AMINTA KILAWAN-NARINE

Aminta Kilawan-Narine is an attorney, community activist, and writer. Born in the Bronx, New York to Guyanese parents, Aminta's passion for social justice manifests in various aspects of her life. In 2011, she co-founded Sadhana to merge her activist spirit with her love of Hinduism's progressive values.  Aminta is also a spirited bhajan and Hindi film song singer. She serves on the board of her local temple, the Shri Trimurti Bhavan, in Ozone Park, Queens. In an effort to increase civic engagement in her community, Aminta is a weekly columnist for the newspaper, The West Indian. Aminta holds a BA from Fordham University and a JD from Fordham University School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in New York State and currently serves as a Senior Legislative Attorney at the New York City Council. Aminta is married to her best friend and fellow Sadhana co-founder, Rohan Narine. The two live in Howard Beach, Queens, close to Jamaica Bay, where they organize Sadhana’s monthly Project Prithvi cleanups.

Rajni Bakshi

Rajni Bakshi is the Gandhi Peace Fellow at Gateway House and a Mumbai-based author. She published a Research paper in October 2012 titled Civilizational Gandhi. Rajni has a BA from George Washington University and an MA from the University of Rajasthan. She is the author of Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom: for a market culture beyond greed and fear (Penguin, 2009), which won two Vodafone-Crossword Awards. Her earlier book, Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi (Penguin, 1998) inspired the Hindi film Swades starring Shah Rukh Khan. Her other books include: Long Haul: the Bombay Textile Workers Strike 1982-83 (1986), A Warning and an Opportunity: the Dispute over Swami Vivekananda’s Legacy (1994), Lets Make it Happen: a backgrounder on New Economics (2003) and An Economics for Well-Being (2007). Rajni serves on the Boards of Child Rights and You (CRY) and Citizens for Peace. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture and a long term associate of Centre of Education and Documentation.

anantanand rambachan

Dr. Anantanand Rambachan is Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College, Minnesota.  He is also Visiting Professor at the Academy for the Study of World Religions at the University of Hamburg in Germany. 

Professor Rambachan is a prolific writer and author of several books, and numerous book-chapters and journal articles.  His major books include: (1) Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Shankara, (2) The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Authority of the Vedas, (3)The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity, and(4) A Hindu Theology of Liberation: Not-Two is Not One.  The British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast a series of 25 of his lectures around the world.

Among his many public roles, Professor Rambachan is President of the Board of Arigatou International, New York, an international, interreligious organization working with UNICEF and other children’s organizations for the well being of children. He is a member of the International Advisory Council for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and an advisor to Harvard University's Pluralism project.

Prof. Rambachan has been involved in the field of interreligious relations and dialogue for over 25 years, as a Hindu participant and analyst. In 2008, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he delivered the distinguished Lambeth Interfaith Lecture at Lambeth Palace in London. Professor Rambachan led the first two White House Celebration of the Hindu Festival of Diwali in 2003 and 2004.

"The practice of justice in human relationships is the highest form of religious life. The interior life of holiness and piety must find outward expression in a passion for justice. These two aspects of authentic spirituality mutually nourish and are incomplete without each other. Without the concern for justice, personal piety becomes obsessively self-centered. At the same time, attentiveness to and cultivation of the interior spiritual life nourish and provide the motivation for the work of justice. Justice cannot be equated with charity. The latter seeks to offer relief and care to those who are the victims of injustice. Justice seeks to change and transform the structures that cause suffering."

(Excerpt from Prof Rambachan's "A Hindu Theology of Liberation, SUNY Press, 2015)

vijah ramjattan

Vijah Ramjattan is the Founder & President of the United Madrassi Association Inc. (UMA), a non-profit committed to bringing unity within the Madrassi diaspora and across other community groups and organizations. Through the medium of active community participation, volunteerism and meaningful humanitarian work, Ramjattan hopes to de-stigmatize the Shakti-worship aspect of Hinduism. Through UMA, Ramjattan seeks to promote youth development, foster female empowerment and create a platform for the younger generation to develop a sense of belonging. Ramjattan leads community service events such as “Annapurna Amma Day,” where volunteers feed and clothe the hungry and homeless living on the streets and in shelters, “Dharti Amma Day”, where volunteers clean waterways polluted by worshippers, monthly free community havans and performing kirtan at nursing homes for the elderly. Additionally, Ramjattan and his team at UMA organize the Annual Madrassi Day Parade.

Vijah Ramjattan also serves as the Chairman of the New York City Brooklyn Youth Council Corporation; PTA Treasurer, Title 1 District Representative and School Leadership Team Member at Public School 121, NYC. Ramjattan is a self-taught musician and vocalist and a selfless humanitarian. Ramjattan is also the founder of the Jyoti Sangeet Kirtan Group. Ramjattan is a graduate from Hunter College with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Comparative Religion.  Professionally, Ramjattan works for the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University as a Research Study Co-Director. 

john thatamanil

John J. Thatamanil is an Assistant Professor of Theology and World Religions at Union Theological Seminary, where he teaches a wide variety of courses in the areas of comparative theology, theologies of religious diversity, Hindu-Christian dialogue, the theology of Paul Tillich, theory of religion, and process theology. He is also an passionate but irregular practitioner of vipassana meditation and includes time for meditation in virtually all of his courses at Union. Dr. Thatamanil is the author of the The Immanent Divine: God, Creation and the Human Predicament (Fortress Press, 2006) and Mission in the Marketplace: Metropolitan Chrysostom on the Identity and Mission of the Mar Thoma Church (CSS Press, 2002). He is currently completing his second book, The Promise of Religious Diversity: Constructive Theology After Religion (Fordham University Press). 

Professor Thatamanil is a past-president of the North American Paul Tillich Society (NAPTS) and the founding Chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Theological Education Committee. He is a frequent lecturer in churches, colleges and universities both nationally and internationally. He also co-edits (with Dr. Loye Ashton) a book series for Fordham University Press on “Comparative Theology: Thinking Across Traditions.” He blogs periodically for The Huffington Post and other online publications and has published editorials in The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.

At the heart of the form of Hinduism to which I am most drawn, Advaita Vedanta, is a conviction that the jivanmukta, (one who is liberated while living) who is established in the knowledge of nonduality, becomes an ocean of compassion. Such a person is understood to transcend ethical life insofar as the ethical life is driven by effort, the will to do what is right. But the jivanmukta need no longer work by deliberate effort to be ethical; he or she is now trans ethical. Now, grounded in the knowledge of the unity of reality, compassion for all beings is his or her natural and innate disposition. My love for the Hindu tradition as a Christian theologian is grounded in this grand spiritual aspiration to arrive at radical self-transformation for the sake of the good of all.

ravina natasha vibart-jadubans

Ravina Natasha Vibart-Jadubans is a mother of two loving children, wife of spiritual leader of the Shaanti Bhavan Mandir Pandit Jadubans, ardent Hindu and a devotee of the great Lord. Ravina tries very hard to upkeep the motto her late Guruji used, "the hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray," by giving back wholeheartedly to the less-fortunate and to the community at large. Her passion is her family, and although busy with the activities of every day life, Ravinaji embarks on various projects to serve humanity. She believes being a Hindu is not only about praying and performing rituals but one must understand that the supreme being is instilled in everyone and when we serve others, we are in turn serving God.

I see Justice in these words of the great Mahatma Gandhi, “Like the bee gathering honey from different flowers, the wise person accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions”. And I see Love in these words of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita which depicts the power of our sweet religion, “The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind."

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Disclaimer: Sadhana does not necessarily endorse the statements and positions of its Advisory Board members. Similarly, members of the Advisory Board do not necessarily endorse all of Sadhana's statements and positions.