| Debashish 
        Banerji: Presenter Debashish 
        Banerji completed his undergradute studies with honors in English 
        literature from the University of Bombay, and served as a cultural 
        correspondent in some of the leading English language newspapers of 
        India. He completed a master's degree in computer science from the 
        University of Louisville, Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in Indian art history 
        from the University of California-Los Angeles.
 For 30 years, Debashish has 
        been interested in the study and practice of the revolutionary and 
        world-transforming yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He has given 
        numerous talks on the subject, especially in its contemporary applicability. Since 1991, he has served 
        as the president of the East-West Cultural Center in Los Angeles, 
        which was founded by Dr. Judith Tyberg and is one of the earliest 
        institutions in the U.S. based on the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and 
        the Mother. He is a faculty in a number of recognized religious studies 
        programs. In this capacity, has been instrumental in teaching, giving 
        talks, and organizing activities relating to the dissemination of 
        Sri Aurobindo's yoga and Indian spiritual culture in the U.S. Debashish pursues technical 
        and mercantile interests in multimedia productions, artificial intelligence, 
        technology transfer, and import-export projects, particularly between 
        India and the U.S. In his view, technology drives 
        society and culture in the modern world; thus, to be a wielder of 
        the mighty levers of technological change is not just a practical 
        advantage, but a global responsibility. At the same time, he feels 
        that technology devoid of spirituality and humanism is dangerous and 
        joyless. He believes in the urgency of bridging not only the twin 
        cultures of East and West, but those too of the sciences and the humanities 
        for a harmonious, spiritually rich life of the future; and he finds 
        the integrative backbone of such a bridging most clearly manifest 
        in the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.  |