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  • Entry

    By Invitation and Registration
  • Dates

    18-20 September 2025
  • Location

    Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
  • Speakers

    Spiritual, Academic and Professional

About the Conference

Dharma Dhamma Conference is an initiative of India Foundation, aimed to focus on the essential identity between the Dharma-Dhamma viewpoints because these thoughts are as relevant today as they have been over millennia exemplified by the abiding continuum of Hindu and Buddhist Civilizations. The aim of this annual conference is to facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas and foster harmony between the two ancient Civilizations, so that Dharma-Dhamma becomes a veritable celebration of freedom. It is all the more essential in view of the forces released by Globalization today, to integrate the Orient through the common factor of Dharma-Dhamma link provided by centuries of cultural and civilisational interconnectedness. The conference serves as a platform for dialogue and intellectual exchange on the philosophical, cultural, and social aspects of Dharma and Dhamma, exploring their potential contributions to addressing modern challenges and building a new world order.

India Foundation, in collaboration with Gujarat University, Ahmedabad is organizing the 9th International Dharma Dhamma Conference in Ahmedabad, Gujarat from 18-20 September 2025. The theme of the conference is 'Karma, Reincarnation, Transmigration and The Avatar Doctrine'. The Conference aims to bring together religious, political, and thought leaders from Dharma-Dhamma traditions to ponder over building a philosophical framework for the emerging new world order. The conference will have plenary Sessions to debate and discuss various sub-themes of the conference along with paper presentation sessions where researchers from India and abroad will get an opportunity to present their papers. More than 300 Delegates from 20 Countries will be participating in 9th International Dharma Dhamma Conference 2025.

Organising Committee

Chair

Swami Shri Govinda Dev Giri Ji Maharaj

Treasurer, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, India

Co-Chair

Prof. Neerja A Gupta

Vice Chancellor, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Mr Come Carpentier

Distinguished Fellow, India Foundation, France

Members

Swami Mitrananda

Spiritual Teacher, Chinmaya Mission, Chennai, India

Ven. Banagala Upatissa Thero

President of Maha Bodhi Society of Sri Lanka

Dr. Ram Madhav

President, India Foundation, India

Ven. Prof. Kotapitiye Rahula Anunayaka Thera

Senior Professor, Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Prof Geo Lyong Lee

Former President of Korean Society for Indian Studies, South Korea

Dr. Supachai Veerapuchong

Secretary-General of the BodhiGayāVijālaya 980 Institute, Thailand

Prof. Shrinivasa Varakhedi

Vice-Chancellor, Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi, India

Prof. Jagbir Singh

Chancellor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, India

Prof. Baidyanath Labh

Vice Chancellor, Sanchi University of Buddhist-Indic Studies, India

Prof. Sunaina Singh

Former Vice-Chancellor, Nalanda University, India

Dr Tashi Zangmo

Executive Director, Bhutan Nuns Foundation, Bhutan

Prof. Shriprakash Singh

Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi; Director, South Campus, University of Delhi, India

Prof. Balaganapathi Devarakonda

Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi, India

Prof. Pankaj Jain

Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, FLAME University, Pune, India

Call for Papers

For Dharmic civilisations since time immemorial the belief in reincarnation, tied to the concept of Karma, is central, as a source of constant hope and patient resignation. That this life is not the only one for the spiritual self or soul, but is rather a temporary stage in a very long cycle that gradually takes us upward, towards a higher material, intellectual, and noetic condition, ultimately leading to eternal bliss is certainly the best viaticum all human beings could be gifted with. The alternative, reincarnation, also known in its diverse versions as transmigration or metempsychosis, appears far more attuned to our experience of the natural cycles, with the regular succession of days, nights, seasons, years, and ages that rhythm and measure our terrestrial passage. Whereas Hinduism sees the self (atman) as the transmigrating subject, the Buddha’s doctrine denies its existence (anatta) and describes the individual being as a composite of karmic sanskaras (temporary characteristics) assembled in the whirlpool of Maya-Samsara through the process of pratitya samutpada (co-dependent origination and evolution). These components of the self can apparently retain their cohesion across many births despite being modified by the karma, positive or negative, gathered by the individual during each life. This is how Buddhism retains the doctrine of punarjanma (reincarnation) which Jainism and Sikhism also share. Separate but connected to the concept of transmigration, the doctrine of Avatara in the Sanatana Dharma explains how divine powers and personalities can take a human or animal form to interact with men and influence the course of natural and social events. Avatar is a term now adopted in popular global tech culture to describe the virtual identity that may be borrowed by a videogame player or a social network member but it must be noted that when early Christians sought to define the person and essence of the Messiah Jesus, some theologians described him as a personification in the flesh of the Almighty that was not so remote from the Hindu notion of the Avatar or the Buddhist idea of the Bodhisattwa.

 

The theme of the 9th International Dharma Dhamma Conference is “Karma, Reincarnation, Transmigration and The Avatar Doctrine” . India Foundation and Gujarat University invites innovative Research Papers for presentation on the following sub-themes:

  • Karma in its various meanings across Dharmic traditions
  • Karma in relation with scientific laws
  • Evolution of the Avatara notion in the Indic traditions
  • The concept of succession of Buddhas in the Mahayana doctrines
  • The doctrine of Tirthankaras in the Jain tradition
  • The definition of Arahants, Bodhisattwas and Dnyani Buddhas in Buddha Dharma
  • Metempsychosis in the Pythagorean, Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophical schools
  • Modern research into the psychosomatic and neuro-psychological analogues of Karma in current research
  • Experimental discoveries that tend to support the possibility of reincarnation
  • The cyclical nature of birth, death, and rebirth
  • Karma and Rebirth in Hinduism
  • Karma and Rebirth in Buddhism
  • Karma and Transmigration in Jainism
  • Avatars and the Karmic Cycle
  • Contemporary understandings and adaptations of karma, reincarnation, and transmigration in the modern world

Submission Guidelines:

Paper presenters are required to submit 300-word abstracts on any of the above-mentioned sub-themes. Authors of the abstracts selected by the Academic Committee of the DDC 2025 will be asked to send research papers on the same topic of about 3000 words. Abstracts can be submitted on the link given below:

Submission Deadlines:

Last Date for Submission of Abstract (300 Words): 30 June 2025

Announcement of Selected Abstracts for Paper Presentation: 15 July 2025

Last Date for Submission of Paper (3000 Words): 31 August 2025

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