GU-Q Professor Sheds Light on Spiritual Journeys at Hay Festival Dhaka

GU-Q’s Professor Patrick Laude recently joined poet and writer Arundhati Subramaniam and researcher Anna Cocchiarella for a panel session titled ‘The Mystic Soul’ at the internationally renowned Hay Festival Dhaka. The session was moderated by theologian David Burrell.

The panelists discussed various definitions and aspects of the spiritual path and shared their own respective experiences and itineraries. Professor Laude explained that discovering the book The Crisis of the Modern World by René Guénon when he was sixteen had a profound, quasi-revelatory effect on him.

“Upon reading Guénon’s writings, I realized that there was a whole body of teachings and experiences that had been shared throughout the ages, a treasury of wisdom that links back to the Divine,” said Professor Laude. “It is important to look at this in context…I was born in France, which is a very secularized country, and where most people have no interest in spiritual matters. After reading Guénon I realized I was not alone to sense that an essential piece was missing, and that what most people in the modern world take for reality might ultimately be better characterized as illusion.”

Responding to questions from the audience, the panelists also discussed the inability of language to fathom the core of mystical recognition, the individual nature of spiritual journeys, and the positive role that fear and terror can play in spiritual matters.

The Hay Festival Dhaka is an annual literary festival organized by the patrons of the prestigious Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in the United Kingdom. It is held on the historic grounds of the Bangla Academy in the capital city of Bangladesh.