Working at the intersection of arts and research, Bharat Giri finds his ideas no far from science. A researcher in spiritual science, his work is keenly crafted in intensive studies on subjects that are interlinked with human mind, behavior and existence. His early interest in contrastingly different subjects started as a Bsc. Student and a meditation practitioner two decades ago. Having graduated in culture in 2012, he recently earned a degree in Buddhism studies from Tribhuvan University in 2018. He successfully participated in International Scientific Conference held in Kathmandu in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

In an interview with My City’s Sonam Lama, Giri talked about his over a decade long experience in research.

What research methodologies do you adopt for your research?
The source, tools and methodologies that I seek for my research is quite different from how we have known research till now. I conduct research on the subject matters that share ground to both the areas of science and spiritualism. Thus, the methods highly depend on the reason, analysis and experiences that I happen to collect while undergoing a research. I opt for participatory and interactive approaches, mingling with both the subjective and objective components of study and research. Moreover, intuitive and empirical evidences are the factors that I especially look forward in my study.

What areas of interest do you study?
Any area that relates to or questions about human mind and behavior falls under my topic of interest. I generally study on human consciousness that shares interconnectedness with the culture, health, education, spirituality and subject matters of human concern. My research especially focuses on the interaction between science and spiritualism and how they interfere human consciousness and behavior. The subjects that I study generally initiate as a part of my early curiosity that serves to provide a less-discovered phenomena of society.            

How flexible in your opinion is the research domain in Nepal? What are the setbacks in the field?
The area of research is quite limited here. At this phase when technical researches have been struggling to create a unique identity, the study on complex subject-matters like human mind and behavior is primarily struggling to exist. The findings and output play significant roles in the process. However, when the subject matter hardly ends to concrete conclusions, it certainly poses multiple challenges in the first step of conducting research in such subjects. One of the challenges for the researchers is to sustain financially, which ultimately contributes to another constrain: Lack of ample human resource in this field. 

In your view, how can we better the scenario of research in Nepal?
I believe that we have certain gaps in our education system. The system centers itself on the goal of prospering financially. Our education system has confined our imagination, creativity and the inquisitive self in us. It is more focused on converting our acquired skills to generating monetary values. I strongly feel that we have been constantly taught from childhood to concentrate while doing anything. But never are we taught to stay focused and to build the concentration that is so intensely linked to every activity that we carry out. So, I believe in order to mend things at a larger extent, we primarily should start focusing on the petty issues for improvement.