Advaita

Published on 17th September, 2022, in Economic Times. The most popular school of Vedanta is called Advaita. Advaita means non-dual. In English it is often translated as monism. But there is a difference between the structure of the two words. Advaita is refuting the existence of two. Monism is acknowledging the existence of only one, no other. Not two does not mean one. This mistranslation happened as early translations of this work in English happened in the colonial context, when Christian monotheism was seen as the benchmark of religion. There was pressure amongst Hindu reformers to show Upanishad as the Hindu equivalent of the New ..

Who is a Hindu? What they don’t tell you about Advaita Published on 30th August, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Advaita Vedanta is the de facto philosophy followed by Hindutva. The reason for this is not spiritual. It is political. Advaita Vedanta says the whole world is a manifestation of the one and only God (brahman) and all diversity we see is delusion (maya) as the result of ignorance (advidya). This idea works very well when you are trying to unite various caste groups into one vote bank. The idea of Advaita Vedanta being the foundation of Hinduism is relatively new, with origins in writings of ..