Friends Event: The idea of Faith in Hindu thought

A talk by Shaunaka Rishi Das of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Faith is an English word with baggage. In Sanskrit there are many words that cover the ground used by the word faith, and extend beyond that ground. But the Hindu ideas of faith don’t distinguish between faith and reason, as is common in contemporary discourse, and don’t often link faith and belief. To explore the concept of faith in Hindu traditions, some of which are theistic, some atheistic, and some non-theistic, we will refer, among other things, to a paradigm of the development of faith in the Bhagavat, Hindu cultures most influential text.