📝 New Essay Launch: Beyond Sectarian Labels — Reclaiming the Metaphysical and Historical Truths of South Indian PhilosophyWhat began as a fascinating theological riddle posed to me by the legendary playwright and Sahitya Akademi winner, Sri Indira Parthasarathy (Eepa), evolved into an extensive historical and sociological exploration.
How did Shankara’s Advaitin disciples come to adopt Shiva as a personal deity?
What connects Saiva Siddhanta structurally to Ramanuja’s Visishtadvaita?
And why did the Sri Vaishnavas never experience a breakaway group like the Karnataka Lingayats, only to fracture intensely from within over temple administrative dominance?
In this three-part essay, I revisit the universalist-humanism of Ramanuja—so brilliantly captured in Eepa’s historic 1970s play “Ramanuja”—and contrast it with the institutional realpolitik documented in my book, “A Tale of Two Cities: The Decline and Fall of the ‘ubhaya-Vedantins'”.
It is time to look past the superficial armor of sectarian labels and return to a unified, transcendental vision.🔗 Read the full reflective brief on my website here: