Ukraine and the East: Culturological Aspect ➚
This article by Oleh Pylypiuk appeared 2014 in Vol. 1 ( No. 4, pages 93-103) of the Journal of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. The university is located in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. The journal follows a policy of open access to support free flow of scientific information and global exchange of knowledge for general social progress. In the article “Ukraine is viewed as a connecting link in the geopolitical, mental and spiritual East–West system of coordinates.“ The abstract of the paper says: “Modern Oriental studies regard the East as the cradle of the world’s civilization, a web of unique cultural formations. Within the modern East–West paradigm, the research into the values of tradition should be underpinned by dominant axiological concepts in order to systematize contemporary ideas of the world, nature, the individual, and mentality. In accordance with the central methodological principle of the research, archetypes are regarded as cultural universals. In the article, the typology of the cosmological and the spiritual elements (the Moon and the Word respectively) in the Oriental and Ukrainian traditions are highlighted, the emphasis being laid on the analysis of the semantic and thematic fields of the two archetypes.“ (Oleh Pylypiuk, 2014)
When Ukraine became independent in 1991 a societal transformation started to establish Ukraine as a sovereign European nation. Symptomatic of this development is a presentation of the Academic Council Center for Humanities Education at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, entitled ”Universal dimensions of Ukrainian culture”. The principle of cultural integrity formulated by the Ukrainian researchers V. A. Ryzhko, A. S. Kirilyuk,V. S. Gorski, S. B. Krymsky, B. O. Parakhonsky, P. G. Hopchenko, and A. G. Bakanursky match with the principles fundamental to Vedic culture which safeguard its existence since ancient time. According to the Vedic tradition the universal values of culture strengthen the diversified local cultural development and simultaneously every local culture enriches all other cultures. A further step in Ukrainian research into cultural integrity is the Eastern Philosophies Researchers Society, founded in 2006 at the Department of History of Foreign Philosophy of the H.S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy. The society's main objective is to promote Eastern Philosophy Studies. Founding Members of the Eastern Philosophies Researchers Society are Yuriy Zavhorodniy (Indian philosophy). Anastasia Strelkova (Buddhist philosophy and culture of Japan). Sergii Kapranov (religion and philosophy of Japan and China), supported by Oleg Yarosh, Head of the History of Eastern Philosophy Department. By combing oriental studies focusing on history and philology with the study of the philosophy of the East different cultural traditons have been investigated – Jewish-rabbinic, Islamic, Buddhist, Shamanic, traditional Chinese, and Indian including translation and interpretation of the Vedic scriptures into Ukrainian, notably Rigveda and Upanishads, which describe the universal cultural values. This research is documented in the publications of the Eastern Philosophies Researchers Society (2006 – 2020)
“The aim of the seminars is the research of the widest range of problems of different philosophical traditions of the East – from Ancient Egypt up to modern Japan - , elaboration of methodological approaches to the study of Eastern thought, study of history of oriental studies in Ukraine and abroad, work with sources in original languages, discussion of results of international conferences and congresses, etc."
"In the modern world and, in particular, in Ukraine, the interest to the East is stably high, but not always it is supported by real scientific facts. Therefore, an important feature of the seminar, from the point of view of methodology of Eastern philosophy studies, is the fact that in it participate the specialists, who actively work with the texts of these traditions in original languages (Sanskrit, Pāli, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew etc.): getting the materials "from the first hands" they are able to give a critical evaluation of the results of world science in their areas as well, what is a necessary part of every scientific research." With these words, the monthly seminars of the Eastern Philosophy Researchers Society were presented in an article by Anastasia Strelkova, and Yuriy Zavhorodniy, (2013)
Ukrainian Academic Research on Vedic Culture ➚
When European thinkers and scholars started to study Vedic Culture the paradigm first formulated by Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) was confirmed that the source of all European values is enlightened consciousness. From then on, the study of Vedic Culture increases the degree in which creativity, health, cooperativity, and peace exist in society. The systematic study of the Vedic Culture of India started in the Ukraine in 1829 at Kharkiv University(founded 1815); the Universities of Kyiv (founded 1834), of Odessa (founded 1865) and the Kyiv Theological Academy (founded 1819) followed. The focus of research was on religious and philosophical questions, the study and teaching of Sanskrit and the translation and publication of Sanskrit texts. A development which stopped during Soviet Rule from 1920 to 1990, but gained a new momentum when the political East-West separation ended. With Ukraine's independence in 1991 the global revival of Vedic Culture - which started in the 1950s initiated through representatives of the Vedic tradition traveling outside India - reached Ukraine and all the other countries of East Europe. These and other details of “Hinduism in Ukraine” were presented by Ievgen Smitskiy and Yuriy Zavhorodniy during the Conference "Hinduism in Europe" at Stockholm University in 2017. In particular and most importantly, the Ukrainian conference presentation exemplifies how authentic knowledge of the Vedic Culture promotes the formation of a highly qualified generation of researchers, who would be able to carry out the synthesis of academic science and Vedic heritage. The significance of incorporating Vedic Culture into European civilization became clear through the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. This relapse into the logic of destruction, lacking any creative perspective, warrants an effective integrative approach which modern science and technology alone cannot provide. A second element is needed, which the Vedic Tradition calls "Higher States of Consciousness". The "Handbook of Hinduism in Europe", edited by Ferdinando Sardella and Knut A. Jacobsen (2020), in its 1st Volume indicates the fundamental aspects of such an expanded vision and the 2nd Volume, in presenting the assimilation of Vedic culture in every single country of Europe includes also an enlarged version of the original conference presentation on “Hinduism in Ukraine” by Ievgen Smitskiy and Yuriy Zavhorodniy (2020).
When European thinkers and scholars started to study Vedic Culture the paradigm first formulated by Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) was confirmed that the source of all European values is enlightened consciousness. From then on, the study of Vedic Culture increases the degree in which creativity, health, cooperativity, and peace exist in society. The systematic study of the Vedic Culture of India started in the Ukraine in 1829 at Kharkiv University(founded 1815); the Universities of Kyiv (founded 1834), of Odessa (founded 1865) and the Kyiv Theological Academy (founded 1819) followed. The focus of research was on religious and philosophical questions, the study and teaching of Sanskrit and the translation and publication of Sanskrit texts. A development which stopped during Soviet Rule from 1920 to 1990, but gained a new momentum when the political East-West separation ended. With Ukraine's independence in 1991 the global revival of Vedic Culture - which started in the 1950s initiated through representatives of the Vedic tradition traveling outside India - reached Ukraine and all the other countries of East Europe. These and other details of “Hinduism in Ukraine” were presented by Ievgen Smitskiy and Yuriy Zavhorodniy during the Conference "Hinduism in Europe" at Stockholm University in 2017. In particular and most importantly, the Ukrainian conference presentation exemplifies how authentic knowledge of the Vedic Culture promotes the formation of a highly qualified generation of researchers, who would be able to carry out the synthesis of academic science and Vedic heritage. The significance of incorporating Vedic Culture into European civilization became clear through the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. This relapse into the logic of destruction, lacking any creative perspective, warrants an effective integrative approach which modern science and technology alone cannot provide. A second element is needed, which the Vedic Tradition calls "Higher States of Consciousness". The "Handbook of Hinduism in Europe", edited by Ferdinando Sardella and Knut A. Jacobsen (2020), in its 1st Volume indicates the fundamental aspects of such an expanded vision and the 2nd Volume, in presenting the assimilation of Vedic culture in every single country of Europe includes also an enlarged version of the original conference presentation on “Hinduism in Ukraine” by Ievgen Smitskiy and Yuriy Zavhorodniy (2020).
The Vedic and Aryan Influence of Ridnovir Geopoetics, an archaic cosmic piety around nature and primordial traditions, is providing an alternative to the disillusions of Soviet materialist atheism and give meaning to an uprooted nation, Mainly influenced by a foundation of what could be called a pagan “geopoetics”. This concept, based on environmentalism and poetry, was part of the deployment of a new understanding of nature, and the claim of a Ukrainian ascendance linked with the Vedic and Aryan origin environmentalist and Hinduist imaginary, the landscape constitutes the main element of inertia structuring this belief. Indeed, the emotions embedded in the Brahmin knowledge and the aesthetic permanence of territory are the Ukrainian Neo-pagan groups, known as Ridnoviry, since the 1950s, sought to develop myth. Focusing on the main Neo-pagan groups Ridna Ukrayins’ka Natsional’na Víra (RUN-Vira) and Ob’iednannia Ridnoviriv Ukraïny (ORU), the author proposes in his article to return to the genealogy of this belief and show the role of geopoetics in the construction of Ukrainian Neo-paganism. Published in Baltic Worlds 4, 68-80, (2021) and Balticworlds.com, January 24, 2022, authored by Adrien Nonjon.