In the fifth episode of the Deep Neural Notebooks podcast, I interview Professor, Author, Sitarist and Composer, Srinivas Reddy. He is a Guest Professor of South and Southeast Asian Studies at IIT Gandhinagar and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Contemplative Studies at Brown University. He lives in Rhode Island and spends his time performing, teaching and conducting research around the world. He is an author of 4 books, 3 of which are translations of Telugu and Sanskrit texts; and the latest book that came out this March is a critical biography of Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara, called RAYA. Srinivas is a professional concert sitarist and has given numerous recitals in the US, India and Europe. He has three albums to his credit: GITA (1999), Sitar & Tabla (2001) and Hemant & Jog (2008). This episode is more in the realms of spirituality, in the context of South Asian philosophy and the Bhagwad Gita. We discuss some of his favourite verses and chapters from the Gita, about the deep underlying wisdom, and how we can make sense of them in today's day and age. I ask him about his thoughts on religion, consciousness, meditation, his passion for music and much more. He also talks about how India never really recovered from colonialisation and how the quest for adoption of Western ideologies has left us devoid of any appreciation for our cultural heritage, and how unconditioning ourselves is the first step in moving forward on our spiritual path. Keep in mind that this episode was recorded in the first week of January, wayyy before the pandemic outbreak; so some of his advice like going out for a walk on a beautiful sunny day was shared in a pre-COVID-19 context. I hope you enjoy the episode, and learn something valuable from it. If you do, please leave a thumb's up or a 5-star rating depending on the streaming platform. Links: Srinivas Reddy: https://www.srinivasreddy.org/ Books: - Giver of the Worn Garland (Amuktamalyada) - http://www.tinyurl.com/amukta - The Dancer and the King (Malavikagnimitram) - https://www.amazon.com/Malavikagnimitram-Dancer-King-Kalidasa/dp/0670086878/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1495455130&sr=8-2&keywords=dancer+and+the+king - The Cloud Message (Meghadutam) - https://www.amazon.com/Meghadutam-Kalidasa-ebook/dp/B01N7PFSGG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495454149&sr=8-1&keywords=kalidasa+meghadutam - RAYA: Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara -https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9353450977/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3 Concerts: - Classical Sitar Concert by Srinivas Reddy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwjcOHgyyiw - Srinivas Reddy Concert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRWLXjtoIPc Albums: - Hemant and Jog (2008): https://play.google.com/store/music/album/?id=B3jmymz4awn3ws5343nvncrib3e Podcast links - - Youtube: https://youtu.be/JK2X_ZM4vHM - Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3a6HY7p - Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3caOFqr - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6SJ7z5gavxGR9zaPFJkwCs - Anchor: https://anchor.fm/deep-neural-notebooks/episodes/DNN-6-Spirituality--Music--The-Bhagavad-Gita--Srinivas-Reddy-ecnl7p Connect with me: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkulkhanna Website: https://mukulkhanna.co LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mukulkhanna/