyses of Jain Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Gujarati texts, but is also publishing academic works on various topics within the Hindu tradition.

For more information on Dr. Bohanec's research, publications, and course offerings, please click here.