Conclusion

04/28/2026 · Tue/Thu 10:30-11:45 AM · Brad Bannon · Boston College

📄 Synopsis

The class session served as a comprehensive review of the semester's theological investigations, structured primarily as a competitive quiz game. Instructor Brad Bannon facilitated a dialogue that bridged the foundational concepts of both Hindu and Christian traditions. Students were challenged to recall and explain key Sanskrit terms, including the four puruṣārthas (human aims), the four states of consciousness, and the divisions of the Veda. The discussion revisited the mahāvākyas and the philosophical nuances of Satkāryavāda and abhāva pramāṇa. In the Christian context, the class reviewed the Akedah (binding of Isaac), the plagues of Exodus, and the specific narrative details of the Gospel of Mark, such as the feeding of the multitudes and the anointing of Jesus. The session also integrated comparative elements, such as the 'upside-down tree' from the Bhagavad-Gītā found in a building in India. Through this interactive format, the class synthesized themes of divine manifestation, ethical responsibility (dharma), and the phenomenological method of interpreting sacred texts. Brad concluded the session by sharing personal anecdotes from his time in Kerala, India, and his experiences with his personal farm, including raising baby chicks and milking cows, reinforcing the course's objective of making theology relevant to lived experience.

⚡ Key Takeaways

Theology is defined by St. Anselm as 'faith seeking understanding' (fides quaerens intellectum).
The four puruṣārthas represent the essential human aims: dharma (duty), artha (prosperity), kāma (pleasure), and mokṣa (liberation).
The mahāvākyas are 'great sayings' from the Upanishads that articulate the non-dual relationship between the individual self (Atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman).
The Kaṭha Upaniṣad uses the allegory of the chariot to explain the relationship between the senses, the mind, the intellect, and the Self.
In the Hindu tradition, the four āśramas outline the stages of life: student, householder, forest dweller, and renunciant.
The Bhagavad-Gītā emphasizes that individuals have control over their actions but not the fruits or outcomes of those actions (2:47).
The class debated the specific numbers in the Gospel of Mark's accounts of Jesus feeding large crowds, with the instructor noting confusion over whether the figures were 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, or 7,000.
Satkāryavāda is the philosophical theory that the effect pre-exists within the cause, illustrated by the transformation of milk into curds.
The Akedah refers to the biblical narrative of Abraham binding his son Isaac, a pivotal moment in the Hebrew testament.
Comparative theology involves finding resonances between traditions, such as the presence of the 'upside-down tree' imagery within Christian spaces in India.

🎤 Transcript Tap any timestamp to jump the audio player

Opening Transition and Breathing Exercise

Student

Howdy.

Student

How's it going?

Brad

Let's take a minute and, you know, transition.

Student

Let's take a breath together. Go ahead and breathe in and out. Word? Word. I have nothing planned for today.

1:25

Class Planning and Personal Anecdotes

Brad

I mean, we got the Black Panther, right?

Brad

So we can chat about that. I brought the Tumbling Tower game.

Brad

I brought Play-Doh.

Brad

I'm happy to answer questions about anything. We could do, actually, we could do like an AMA, could tell stories, that kind of stuff, whatever. Um, whatever, I'm down. I'm also, uh, celebrating today, kind of. I don't typically do this, but today is the, uh, 30th anniversary of my 21st birthday. ⚠

Student

So, um, fun.

Brad

Yeah, yeah.

Brad

No, don't say happy birthday. Say happy anniversary.

Brad

It's the day that I got rid of my fake ID. I mean, one of them.

Brad

They gave me two copies, and one of them got taken.

Student

But, you know, yeah.

Brad

I don't know. I want to play with some Play-Doh. What do you want to do today?

Brad

You want to talk—

Brad

Talk about Black Panther.

Brad

Do you have any questions about—

Brad

I don't know.

Brad

I'm going to ask for the time in Cherokee. Also, I was trying to vibe code some games this morning, but I maybe should have started more than 15 minutes ago. Seems like it maybe takes 20 minutes. Um, totally gonna push my computer off if I do that. ⚠

Brad

So I guess my idea, it's not a fully formed idea, but my idea was to like play a game in class and like the winning team would get, I don't know, like bonus points on their quiz score kind of thing. But I didn't really come up with games to play. But I do know some things about the course. ⚠

Brad

I could ask questions.

Brad

And I was trying to code a buzzer game.

Brad

I could buzz in with your team, which would be cool. But I didn't quite start that early enough this morning, to be honest.

Brad

Uh, right before I left, I realized that—

Brad

so we just got baby chicks. Um, so we got, uh, like 17 baby chicks or something like that.

Brad

And, um, um, and I'm trying— I've got this hen that went broody a couple years ago, um, and then she lost all of her—

Brad

actually, it was last year.

Brad

She's actually gone broody a few times, but she, uh, lost all of her chicks last last year to rats. Um, super frustrating, sad, awful, terrible thing.

Brad

Um, but, uh, this year, so we bought baby chicks and trying to make her go broody.

Brad

Um, but it's not quite working.

Brad

And then right as I was like about to leave the house, she got out of the brood and so I like chased the chicken around, you know, kind of stuff.

Brad

I got nothing here.

Brad

I drove all the way in to be with you, so we should do something here.

Brad

Any ideas for games? We got tumbling tower, obviously. Can we do like a Jeopardy? Yeah. ⚠

Student

Yeah.

Brad

I mean, so yeah, Dan?

Student

What if we do fishbowl and then the points from last time still count?

Student

What?

Brad

But explain.

Student

New day, new stories, of course.

Student

I mean, I—

Brad

say, I mean, fishbowl where people have a conversation in front?

Brad

What do you mean fishbowl?

Student

Where we have the slips of paper with the different concepts, and then one person acts on that and trades.

Brad

OK. Yeah, OK. So the game we played last time, basically? Yeah. Alright, so we've got Jeopardy style game, we've got the Moniker style charades game. ⚠

Brad

Other suggestions?

Brad

Okay, you want to do one of those two? I mean, I think I can come up with questions on the spot.

Brad

For like a Jeopardy game, I think I can riff that maybe. ⚠

Student

Yeah, what about Kahoot?

Brad

Kahoot, that sounds like you have to plan ahead of time and have something set up, right?

Student

You just look it up.

Brad

Look it up for my class?

Student

Could work.

Brad

Huh?

Brad

Could work.

Student

Do you like singing right now?

Brad

I don't know, how many people like the charades idea? How many people like the Jeopardy idea? Okay, it's definitely leaning in that direction a little bit. Tumbling Towers as well? ⚠

Brad

Word, I'm down, I'm down.

Student

Cool.

Brad

Where should we set up tumbling towers?

Student

Set it up right here?

8:16

Administrative Check-in: Podcasts and Final Papers

Brad

Does anybody have any questions? Anybody have any questions about the podcast or the final paper? See the vision? Is it going to work? We have 3 ways to get points. One is from tumbling tower. Do you get points or lose points? Last time we did it okay, right? Get a point for adding, lose 3 points for falling. And we can— do we want to do anything with Play-Doh or just play with it? ⚠

Student

Just play with it.

Brad

And sure. All right.

10:21

Theological Review Game: Hindu and Christian Traditions

Brad

So we'll do the game.

Brad

I'm just going to do random.

Brad

Random questions.

Brad

I'll have to try and go by who I think raised the hand first since that's all I got to go by. Does anybody know the— so on the syllabus, on the front page of the syllabus, I've got like various quotes on the syllabus. Anybody know the first one?

Brad

It's a verse.

Student

Can I say the— I don't remember exactly, but I know the verse, like the first number. Uh, pizza 247. ⚠

Brad

It is pizza 247. Nice job for you.

Brad

Good. Did you know that or you just guessed it?

Student

Yeah.

Student

Good.

Brad

Yeah.

Brad

Good.

Brad

Did anybody notice?

Brad

I don't know. I feel like I was reading over these this morning.

Brad

They're kind of good, honestly.

Brad

But one of my favorite ones is this ChatGPT hallucination. It's the best hallucination I've ever read. It hallucinated a quotation by Raimon Panikkar. When I read it, I was like, oh, that's so good. It's so Panikkar. It's so— him. It's like really, really, really him.

Brad

And I went and looked it up and it just doesn't exist anymore. But the quote is, "The unmanifest is beyond words, yet manifests through them." So good. I can't believe that that doesn't exist anymore. I guess I could just take credit for that, right? It's like I said that.

Student

Um, no.

Brad

Uh, all right, let's just go. Um, Who can tell me in English or in Sanskrit the four purusharthas, the four human aims?

Brad

Yeah, team efforts, team efforts for sure, team efforts.

Brad

Grace, is that the fishes, right? The fishes?

Brad

Yep.

Brad

Say it one more time. I think you missed one.

Brad

Nice.

Brad

Good, good, good.

Brad

Word. That should be worth some— what, 2 points? That seems like a 2-pointer.

Brad

Yours was a solid 1-pointer, man.

Student

It's good.

Brad

English or Sanskrit? What about the 4 states of conscious awareness?

Brad

4 states of consciousness.

Brad

Yeah, Danny.

Student

A-U-N-G-O.

Brad

Not quite what I was looking for.

Student

Colin?

Student

It's awake, sleep, deep sleep, and silence. No, no, it's awake, deep sleep, dream, and silence.

Brad

Say it one more time. Definitive. Last chance.

Brad

Awake.

Student

Deep sleep is one, like bliss, nothingness.

Student

It was just sleep dreams. It was dreaming, deep sleep, and then nothingness. Yeah.

Brad

Oh, they're going to be so mad if I— yeah, Logan?

Student

So nothingness is not dual?

Brad

Yeah, Katie?

Student

It's awake, deep sleep, dreaming, and then silence.

Student

Lily?

Student

Awake, dream state, deep sleep, and enlightenment.

Brad

Okay, I'll give you that one, enlightenment. Yeah, yeah, turiya, or the fourth state, you know, something like that. Yeah, it's not nothingness, bro. It is definitely not nothingness. Awareness, total awareness, total enlightenment is not the same as nothingness or silence. ⚠

Student

Samskara.

Brad

I'm only gonna give one for that one just because there was a lot of effort involved in that one.

Brad

How about something else?

Brad

Oh, how about something simple like the four divisions of the veda, the four kinds of texts in the veda?

Student

Yeah, Iona?

Brad

So that wasn't quite the question I was asking. I would have given it to you if you got all 4 of them though. But missing one.

Student

Yeah, Caroline?

Brad

Either one, either one. So the four recension— Iona was giving me the four recensions.

Brad

Now she's asking the four kinds of text.

Brad

But I'll take either one. Yes, good, all right, good. Yeah, Kaelin, you want to give me that?

Student

Shruti, smriti, itihasa.

Brad

I will, I will, that's also not exactly what I was asking, but I'll give you a point for that, and I will give Caroline a point for that. So those are the four recensions of the veda, those are the, those are the, you know, types of authoritative texts, types of sacred texts, but the 4 divisions of the veda, we went through 3 of the 4 in Unit 2. ⚠

Student

Yeah, Brent?

Student

Rigveda, Yama, Samaveda.

Brad

No, we had those already. Katha?

Student

Is it the brahmana?

Student

Purana. No.

Brad

We haven't heard from Evan yet. No, no, we heard from Caitlin. Kasalia?

Student

Samhita, prana, sadhana, and— No, it's not that. ⚠

Brad

The only one you're missing is the only one we didn't really study. Y'all on the same team? Yeah, I'll give you forest texts, that's right. Yeah, so samhita are the hymns, brahmanas are the ritual texts, the vanaprastha are the— or the aranyaka— ⚠

Brad

aranyakas are the forest texts, and then the upanishads. So good, good, good. What's it with Team Weon here? ⚠

Student

Bless you. Cool. What else?

Brad

That's pretty much everything we learned all semester, isn't it?

Brad

OK. Should we have a 4-pointer? Yeah. All right, you gotta—

Brad

it's gotta count though, right?

Brad

So 4-pointer, you take a second, chat with your team, team-based, team effort. I want all 4 mahavakyas in Sanskrit or English. Wow, that was fast. I don't know who was first. OK, Kailyn. ⚠

Student

Can they be in any order? Yeah. OK, consciousness is Brahman. The self is Brahman.

Brad

I am Brahman.

Student

That thou art.

Brad

That's it. Sorry, Caroline. Sorry, Grace. I'll give you 4 points if you can tell me which of the mahavakya is from which text. No, you gotta know the names.

Student

I know one.

Brad

The pickles want to give it a chance, I think.

Brad

Maybe.

Student

Um.

Brad

Ooh, here's a question. Okay, you want to try it? Okay, I need all 4 to get points, but you can give me one.

Student

Tat tvam asi is from Chandogya Upanishad.

Brad

That's right, yeah. All right, let's see, here's a question. Let's go in Latin this time, just because that's fun. Can anybody give me in Latin St. Anselm's definition of theology? Fides quaerens intellectum.

Student

There you go.

Brad

Nice.

Student

Nailed it.

Brad

Fides quaerens intellectum. How about the The four ashramas, the four stages of life in Hindu tradition.

Brad

Yeah, Andrew?

Student

Can I give it to you in English?

Brad

Yeah, you can.

Brad

English is fine.

Student

Student, householder, purusha, and then bhujja.

Student

It's got to be close enough.

Brad

So close.

Student

Arjuna? Yeah. Student, householder, forest dweller, and then like, what? ⚠

Brad

Brahmin?

Student

Like, beggar? Like, where you just sit on the street?

Brad

I mean, that's right. There's so many hands though. I mean, I'm going to get— I don't know. I mean, it's so close to what Andrew said too. I'm going to give a point. I'm going to give a point to Iona. It does seem right, doesn't it? ⚠

Brad

OK, tell you what.

Brad

I'm going to give Iona 2 points, and I'll give Andrew 1 point.

Student

Yeah?

Brad

What are all these things?

Brad

The 4 varnas?

Brad

Like the four—

Brad

yeah, four varnas. Yeah, Kaitlyn.

Student

So like student, kind of priestly class, the warrior ruler class, the servant class, and the merchant farmer class. ⚠

Brad

Good.

Brad

Did you have them in Sanskrit?

Student

Brahmin, sattva, rajas, tamas. Kaurava, kshatriya, vaishya, and shudra. ⚠

Brad

Oh, word. That's like 4. It's definitely 2. It's definitely 2.

Student

Yeah, that's a lot.

Brad

Where am I looking?

Brad

Where am I looking? That's like 4.

Student

Yeah, OK.

Brad

They're not in alphabetical order.

Brad

Who put these here? These are all crazy things.

Brad

Where's my sheet?

Brad

My like cheat sheet.

Brad

Oh, there it is.

Brad

Ooh, this has got to be at least 3 points. Can anybody name the Shat Darshana, the 6 Perspectives. I think that one has to be in Sanskrit. I'm gonna have to do it. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, sure, got it. Wow, nice. Yeah, very good.

Brad

Very nice.

Brad

What should that be? I said at least 3. Is that 3? Is that the 3? 3 is good? I was saying on the thing, 3 pairs.

Brad

Can anybody know what Satkariyavada is?

Student

Kaelin?

Student

The effect preexists the cause.

Student

Yeah.

Brad

Well, I mean, I'm giving away because y'all are already running away with it. ⚠

Brad

Gosh, this would be super hard.

Brad

Okay, here we're gonna do— you can't get more than one point in this.

Brad

You can only say one, so there's 10 possible answers. You can only—

Brad

your team can only get one.

Student

I know what it's gonna be.

Brad

What is it?

Brad

Avatar?

Brad

It is, yeah.

Student

Krishna?

Brad

Krishna is one. Good.

Student

All right, yep.

Brad

Can you give me the name?

Student

Yeah, huh?

Brad

And lion. Uh, Grace? Narasimha is the— yeah, okay, good. Okay, all right, so we've got Krishna and Narasimha. Anybody else? Yeah, Danny? Huh? Shiva's not one of them. ⚠

Student

Yeah?

Brad

There is a dwarf, but yeah. Anybody else?

Student

Any—

Brad

should I give her dwarf? I mean, I didn't give man lion, so— OK. Rama was another kind of easy one there. And Matsya the fish. ⚠

Student

Yeah, anyway.

Brad

What about— Okay, here's maybe a higher level one. So when I was explaining yoga, I used an example of two bed sheets, right? What do the two bed sheets represent?

Brad

Yeah, Claire?

Student

Nice. Good.

Brad

I actually thought that would take more than a second. What else?

Brad

Oh yeah, here's— I actually already asked most of these.

Brad

How did, how did Ganesha get his head?

Student

Yeah, Brett. His, like, the woman god went to bathe in the river and she created him to like guard the path, and then he was guarding the path and her husband came and said like, I'm I'm going out to the river. And he was like, no, you're not. And then Denesha, the husband, cut his head off. And then the wife got all pissed and then told him to go find a head. And the first thing he found was an elephant. So he just like sucked that off. ⚠

Brad

Pretty good.

Student

Pretty good.

Student

That's 6 points, right?

Brad

I don't know. I'll give you 2. I'll give you 2. Uh, okay, I feel like this one's really, really tough. Um, what's the name of, uh, Sunahsepa's dad? I give you either one, either his biological dad or the dad that adopts him.

Student

Death?

Student

No.

Student

Vishvarana?

Student

Like adopted?

Brad

That's really close.

Student

Yeah? Vishwa?

Student

No.

Brad

Vishwamitra.

Student

Yeah, good.

Brad

I don't know. Can anybody explain what ishta deva means?

Student

Yeah, Colin?

Brad

I mean, grace is a part of it, but no, that's not quite what it means.

Student

It's God showing themself to you in whatever way best suits your eyes.

Student

Word. Yeah, good.

Brad

Which is an act of grace.

Student

Nice.

Brad

If you were trying to explain— why can't I find Kellen?

Brad

Let's just go by team.

Brad

What team are you in?

Student

I'm with Katha.

Student

Kellen, there you are.

Brad

What was I about to ask?

Brad

Who can explain— oh, who can explain abhava pramana?

Brad

Like if you were explaining abhava pramana to somebody who didn't know anything about it. Yeah, Kailyn? ⚠

Student

Can I use like an analogy?

Brad

You can use an analogy.

Student

I'm going to use the one we used in class with the milk and the curds. This is like the creator is only like— the creator, once the creator no longer exists and only the creation is present, it's cause and effect. So you have the milk but the effect isn't like fully there until the milk is fully curd. And so you can't see the creation or the effect until the cause or the creator is gone. ⚠

Brad

I mean, I can't imagine better than that. That was awesome.

Brad

Um, very good.

Student

Um, uh, what else?

Brad

Um, Aside from the Purusha Sukta, which I've said so many times in class, can you name either of the other two samhitas that we studied?

Student

Yeah, Grace?

Brad

Haranyagarbha is one. Can somebody else give another one? Can you name the other one? Kaylin?

Student

The Nasadiya Sukta.

Brad

All right, right on.

Student

Good job.

Brad

What about—

Brad

so the whole Sunahsepa story, anybody know the name of the text that that comes from?

Brad

Yeah, Lily?

Brad

No, it's actually not a Upanishad, but it does have the same name as one of the Upanishads.

Brad

It's the Aitareya Brahmana.

Student

Uh, this is all the same stuff over and over again.

Brad

Um, aside from the, uh, clay, besides the clay, Can you tell me something else you remember from the Chandogya Upanishad? What's another one of the metaphors that he uses?

Student

The egg, like the golden egg where everything came from one thing and then spread out. I'm forgetting the exact name of it, but it's like the yoghurya.

Brad

No, there's not an egg in there though.

Brad

Yeah, Iona?

Brad

The salt in the water. Okay, so yeah, say a little bit more. ⚠

Student

And how like the salt's like no longer like inside the water. Like you can't see the salt in the water, but it's still there. ⚠

Student

It's just like the salt inside.

Brad

Okay, yeah, good. Other ones? Yeah, Danny.

Student

The river's flowing into the ocean and the ocean then punching. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, good.

Student

Good.

Brad

Yeah, Kaylin?

Student

The seed, and like no matter how small you break it up, even if it's invisible to your eye, it still exists. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, I think that's what we were trying to think of. Yeah, the egg is the haranyagarbha, but the seeds, which is very similar.

Brad

Yeah, good.

Brad

Any other ones? Yeah?

Student

Tree and if you like cut off its branches, it doesn't really like, it doesn't actually kill the tree. You have to cut the tree from its roots in order for anything to actually happen to it. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, great. Which maybe we should have brought up when we were talking about the upside-down tree too.

Brad

I didn't even think about that connection.

Brad

But well, I don't know, I might have to cut Katelyn off here soon.

Student

Any others?

Brad

It's interesting, when I've taught this class before, usually students' favorite one, other than the clay—

Brad

everybody likes the clay because I bring clay to— but other than that, people are usually drawn to the Gandharva, the man who was blindfolded and then left out in the open, and then, you know, a teacher has to come and, you know, guide them. Back, point them in the right direction, that kind of stuff.

Student

I don't know why—

Brad

yeah, what else did we study? I had the syllabus here a second ago. Okay.

Brad

Who are Abraham's two oldest sons? Lily?

Student

Isaac and— he had another one.

Student

That's all right.

Brad

Tough one. Yeah, Evan? Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac and Ishmael. Very good. What do you call that story of Abraham binding his son Isaac?

Student

Veer.

Student

The akedah.

Brad

Akedah, that's right. I'm going to lean towards folks that I haven't— if it's a tie or something like that, I'm going to call on folks I haven't heard from as often. In the book of Exodus, what is the 10th plague?

Student

Brent.

Student

The Israelites put, like, sacrifice a goat and put the blood around their threshold so that then when the plague happens, all the Firstborn sons of the Egyptians are killed, but the Israelites are spared because they have that blood of the goat on their doorframe.

Brad

Yeah, good.

Brad

That's right.

Brad

That's good.

Brad

What do you call that? Passover.

Brad

There you go.

Brad

Passover was the easy answer. All else was hard. What do you call that passage that we read from Isaiah 52?

Brad

Yeah, suffering servant. Yeah, good.

Brad

Who christens Jesus?

Student

Yeah, Sophia.

Brad

No?

Student

Anyone?

Brad

Yeah, Katha.

Student

Was it the woman that anoints him?

Student

The unnamed woman with the ointment.

Brad

Yeah, an unnamed woman with an ointment.

Student

Yep.

Brad

I mean, easy question, right?

Brad

Easy question. First one to raise their hand. In the Bhagavad Gita, How many horses are there? Yeah, Brent.

Student

Brad

So I know a lot of people had that one. Brent was first. In the Katha Upanishad— yeah, let's look at the Katha Upanishad for a minute. So in the Katha Upanishad, Yama gives Naciketas 3 boons. What are the 3 boons?

Student

Caroline?

Student

This is the fire sacrifice, and then the puranas and the Svetashvatara, and then the what happens after you die. ⚠

Brad

OK. Yeah.

Student

I'll give you that. Where are we? Where are we? Okay.

Brad

What else?

Brad

It should be more points. I don't know.

Brad

I'll determine the points after I hear the quality of the answer. But what is Yama's response to the third question? So the third question, I'm just going to clarify, is after death, do I exist or not?

Student

Yeah, Katie?

Student

Yama was kind of like, he was like, oh, are you sure? Is there anything else like worldly desires?

Student

Or is this what you have?

Student

He's kind of tempting him.

Student

And then he was like, no, I want to know.

Student

Do I exist after I die? And Yama presents it and gives him the ability to see that.

Brad

OK, I'll give you a point for that. That is his initial response, is like, ask for something else. ⚠

Brad

Ask for something easy, like wealth or something.

Brad

But what's his real answer to the question?

Student

Yeah?

Student

Just doesn't know either, like he doesn't really understand what happened. ⚠

Brad

I don't think it's that.

Brad

Yeah, Logan?

Student

Doesn't he show what it's like to be divine, where he sees through a divine type way, and then he gets overwhelmed by what he experiences? ⚠

Brad

No, I think you're thinking of Chapter 11 of the Gita.

Student

Yeah.

Brad

Anyone? Um, yeah, so I mean, as Katie says, I mean, he says it's very difficult for people to understand the answer, right? Then he goes into a couple of chapters. Um, one of them is the allegory of the chariot, right? Um, and the other one, um, uh, volume 2 says that some people are motivated What are the two things people are motivated by?

Brad

What kind of actions could you have?

Student

Praya and shreya.

Brad

Yeah, what are shreya and praya?

Student

Praya is like the pleasant and the shreya is like good.

Brad

Okay, yeah, good. We're doing actual work here now, I think. How does that answer the question? So the question was, do I exist after death? How does this shreya, praya, how does that answer the question?

Brad

Kaelin?

Student

Like most people wouldn't really be like concerned with that. It's like not really a question of preyas. Like most people would want something that would be good for them, but like asking this question, what happens after death, and like shreyas, it's like just, it's knowledge. It's kind of for the good of like everyone, or just like the good in general. It's not like a personal like desire or like something like selfish in a Yeah, how does that answer the question though? ⚠

Brad

So let's try this, like Martin Luther King, like bro's dead, right? Sorry, rip, all that. Spoiler alert, he's dead, right? So dead people don't typically have an impact on the world. Does Martin Luther King have an impact on the world? So even though he's after death, it's after his death, right, he continues to have an impact on the world, right? So does he exist? For sure, right? Because he has— continues to have an impact on the world, so that's something shreyas, right? ⚠

Brad

He didn't do it for his namesake or something like that, right?

Brad

So you can continue to have an impact on the world and therefore continue to exist if you're doing something that's sort of shreyas, like continuing.

Student

Good.

Brad

This is— OK. This is moving too slowly, yeah?

Brad

Brad's getting impatient.

Brad

When the— I'm only going to give credit for a precise, correct answer. When Jesus feeds the crowd with loaves and fishes, how many people does he feed in Mark's Gospel? Lily. ⚠

Student

4,000.

Brad

Kassilia.

Student

4,000 and 5,000.

Brad

Aiden.

Brad

5,000 and 7,000.

Brad

It's not, is it? Now I'm doubting.

Brad

Yes, I thought it was 5,000 and 6,000. Oh snap, we gotta look it up.

Brad

7,000 points. Um, I'm pretty sure it's 5,000 and 6,000.

Brad

Actually, I think it's 6,000 and 5,000. Or is it 5,000 and 6,000?

Student

Less the second time.

Brad

Less the second time.

Brad

Remember how many loaves, how many baskets were left over the two times?

Brad

Yeah, 12 and 3, 12 and 3, yeah.

Brad

I'm just gonna keep on this one because I don't know what that— y'all are just so far away. All right, Luke, I'll give you a point. In the Katha Upanishad, what does the charioteer represent or symbolize or Yeah. ⚠

Student

The voices of the senses, the brains are the brahmin, and then the turiya to your person is like your intellect, and the person sitting to the side is yourself. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, or the atman.

Student

Yeah, yeah.

Brad

Very good.

Student

Very good.

Brad

I don't know. What else did we learn here?

Brad

Did you learn anything else?

Student

I can't find anybody's name.

Brad

We did more Christian stuff, didn't we?

Brad

What about when Jesus was doing his whole thing and stuff?

Brad

Who was the king of Israel?

Brad

I'm seeing the same hands over and over again.

Brad

Luke?

Student

Was it Herod? Yeah, Herod.

Student

Yeah.

Brad

When— what— plus or minus 3 years, what year was the Gospel of Mark written?

Student

That's within 3 years, yeah. Good.

Brad

What about the Bhagavad Gita?

Student

When was it written?

Student

No.

Student

Anybody know?

Student

1000 BCE?

Brad

No, no, it's right around the time of Christ. It's right around the same time as the Gospel of Mark.

Brad

Yeah, so, yep.

Brad

Is it like 300 BCE? No, it's right around the time of the Gospel of Mark. Yeah, Lily? No, it's right around— yeah, I mean, sure, it's right around that. No, that was because I just told you the answer. Yeah, it wasn't a hint.

Brad

That was the answer. Yeah, that was the answer.

Student

Same lunch.

Brad

Sorry, that was an inside joke.

Brad

I'm tired of this.

Brad

Let's do something else.

48:18

Instructor Stories: Farm Life and Travels in India

Brad

Yeah, what should we do? Do we want to do the tumbling tower thing?

Student

Yeah.

Brad

Some of you are saying yeah, some of you are saying no. Intellectual break. Intellectual break. Isn't that an intellectual break? Um, we could do like AMA. You have any questions for me? Anybody know my cow's name?

Student

Is it baby?

Student

No.

Brad

Is it Krishna?

Student

No.

Brad

No, her name's Dandy.

Brad

Dandy.

Brad

Because she was born 2 years ago right around this time.

Brad

Yeah, it was like beginning of May. So yeah, which the dandelions were all in bloom. And her mom's name was Buttercup, so I wanted to stick with like a theme. Flower name, so like buttercup and dandelion, so Dandy for short. Um, pretty sure she's pregnant, not 100% sure. ⚠

Student

Um, what else? Yeah, Caroline?

Brad

Do I have a picture of Dandy? I do, I have pictures. I took so many pictures. ⚠

Brad

Aussam, my, uh, um, trying to pull up pictures. ⚠

Brad

I haven't really told, uh, many stories in here.

Brad

That's, um, so, yeah, that's my horse. That's my old cow, Buttercup.

Brad

That's the mama. That's—

Brad

this milking station actually built with a former student, BC grad.

Brad

Oh, that's—

Brad

This one, one of them, that was Yogi. Yogi was born, this was a couple years ago, right? Oh no, no, that's Yogi back there.

Brad

Yeah, so that is Dandy. Yeah, Yogi, you can see Yogi in the background.

Brad

Yogi went off to freezer camp.

Brad

In a way, I feel like she's still with us, you know what I mean? I use that every time I make dinner.

Brad

Not every time I make dinner, you know what I mean? Any of y'all have any stories?

Brad

There's my son milking the cow.

Brad

That's also from a minute ago.

Brad

He'd be so pissed that I'm showing that. Oh my goodness. Oh yeah, I used to have another—

Brad

these are old cows.

Brad

That was the first time I ever milked a cow. First time I ever trained a cow to milk was her, Clara.

Brad

And that's her bull, Mocha. Called him Mocha. He was half Dexter, half Scottish Highland. He also, of course, went off to freezer camp. ⚠

Student

Yeah.

Brad

It was the first cow I ever castrated. Any of y'all ever castrated cows?

Student

I don't know. Other questions? Yeah?

Brad

Dog pictures, please.

Brad

Dog pictures? So my—

Brad

I haven't shared this, but my dog is dying.

Student

Yeah.

Brad

I mean, I will— she's not going to make it through this week, I don't think. I was actually super worried on Thursday, last Thursday. I did not think she was going to be alive when I got home. That was actually right when I got home on Thursday, I think. Yeah, Thursday. That was right when I got home. She's got cancer. She's a sweetheart. Her name's Puppy. She's 14. This is Renny. Renny is— yeah, I took Renny to class with me a couple weeks ago. That was something. Renny is a German Shepherd. She is 1 and— ⚠

Student

1 and a half. It's a little farm. ⚠

Brad

Um, I don't know why there's the sound. Just really, I mean, she's so cute, isn't she? This is my shop.

Student

Yeah, I built that right into that.

Brad

I don't know, what else?

Student

You should bring Remy in on Thursday.

Brad

I don't know what would happen to me if I brought in a dog.

Brad

I'd be scared that would be my last trip to Boston College.

Brad

Do other people bring in dogs?

Brad

I mean, if I were a tenured professor or something like that, but you know.

Student

Yeah?

Brad

What do you do? You have the big thing on Thursday? When do you have the big volleyball and all that kind of stuff? So is it on Thursday? Yeah.

Student

Yeah.

Student

Can we see pictures from India?

Brad

Sure.

Student

Sure.

Brad

Sure.

Brad

This is my guru, Suresh.

Student

And his wife.

Brad

Yeah, this is in Kerala.

Brad

If you ever get a chance to go to Kerala, it is—

Brad

not that I'm the most traveled person in the world, but it's by far the most beautiful place I've ever been. It is just Crazy. It's also the culture there is like super dope. It's like one-third Hindu, one-third Christian, one-third Muslim, and it's just a really, really, really interesting, beautiful place. This, of course, you know who this is. ⚠

Student

He's got a flute.

Student

Krishna. Yeah, Krishna.

Student

Cows, exes.

Brad

This is a pretty dope place. This is like a Christian ashrama, and these are like anthills.

Brad

I mean, these are actually like, I think, man-made, but they're patterned after these anthills and stuff. Had this crazy cat named Kali. She destroyed everything, but she was fun. What do you want to see? This is my, one of my gurus, Father— ⚠

Brad

I mean, he's got the best name ever, Saju Chakalaka. Right? I mean, it's fun to say. Let's say it together. Chakalaka. Yeah, so Father Saju, Chakalaka. And this is Father Roy. This was my best friend when we were there. And after being like besties with him for like a year or so, we went out in public one time and all these people were like recognizing him and coming up. I'm like, who are these people? ⚠

Brad

I was like, how do you know everybody in the market? And he's like, I don't know these people.

Brad

Like, well, how do they know you? Turns out he's like some superstar mega preacher. He preaches to like tens of 20,000 people at a time in Malayalam. And I'm like, you're like a famous mega preacher?

Brad

And he's like, maybe. Me with no hair and slightly younger.

Brad

This is in, uh, uti. These are all, um, tea.

Brad

This is like where tea is ground. These are all tea. This is, uh, Sanjaya, like, uh, what's his name, Sanjay, but like Sanjaya in the Bhagavad Gita. So the person who's like narrating, he was our security guard. Well, this is boring. It's just me looking through pictures. Did you have any more specific pictures? ⚠

Brad

Oh yeah, so this is like the, the Katha.

Brad

This is another view of it.

Brad

It's really, really cool.

Brad

Inside of here, I wonder if I have like pictures. I mean, I know I have pictures. Oh yeah, yeah, so this is kind of hard to see here, but so this is a Catholic ashrama and this is inside of that building, right? So, so above it it's got the JC up there and you go into like this little grotto, so it's kind of like under the ground and then it's a pretty small little chapel, but on the wall here, it's kind of hard to tell a little bit, but it's the upside-down tree from the Bhagavad Gita. ⚠

Brad

So it's like the, right, with roots above and branches below. And then I don't know if you can see, but right there is the Paraclete.

Brad

Oof, that's not good.

Brad

The, um, even in Mark's Gospel, definitely in Luke's Gospel, but the, uh, the Spirit descended like a dove upon Jesus at his baptism. ⚠

Brad

So it's like all these super cool images. It's like underground and got the Paraclete and the upside-down tree. I don't know, I thought it was pretty dope.

Student

No other questions, thoughts?

Brad

Swamiveda, Vivekananda. Oh, it's my daughter Lila. Yeah, freaking, uh, 17 now. That's when we found out we were pregnant. ⚠

Brad

Others?

Brad

What are we—

Student

yeah.

Brad

Ask more questions?

Brad

Should we declare the winner? Do you have other ideas?

Student

AMA?

Student

Wait, I have questions about cows.

Student

Yeah.

Student

Do you butcher them?

Brad

Not personally.

Student

Oh, because I was like—

Brad

Yeah, no, not personally. Honestly, if I were like a stronger, better person, I think I would at least— I wouldn't butcher them, but I would at least do the deed. Did that with chickens for a while. But yeah, no, I have a guy. So when Yogi was— I was planning to have Yogi be a dairy cow. I was raising her as a dairy cow.

Brad

A dairy cow.

Brad

But she turned out to be kind of a little shit, and she like really just kind of—

Brad

I mean, she was a handful. She was way— you couldn't have been a dairy cow.

Brad

And she got bored, and she would like jump over the fence.

Brad

We had like a half an electric fence like this high.

Brad

She just jumped over it just because she was bored and went out and like started chasing people who were like walking their dogs down the road and stuff like that. And so when, when that happened, and a couple of people's like stopped on the side of the road and was like, you got to get your cow on your property, you know.

Brad

And, uh, so when she went into the stall, I was like, she's not, you know, not coming out until the butcher comes.

Brad

And so the guy came and, uh, um, yeah, a few days later, um, you know how much he charged me to, uh, to come to my house pick up my cow, drive it to his house, and do the killing. $75. I know, right?

Student

How much did he take of it?

Brad

Huh?

Student

How much did he take?

Brad

Of the cow? No, no.

Brad

Yeah, no, that was $75 just, just, just for that.

Student

I mean, he also charged me for butchering, but that's obviously How long does it last you, like all the meats?

Brad

I still have, I still have yogi. I still have a few barbecue. I've still got most of the summer.

Brad

I could probably go most of the summer. We ran out of ground beef a while ago, but in terms of like steaks and steaks and ribs, got quite a few left. ⚠

Brad

I guess, I mean, she was being raised as a dairy cow and she was not full weight and size and all that kind of stuff.

Brad

Didn't fatten her up like you would normally 'cause they just had to get her off the farm basically.

Brad

But I think it was around 450 pounds in the freezer, like freezer.

Brad

Freezer weight, freezer, yeah, about 450 pounds. And I paid about, it's like a dollar and a quarter a pound, so like $600 plus the $75, you know, so $675 all in for about 450 pounds of, you know, farm-raised, all organic, you know, good chicken. Ethically raised, you know, beef. ⚠

Student

Other questions? How's exams going? Don't ask. How do you—

Brad

Is that right?

Brad

How do you spell—

Brad

is it Ice Bud? Does anybody know how to pronounce it?

Student

How do you pronounce it? Did you listen to our podcast? I did, yes.

Brad

Yeah, your podcast was very enjoyable to listen to.

1:06:26

Closing Remarks and Final Reflection Paper Instructions

Brad

Thank you all for a very good class.

Brad

We still have Wednesday—

Brad

Thursday. What should we do on Thursday? I should plan better and have a real game. Should we continue this game or should we— I know Katelyn's vote. What should we do on Thursday? ⚠

Brad

Actually, a legit question.

Student

Yeah?

Student

We should play charades.

Brad

Play charades?

Student

We should play fishbowl all 3 rounds. And then we could team up so it doesn't take forever. ⚠

Brad

OK. So I'll plan some actual games for Thursday.

Brad

Yeah.

Student

All right.

Student

Huh?

Student

Scavenger hunt?

Brad

That would involve me hiding things though. Going for minimum effort on Brad's part. I do, in God, Self, and Society, we have a little scavenger hunt. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, to like go around campus and find images of the theologians that are in the textbook.

Student

Yeah?

Brad

You know the game Sardines?

Brad

Sardines?

Student

Uh-uh.

Brad

It's like hide and seek, but when you find someone, they like join you. OK. You just scatter around the campus. Listen, let's start again. Yeah, but we'll leave that on the table. Um, all right, words. I guess, uh, we, we, we don't— I don't have anything else, obviously. Um, all right, so I guess, uh, I guess the bonus points— I think we, I think we know who won, honestly. But yeah, the brahmins have 14 points. ⚠

Student

The Fighting Pickles, 10.

Brad

Yeah, I don't know, what do you think? Should we continue the game on Thursday? Or should we start fresh on Thursday? Start fresh on Thursday? All right.

Brad

So we'll toss some bonus points to you guys.

Student

All right.

Brad

Word. See you guys on Thursday. So bring your— for your final reflection paper, since it's 3 pages, you know, feel free to add a cover page.

Brad

You know, title page or whatever, but no pressure.

Student

See ya.

Brad

This is such a niche reference, bro.

Brad

It's too niche.

Brad

OK, cool.

Brad

Awesome. It was mostly because I didn't know when we were spinning on Thursday because I had a Bloodstock game at 11:30. So I didn't want to be here at 11:15. ⚠

Brad

So I didn't know if I needed to rush out. No, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I'll see you on Thursday. I'll be here for like the first 30 minutes. OK, cool. Awesome. ⚠

Student

Can you show me some of the stuff that you're doing with the 5 coding and stuff? ⚠

1:09:53

Post-Class Discussion: Coding and Podcast Questions

Brad

Oh, sure. All right, bye, guys.

Student

Or if you want to talk about it for a minute, it just seems that—

Brad

Yeah, yeah, sure. What am I doing? I mean, I don't know. I mean, today I was just trying to create something. I was like, simple app that will basically enable my students to turn their phones into a buzzer for a game, sort of like Jeopardy or Kahoot.

Student

Yeah.

Brad

I don't know.

Brad

This just finished actually during class.

Brad

So I haven't checked it yet.

Student

What is this, like an HTML or something?

Brad

It's a Firebase. So it's like— database in Firebase, and then I don't know.

Brad

I don't know if it even works. Some other thing I made— I only recently discovered what a webhook is. And so I've got all these—

Brad

webhooks in here. Like, I can hit this, just hit that link, and it takes a minute, but it will go through all of my Boston College drives and all of my Fitchburg State drives, and it will copy any podcasts that are new. ⚠

Brad

So this one—

Student

and then just give them right to you?

Brad

Yeah, so copied is none, errors none, skipped, and then it lists all the ones that it skipped. So it skipped all of those because it's already— actually, I already listened to yours.

Brad

What's your team?

Student

We were—

Student

wait, what's our team name?

Student

I forgot.

Student

I think it might be Ballers with a Z. It's usually what our team names end up being.

Brad

OK, yeah, team 4.

Brad

Team 4, yeah.

Brad

Yeah, so see, you're right there.

Student

There.

Student

Oh wow, yeah, that's really cool.

Brad

Yeah, and then, yeah, I've got another one that goes through and like transcribes them all and yeah, different things. It even like goes in and runs this whole process. ⚠

Student

So like Wow, that's going through a lot of stuff.

Brad

Yeah, so it's got all your names, and it goes through, and it checks the Sanskrits. I mean, it checks your vocabulary and that kind of stuff against a vocab list. Hopefully proofread stuff. And yeah, it identifies the speakers with some— ⚠

Brad

Yeah, that's cool.

Brad

Yeah.

Student

Yeah, I mean, it's just crazy what stuff you can do with live coding and just no technical or no advanced technical knowledge needed now. ⚠

Student

Yeah.

Student

This, uh, this summer a buddy and I were using— have you heard of Ollama?

Brad

Yeah, I've got Ollama installed.

Student

Yeah, so we're using Ollama, um, and then we're like having an API back into Groq and stuff, and we're basically going to create a little agent team for, uh, making graphene from coal.

Brad

So, okay, it's like a little—

Student

it's basically like a pencil lead, but a little bit more pure as well. Yeah, just carbon-based. ⚠

Brad

Nice.

Student

And then hopefully after we like optimize production Disney and stuff and kind of go into making some products and stuff, maybe just, just sort of like rudimentary stuff, very low budget. But just like, we just kind of want to do a little proof of concept stuff and kind of show that like there's a lot of like people who aren't like paying attention to what you can do with it. Um, and I think that, you know, you can do a lot of stuff that wasn't previously possible. Yeah, especially given like a lot less resources, or like you don't need as many resources as before, I think. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, so we'll see.

Brad

Right on. Cool.

Student

I'll send you, um, I'll send you— if you're around the summer or something for meetings or something, I could, uh, give you a little status update. Yeah, I'll let you know how things are going and stuff.

Brad

Sure, I'm not the best with the email, but I'll try.

Brad

I'll do my best.

Student

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you find it interesting.

Brad

Right on.

Student

All right, well, I'll see you, Professor.

Brad

See you Thursday. See you, Logan.

Student

Yeah. What the heck? Good. Yeah. ⚠

Student

Hi.

Student

I don't know if you've been with Yulia yet, but for the podcast, is it everyone who has their own, like, path and we all discuss those together, or we all kind of collectively decide on one and, like, discuss that together? ⚠

Brad

More the former, yeah. So everyone should kind of figure out their own path, but then when you're actually meeting and discussing, you don't necessarily— I don't want you to necessarily go like 1, 2, 3, 4.

Brad

You can be a little bit more organic, that kind of thing. But everybody should kind of talk about their own sort of journey through the class, yeah. But honestly, there's a lot of different ways you can do it, so— but yeah, everybody should kind of prepare some sort of path. ⚠

Student

Okay, thank you. Mhm.

Brad

What do you call those, like, boxes with, like, the QR code? Is that the one, the little, little, little square thing?

Student

Oops.