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Dr Kenneth Valpey, DPhil

1st April 2015

also known as Krishna Kshetra Swami, is a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and the Dean of Studies at Bhaktivedanta College, Septon, Belgium.  As a practicing monk in the Chaitanya Vaishnava tradition of Krishna-bhakti, he has been engaged since 1972 in the study and teaching of Indic cultural and religious ideas and practices (including teaching at the University of Florida and Chinese University of Hong Kong), with an emphasis on comparative-integrative understanding of dharmic traditions and a concern to relate these with contemporary cultures. After completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford with a study of Vaishnava temple liturgical practices and theology (published by Routledge in 2006 as Attending Kṛṣṇa’s Image: Caitanya Vaiṣṇava Mūrti-sevā As Devotional Truth), he has been participating in an extended study of the classical Sanskrit text, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, of which he is presently completing an abridged translation for Columbia University Press (together with Ravi M. Gupta). Drawing on classical Indic sources, he has written and lectured on concepts of nonviolence and the containment of violence through ritual, and on the application of yoga principles and practices to thought on animal-human relations. In forthcoming work, he seeks to foster and participate in animal studies that draw upon and nourish Indic dharma traditions, including explorations of constructive thought on animal ethics for contemporary Hindu communities.