Very often presumptuous physicists & scientists who are full of Einstein’s theories etc hungrily ask for date of birth of Aadi Shankara -:((

If only you had understood what Advaitham means you would not have asked this question.

I have wriiten facts & if you doubt I can’t help you there.

Dvaita and Visishtadvaita came after Advaita (probably decades or one century apart or so). So, I am not sure how could Padmapadhar be crucified (attempted) by a Dvaiti in his life time…

Certainly don’t concur with you Atanu Dey. Am not surprised as you sort of defended the late Australian scientist who settled down in Srilanka despite being alleged to be a paedophile. Am reminded of people like khushboo & shobhaa de who have their own fan following.Who are no mean opinion makers either (unfortunately in the Page3 celebs besotted contemporary culture).

It all centres on one’s character & the choices one makes. Despite having seemingly everything Ravanan & Kauravas eventually lost only because they courted adharmam.

As far as Ethics go I don’t like wishy washy stand justified by verbal pyrotecnics & threats of law suits. One always leads a seamless existence. Nothing like wearing a virtuous hat within office & a hanky panky one outside office.

Yes.

Shashi Tharoor just does not understand that freedom of speech is non negotiable. He also does not comprehend , inimical cultures or people can never really have a peaceful co-existence. It unravels sooner than expected.

One more instance of our lamentably die hard tendency to worship false gods & their icons:-

Sometime back someone published a photograph of a crow’s nest built in the crook of an arm of some statue of Indira Gandhi in Kolkata. This spurred the merciless authorities into simply killing all the fledgeling birds & destroying their nest.

This is the country that tirelessly preens how Valmiki’s Ramayana originated ; how King Paari left his very chariot for a jasmine creeper to spread & flourish & so forth.

Nowhere is GOD negated in Upanishads.

A drop of water is the same water as water in an Ocean. BUT , in scope & power a water droplet is not the same as an Awesome Ocean.

But are full of purple quotations & stories from our Epics….how Lord Krishna clutched Draupadi’s footwear to His chest , how Sri Rama conducted Himself , Nalayini did this Damayanti did that…..

Their zeal to prove themselves right by sacrificing even truth is simply overwhelming.

Absolutely.

But you are not quite right when you say ” Ideas did not face organized opposition till monotheistic invaders arrived into India “.

Sri. Aadi Shankara’s Adhvaitham faced & still face violent opposition from dvaitha & visishta-dvaitha schools of thought.

Padmapaadhar one of AShankara’s disciples went to a relative’s house in SriRangam with an advaitic text composed by him. The fanatic dvaiti relative set fire to the room in which the text was kept. Ofcourse wringing his hands , wailing & bemoaning the loss of such a priceless scripture to con Padmapadhar into believing it was an accident not arson by him.

The guileless P offered to write it down , as obviously , it was His composition. The diabolical relative fed him food mixed with toxic herbs inducing loss of memory & insanity.

Eventually P was cured by His Guru Aadi Shankara.

Christianity as is being understood by many is in many ways similar to dvaita & visishta-dvaita. Placing God at some distance high up somewhere & exhorting the gullible to exert & exert for merging in Him:)

Whereas Advaita unflinchingly reiterates the oneness of all beings. Our Upanishads deal with it in marvellously unambiguous words.

However that does not mean we relinquish Ethics & Values.

It is good for ideas to flourish, provided people engage in debate and think things over before acting on them. Religious propaganda by its very nature refuses the right to be questioned or leave any scope for debate.
So should we make a special case here- allow free speech other than religious hatred? Starting out with exceptions is quite a slippery slope.

I completely agree with you, since I also believe in complete and absolute freedom of expression. If we don’t let men speak out their minds, we won’t be able to identify the wolf among sheep (looking at freedom from a different angle )

But, one of my grouse is, if I get to hear some leftist talks, say something about how the west is enslaving the other world again through capital etc, my BP shoots up and I end up getting highly jittery. So, while I let the other person talk, offering him/her complete freedom of expression, I would want to shield myself from whatever they are blabbering by not listening to it!!!

When someone uses phrases like this. (There are many such in the the passages that Tellis wrote at Offstumped and Acorn).

“tiring as it is to answer a bunch of rightwing, raving, ranting, calling-to-burn-at-the stake bunch of fundamentalists which is what most of you are”

I dont think such a man deserves a job as a professor. He simply hates the people who disagree with him. He is just like those intolerant Christian missionaries. I wonder how he got the job in first place.

If that is what they are objecting to, I did not get that impression. And in any case, how does anyone know for sure whether Tellis wrote his opinion piece for the newspaper during office hours or not?

I am being kind of devil’s advocate here, but what I think people are objecting to is the fact that this guy is doing all this on public exchequer’s dime. Speaking as someone whose hard earned money is extorted by government, I am kind of bothered by this.