The real crisis in India isn’t economic or political — it’s that we’ve forgotten how to ask the right questions. HG Premanjan Das, an engineer turned monk, diagnoses the intellectual vacuum at the heart of modern Indian discourse.
Drawing from his background in instrumentation engineering and his journey into Vaishnavism and Bhaktivedanta Swami’s tradition, Premanjan Das argues that most public conversations today appeal to sentiment rather than principle. Using examples from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and scriptural story of the brahmin who told the truth and went to hell, he illustrates why understanding the principle behind a story matters infinitely more than the story itself. He calls for teacher-training programs — not student programs — as the true foundation of educational reform, and maps the distinction between knowledge systems (jnana) and institutionalised knowledge factories.
A sharp, philosophical call to rebuild India’s culture of rigorous, principled inquiry — athāto brahma jijñāsā.

About The Speaker:
HS Premanjan Das was a student of Philosophy from Jadavpur University. He went on to pursue higher studies in theology and philosophy, and completed his Ph.D. in “Exploring the Personalistic Information of God” from Vidyasagar University. He joined ISKCON at 3C Albert Road, Kolkata, in the month of April 1986, when he was 25 years old.