Tag Archives: vedanta

In God We Trust: The Mother of All Trust Deficits — and the Death and Resurrection of Trust

Is “In God We Trust” a prayer—or a confession?

We print trust on currency, promise it in elections, demand it from banks, courts, doctors, journalists, and algorithms—then watch it thin beneath the winds of betrayal, spin, and institutional failure.

Beginning tomorrow: “In God We Trust: The Mother of All Trust Deficits—and the Death and Resurrection of Trust.”
Nine dialogues between two students of a Vedic university in South India—Ānanda, the restless sceptic, and Madhava, the contemplative Vedāntin—move from Eden’s first broken trust to the modern crisis of credibility, media, democracy, and institutional entropy.

At the centre lies a Sri Vaishnava question: when every earthly refuge trembles, can the soul find its final shelter in mahāviśvāsam—unshakeable trust in the Lord’s grace?

Nine days. Nine dialogues. One question: can Trust rise again?

Narayana! Narayana! Narayana!

My first book published in 2016 — “The Unusual Essays of an Unknown Sri Vaishnava” — is still resonating almost a decade since its launch! I hope it will still be read in 2036!

The ‘Samarpanam’ of “YAJÑEŚA” to Sri “Yajñamurthy” at the Yajñavatika near the precincts of Sri Mattapallinathan Temple

The ‘Samarpanam’ of “YAJÑEŚA” to Sri “Yajñamurthy” at the temple of Sri Mattapallinathan.

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Claude Must Not Make Advaita the Ventriloquist of All Vedānta

Anthropic’s engagement with Indian philosophical traditions is welcome—but it must not mistake one influential Vedāntic school for the entire intellectual inheritance of India.

Sound as the Beginning—and End—of Vedic Metaphysics: A Modern Recapitulation offered by Sundar Sarukkai

The Veda calls itself the breath of the Veda-Puruṣa, creation a continuum of sound—yet the Upaniṣad says, “from which words turn back with the mind.”

Is this a contradiction?

This essay moves from Sundar Sarukkai’s modern restatement to the Gītā, Taittirīya Śikṣā and Ānanda Valli, and the Viṣṇu Sūkta, showing how Advaita reads the end as silent awareness and Viśiṣṭādvaita as eternal praise in Vaikuṇṭha.

மூன்று சொற்கள், ஒரு சரணாகதி

சரணாகதி, பிரபத்தி, நியாசம் — இவை மூன்றும் ஒரே பொருளா, அல்லது ஒரே ஆன்மிக இயக்கத்தின் மூன்று முகங்களா?

திருமலை மலைப்பாதையில் ஒரு பேராசிரியரும் அறியப்படாத ஸ்ரீவைஷ்ணவரும் நடத்தும் உரையாடல், பக்தி, வேதாந்தம் மற்றும் பல மரபுகளில் சரணாகதி எப்படிப் புரிகிறது என்பதை எளிய, விளக்கமான தொனியில் திறக்கிறது.

Three Words, One Surrender:

In Srīvaiṣṇava thought, three words keep appearing together: śaraṇāgati, prapatti and nyāsa. Are they synonyms? Not exactly.

Set on the Tirumala hills during a pilgrimage to the temple of Venkaṭeśvara, this dialogue between an American professor of Indian Religious Studies and an unknown Srīvaiṣṇava pilgrim explores their distinctive shades of meaning.

Śaraṇāgati names the heart’s turn to God—the bhakti inflection point of taking refuge.

Prapatti is that surrender developed as a complete upāya, with doctrine, inner disposition, and often ritual.

Nyāsa is the Vedic ideal of self‑entrustment, crystallised in the Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad’s recurring prapadye mantras.

The dialogue also asks whether the wide presence of śaraṇāgati in Advaita, Dvaita, Śaiva Siddhānta, Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, and modern devotional movements makes it a Srīvaiṣṇava borrowing or possession. Its answer is no: surrender is a shared Vaidika–Vedāntic spiritual grammar, though each tradition gives it a different metaphysical and soteriological accent.

Srīvaiṣṇavism’s distinctive contribution lies in its unusually exact and comprehensive articulation of the principle through prapatti and nyāsa.

Moving through the stories of Vibhīṣaṇa, Draupadī, Arjuna, Bharata and Kākāsura, the conversation shows how “coming to refuge”, “surrendering” and “placing oneself in God’s hands” can be read as different facets of one profound movement of the soul toward the Divine.

Vedanta at the Threshold: From “Vichara” to “Vyakhyana”

by M.K. Sudarshan July 12, 2026: Chennai, India A dialogue between two postgraduate students of Indian Philosophy in a university coffee shop The coffee shop on campus was neither elegant nor noisy, which made it ideal for argument. It had enough hum to protect privacy, enough light to encourage thinking, and enough bitter tea andContinue reading “Vedanta at the Threshold: From “Vichara” to “Vyakhyana””

Vedantic Retrospective Re-reading of Indian Fiction

Not every novelist writes within a Vedantic framework, yet many works of Indian fiction do lend themselves remarkably well to Vedantic rereading. This is especially true when a novel or short story is shaped by inwardness, moral conflict, duty, renunciation, suffering, attachment, or the search for a stable self. In such cases, the Vedantic lensContinue reading “Vedantic Retrospective Re-reading of Indian Fiction”

Is a special mental attitude needed to study the “Sri Rahasya Traya Saram” of Sri Vedanta Desika (1268-1368 CE)?

Swami Sri Vedanta Desika’s monumental treatise on Sri Vaishnava Siddhanthic soteriology, the Srimad Rahasyatraya Sāram is a uniquely layered work that is, at once, (a) a philosophical treatise, (b) a theological manual, and (c) a catechetical‑homiletic guide. A disciple undergoing a program of serious study of this text even under the guidance and tutoring ofContinue reading “Is a special mental attitude needed to study the “Sri Rahasya Traya Saram” of Sri Vedanta Desika (1268-1368 CE)?”