Excerpt from "About Bhaktivedanta Institute" prospectus

Bhaktivedanta Institute is a center for advanced study and research into the Vedic scientific knowledge concerning the nature of consciousness and the self. The Institute is the academic division of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. It consists of a body of scientists and scholars who have recognized the unique value of the teachings of Krishna Consciousness brought to the West by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The main purpose of the Institute is to explore the implications of the Vedic knowledge as it bears on all features of human culture, and to present its findings in courses, lectures, monographs, books, and a quarterly journal, Sa-vijnanam.

Excerpt from "Program of Lectures
on the Origin of Life and Matter"

Today, science is dominated by the theory that "life" is a product of molecular interactions, and that all the different activities of life – for example, thinking, feeling and willing- are due to coordinated chemical reactions. Yet, this theory suffers both from serious internal inconsistencies and a fundamental inability to account for many of the most significant phenomena of life. A new scientific paradigm is clearly needed.

Bhaktivedanta Institute is sponsoring a lecture series on the nature and origin of life and matter. Institute members arc available to present lectures on many different aspects of this fundamental subject, both for general audiences and for specialists in several fields of modern natural science. The basic theme for the lectures is that life cannot be reduced to a combination of material elements. This is discussed in the light of modern scientific theories and the Vedic knowledge. The members of the Institute hope that these discussions will provide new and thought provoking insights into these important questions.