Index

Letter from the Honorary President Jacques Cloarec

Dear Friends of Alain Daniélou Foundation,

Another year begins: with the New Year new challenges arise, and with each challenge there is also a sense of renewal. As Alain Daniélou wrote, cyclic time is a framework of experience surpassing the mere human will to be the centre of all universal processes. With each challenge we have to accept the conditions and limits of our actions, as well as our small – but important – role in contributing our fair share to make things better.

Last year’s main challenge was the budget reduction Alain Daniélou Foundation was forced to effect. This reduction led to a restructuring phase to be accomplished in 2017. However, there is no doubt that creativity and right action are also possible on a smaller scale even with more apparent limits.
In 2016, Artistic Dialogue organised great concerts by renowned Indian musicians (Hariprasad Chaurasia and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, among others) in Rome, together with a workshop at the Labyrinth, and it also saw the completion of Riccardo Biadene’s documentary Into the Labyrinth, which will be launched this year worldwide.
Intellectual Dialogue produced a joint-project with the C. G. Jung Institute of Zurich on various themes serving as a bridge between East and West (Tantra, Depth Psychology, the Self, Alchemy, Gnosticism, etc.), involving a varied group of participants from Spain and the USA to India and Afghanistan, which had a very positive resonance. At the same time, new perspectives are opening for the Alain Daniélou Foundation in Germany, through cooperation of the Alain Daniélou Foundation Intellectual Dialogue with the Universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg and Würzburg in the fields of History of Religion and Indology, which will certainly enhance the transcultural direction of our Foundation not only in Europe, but also in India.
Last but not least, 2016 saw the accomplishment of the long-standing publication project for ten e-books in French by Alain Daniélou, while Alain Daniélou Foundation’s website was also renovated – opening yet another window on the world. This broad restructuring project also extends to our Musical Semantic and Alain Daniélou sites.

This year the President of our Board of Directors and the Alain Daniélou Foundation’s representative in India, Mr. Basant Gupta, takes up his activities in that country. He will collaborate closely with Artistic and Intellectual Dialogue in opening up new roads of interaction with Indian thinkers and artists. We wish him all the best in his task and are glad to have him among us.

As you can see, our reduced financial possibilities notwithstanding, we are achieving important goals. In other words, we are determined to accept the challenge of showing the European and Indian public our will and ability to tackle and contribute to today’s intercultural dialogue demands. We are also confident that, in view of the quality of our initiatives, our activities will attract support from sponsors in those fields and aspects that require it. This is also a good opportunity to express our gratitude to all those institutions, both Indian and European, which in some way or other have contributed funds and support for our activities, in a firm belief in the work we are doing.

Before closing this letter, I wish to pay my deepest respects to the memory of the late Dileep Padgaonkar, a member of our Honorary Board, who passed away in November 2016 at the early age of 72. Our last encounter took place in 2015 in Delhi, during a trip to India with our Director of Intellectual Dialogue, Adrián Navigante. After playing us the most refined and delightful ragas, over supper at a traditional restaurant Padgaonkar told us of his desire to publish a volume in English of essays by Alain Daniélou to show their relevance to pressing issues of today, from ecology to the art of tolerance beyond the commonplace. I sincerely hope this noble initiative of his will very soon be accomplished by the Alain Daniélou Foundation, since there is no doubt that Alain Daniélou’s thought is up to that task.

With my very best wishes for 2017,

Jacques Cloarec
Alain Daniélou Foundation’s Honorary President

top ↑