Ashwini Mokashi

Lecturer in Hindi; Tutor in Marathi
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford / Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies / Member, Wolfson College
ashwini.mokashi@ames.ox.ac.uk
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Faculty/College

Lecturer in Hindi; Tutor in Marathi 

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford

Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Member, Wolfson College

Research 

Dr Mokashi has previously taught a course on ‘Ancient Greek and Sanskrit: A Comparative Study’ as well as undergraduate Philosophy courses at SP Pune University, India. She taught a course ‘Wisdom Leads to Happiness’ at the Evergreen Forum in Princeton, New Jersey. She has taught German language as well.  

Dr Mokashi’s research in comparative philosophy focuses on intersections between ancient Indian and Classical Greek thought. She examines thematic parallels between the Bhagavad-Gita and Stoic philosophy, especially in the writings of Seneca, exploring how wisdom leads to happiness. Her philosophical counseling practice draws on this research. 

While her initial work was in analytical philosophy, examining Aristotle’s critique of Platonism, she turned to comparative philosophy for her Ph.D. dissertation and later to spiritual philosophy. Her current work engages with the philosophy of R. D. Ranade and the Bhakti saints in Hindi and Marathi devotional literature.  

She has introduced the Kabir Bhakti framework, the Bhagavad-Gita framework, and the Gita–Stoic framework into philosophical counseling practice, further developing and advancing them through her lectures, articles, books (published and forthcoming), and counseling practice. 

She serves as Convener of the Oxford Conference on the Academic Exploration of Bhakti in Indian Philosophy. 

Teaching 

  • Literary Hindi 

  • Elementary Hindi 

  • Elementary Marathi 

  • Marathi Readings (13th- to 19th-century literature) 

Publications 

Books 

  • Sapiens and Sthitaprajna (2019; first submitted as a PhD thesis in 2002), DK Printworld, New Delhi, India 

  • Kabir on Philosophical Counseling (2026), ACPR Publications, Belagavi, India 

Translations 

  • सेपियन्स और स्थितप्रज्ञ (Hindi, 2024), MB Publishing, New Delhi, India 

  • सेपियन्स आणि स्थितप्रज्ञ (Marathi, forthcoming 2026), MB Publishing, New Delhi, India 

Selected Articles 

  • “Exploring Three Traditions of Philosophical Counseling in India,” Philosophical Practice: Journal of the APPA, 18.1 (2023) 

  • Foreword to East and West, ACPR Journal (2023) 

Academic and Professional Engagement 

Dr Mokashi has delivered over 30 invited talks at renowned academic institutions in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe. 

She is the founder of Philosophy and Happiness, LLC, a philosophical counseling practice. She served two terms as President of the Princeton Research Forum, a group of independent research scholars in New Jersey, USA. She is an academic counselor at the ‘Academy of Comparative Philosophy and Religion’ in Belagavi, India. Prior to her academic career, she worked in executive compensation management for a decade in the United States. 

She publishes on spiritual philosophy in the Journal of ACPR (India) and on philosophical counselling in the Journal of APPA (New York). She maintains a multilingual academic blog (Hindi, Marathi, English, and occasionally German) and produces public philosophy lectures, and ‘Philosophy & Music’ programs on YouTube along with Swarras school of Music, including the Kabiriyat and Tukayan projects, which explore the spiritual philosophy of Sant Kabir and Sant Tukaram and the modern relevance of their teachings.