Contemporary Philosophical Treatments of Karma & Rebirth:- Where it all began is a question some thinkers raise in treating karma & rebirth. This conference on “Post-Classical” does not come out of nowhere, & I have been musing on the particular & principal antecedent stream, the “karma conferences” in 1976, 1978, & 1980, one result of which is the volume, karma & rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions, edited by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty.1 To the extent that this conference may be viewed under the rubric of rebirth of earlier incarnations, I wonder if our efforts here will unfold the karma of the pervious conferences or of the individual participants here assembled! My assignment is contemporary philosophical treatments of karma (and rebirth), rather imprecisely defined as academic philosophy & the writings of other thinkers in the Hindu community who treat problems of modern intellectual life in a philosophical way. This veers away from popular religious teachers, who are vehicles of much religious transmission, & from approaches of important figures (e.g., Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Gandhi) who were not academicians &/or are being treated in other papers. In Defense Of Karma & Rebirth Evolutionary Karma:- Though the doctrines of karma & rebirth are traceable to the late Vedic period, in the modern period the challenge of alternative theories produced the most sustained efforts to defend & define the doctrines. Modern Indian thinkers, as an essential part of their apologetic writings, have defended the teachings of karma & rebirth against the attacks of missionaries, secularists, & materialists who would malign them as unreasonable, unethical, of unscientific. This has been a major part of the defense & definition of Hinduism or Vedants as world-affirming, not opposed to a life of service to other, & embodying visions of human progress. Two modern Indian thinkers who have identified with Vedanta, holding viewpoints believed to be essential to the Upanisads, & who have interpreted karma & rebirth in terms of theories of evolutionary progress in the universe & the significance of the phenomenal world, are the Indian Nationalist-turned-yogi Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), & the Indian philosopher-statesman, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975). In the process of constructing vedantic positions, both attempted to respond to criticisms o of Vedanta or Hinduism which include criticism of the teaching of karma & rebirth & their implications. They were unhappy with interpretation of the Indian as non-ethical in interest, non-progressive in historical flow, & fatalistic. Instead, they said. Swami Vivekananda’s Conception of Karma & Rebirth:-Swami Vivekananda has never been accused being a systematic thinker. In fact, Agehananda Bharati has placed firmly on Vivekananda’s shoulders the blame for creating the diction & style of the Hindu Renaissance. This diction & style enthrones sadhus over philosophers; English over Sanskrit; medieval Hindu pietism over “traditional, Sankrit-based learning;” religious experience over philosophical insight; & syncretistic, “softline Vedanta” over the distinctive contributions of Indian philosophy. This is clearly not a positive evaluation of Swami Vivekananda’s contribution to Indian thought, but it does suggest that he deserves the little of Father of Modern, English-language Hinduism. Whether or not the tendencies which Bharati has pointed to are fatal to the “wonder that was Indian” (Basham) & continued glory of Indian philosophy may be indirectly inferred. In attempting to account for Swami Vivekananda’s sometimes confusing & seemingly contradictory manner of speaking about karma & rebirth, reformulating Vivekananda’s teachings familiar structures of Indian philosophy was an initial temptation. Yet some gentle surprises came by letting Vivekananda’s conceptions speak in the contexts & frameworks which he set for them. After a search through a million words of extant primary materials certain patterns emerged. Karma, Rebirth & the Contemporary Guru:- THE GURU AND MERIT TRANSFER:- I begin with a situational model. It was 4.30 a. m. at Desasvamedha Ghat in Benares, & as I stood watching the panorama of activity that accompanies each sunrise over the Ganga, a young couple approached. The man, his face grief-stricken carried a child over his left shoulder. The child was a boy whom I guessed to be no more than two years old. His skin was a deathly grey hue. His right arm hung lifelessly down his father’s back, & the boy’s head bounced uncontrollably on his father’s shoulder. The boy’s mother followed slightly behind her husband; her face was partly covered with the hood from her sari. Her eyes revealed a deep sadness. As the couple & the child came nearer, the boy rolled his head in my direction & opened his jaundiced eyes. Contemporary Conceptions of Karma & Rebirth Among North Indian:- INTRODUCTION…. When I set out, more than twenty years ago, to do an indepth study of modern Hindism for a European Ph. D. thesis, I concentrated on Ram Mohan Roy’s Brahmosamaj, Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s Aryasmaj, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa & Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore & Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo & Dr. S. Radhakrisnan, & similar movements & figures representing reform & renewal & addressing what I considered the crucial problems of India: poverty, casteism, superstitution, illiteracy, oppression of woman, intra-religious strife, etc. Both my teachers & I thought that I had prepared myself well to plunge right into action in India.