02/07/2026
Following his visit to the West University of Timisoara, Prof. Dr. Balaganapathi Devarakonda from Delhi University (India) sent the following message:
"I had the great joy of visiting the West University of Timișoara between June 12–20, 2026, at the invitation of Mr. Florin Lobonț, professor of philosophy at UVT and coordinator of the internationally prestigious master's program, Philosophical Counseling and Consultancy of this university. The visit provided a generous academic framework for the dialogue between Indian and European philosophical traditions, with an emphasis on philosophy as a way of life, philosophical counseling and the contemporary relevance of Indian thought.
I express my deep gratitude to the West University of Timisoara for its warm hospitality, especially to the Faculty of Letters, History, Philosophy and Theology, the Department of History, Theology and Philosophy, and the Philosophy Section within the Department. The collegiality and intellectual openness encountered here made the visit both academically valuable and personally memorable.
The program included three public events hosted by the West University of Timișoara. My conferences addressed Yoga as a philosophical practice (June 13), Ātmavicāra and self-knowledge in Advaita Vedānta (June 17), as well as Buddhist philosophy as a practice for everyday life (June 18). I was pleased with the large and particularly active participation, which included teaching staff, doctoral students, students of the UVT Master's Degree in Philosophical Counseling, alumni, as well as numerous people from the wider community. Their questions and interventions showed a special interest in Indian philosophical traditions and their practical-philosophical relevance in relation to contemporary life, self-knowledge, ethical orientation and human flourishing.
The visit also strengthened the institutional relationship between UVT and the University of Delhi, the university I had the honor to represent. The University of Delhi is one of the largest and most prestigious universities in India and, through its large number of students and its extensive network of affiliated colleges, is among the great universities in the world. The fact that UVT and the University of Delhi have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding and are at an advanced stage of signing an Erasmus+ partnership agreement provides this dialogue with a solid and promising institutional basis.
I also had very positive discussions with the Vice-Rector, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Valy Ceia, the Dean of the Faculty of Letters, History, Philosophy and Theology, Prof. Dr. Dana Percec, as well as the Director of the Department of History, Theology and Philosophy, Prof. Dr. Claudiu Mesaroș, regarding the future of cooperation between the two universities. A particularly important topic was the need to establish a strong Indian Studies component within the UVT Center for East Asian Studies. Such a division could support teaching, research, translations, academic mobilities and long-term cooperation in areas such as Indian philosophy, Sanskrit studies, comparative religion and intercultural humanities.
It is also important to recognize the pioneering nature of the work carried out by Associate Professor Dr. Cristian Andrei, whose courses, research, translations and editorial projects in the field of Sanskrit philology, Indian philosophy, Buddhist thought, Yoga philosophy and the Pāṇinian grammatical tradition have given UVT a rare and distinctive profile. As far as I could document, Sanskrit is not currently taught at any other university in Romania, which makes the activity developed at UVT in this direction truly a premiere in Romania and particularly significant in the wider European academic landscape.
I leave Timișoara with gratitude and admiration for the seriousness, warmth and intellectual hospitality encountered at the West University of Timișoara. I sincerely hope that this visit will mark the beginning of a sustained collaboration between UVT, the University of Delhi and the Philosophical Practitioners Association of India”.
Balaganapathi Devarakonda
Professor of Philosophy, University of Delhi, India
Director, Philosophical Practitioners Association of India (PPAI)
