Swami Vivekananda scholar spreads word of wisdom

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 2

“Life should be satvic and has to be spent for a good cause,” believes Dr Satish K Kapoor. Academician, British Council scholar, historian and an encyclopedia of Hinduism, he is one of those eminent academicians with a keen sense of history. The 70-year-old, an authority of Hinduism and spirituality, has been propagating his wisdom in the country as well as abroad.

A British Council scholar, he studied and wrote on Hinduism in the West at a time when it was extremely rare and unheard of for a Punjabi bagging a British Council scholarship. A Swami Vivekananda scholar, his insights are equally valued by the Advaita Ashram in Kolkata and the Warkari community of Maharashtra. He’s been invited by both to share his expertise and to honour him.

Documenting the historical traditions and culture of the Vaishnavite Hindus to penning a treatise on the Khalsa, he has penned seven books and nearly a thousand articles for leading English dailies of the country. He chose to come back to this native city despite having toured the world and having had opportunities to stay abroad. Coming from an affluent family, his grandfather, a politician, and father a timber merchant, encouraged him to study and excel in academia.

“I was always encouraged to study and have spent my life in scholarly pursuits. During the pandemic I was busy writing,” he says. He is currently working on his upcoming book titled ‘Know Yourself – The Essentials of Yog and Spirituality’. His latest book ‘Hinduism – the Faith Eternal’ was published by Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata. He was also associate subject editor and substance editor of encyclopedia of Hinduism, a project of India Heritage Research Foundation (USA), and contributed 50 entries. In 1974, he became the only north Indian to be selected as British Council scholar at the University of London. Studying there for a year, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, he says a flame was lit inside of him; to research and study. During his over a year-long stint in the UK, he worked with the British Museum frequenting the Indian Office Library and Indian-British libraries. Tutored under Prof Kenneth A Ballhatchet – his supervisor at the time – Dr Kapoor studied amongst scholars ZH Zaidi, Prof BN Pandey, KN Chaudhari among others who were all his teachers.

“At the British Council something inside me stirred. My quest for knowledge was fuelled by the August Company I was in. I was among people who go through every single aspect of a thing before writing about it. I used to visit library from 9 am to 9 pm. At home, I sat over my desk all day penning and reading tomes. My landlord, a very kind man, asked me to pay my rent for two months then didn’t charge a penny because he said I was a scholar. He saw me study day and night,” says Dr Kapoor.

After a much fruitful stay in the UK and a dissertation of Swami Vivekananda, Dr Kapoor returned with three trunks of research papers and material back to India. His dissertation in the UK was turned into a doctoral thesis at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. Eventually it took shape as one of his noted books titled ‘Swami Vivekanand – Sojourns and Impact on the West’.

Having started as a lecturer of history at Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, in 1970, he spent over four decades in academia. He became vice-principal and later principal of the same college in 2005. In 2008 he joined DAV Sholapur as the local secretary of nine institutions, until 2012. From thereon, he came back to Jalandhar and joined DAV University as the founder registrar. He lives in Jalandhar with his wife, academic Usha Kapoor, with whom he has three children and six children who are settled abroad.

Awards

He has been honoured for his contribution to education (2005) at state-level Republic Day function, with the Shaheed Rajpal DAV Literary Award (2009) by ex-Governor Karnataka and Soham Smarkam Award (2010) for best contribution in prose to Bhavan’s Journal, Mumbai. He was adjudged ‘Star of the Week’ by Punjab Star, a Canadian weekly in 2004, and awarded Certificate of Recognition by Mississauga, Brampton Member Parliament, on behalf of House of Commons (2004). He was given Ambassador of Peace Award by Universal Peace Foundation in association with Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, and a Certificate of Appreciation from Elain Moore, Regional Councillor, Corporation of the City of Brampton.