In the next essay of the series of articles on minority-progressive celebrities, Sriram Chellapilla dissects Naseeruddin Shah’s polemics to expose a familiar pattern in India’s “secular” discourse: the distortion of arguments, selective outrage, and the reflexive defense of Mughal icons like Aurangzeb. Through close textual analysis and historical context, the essay shows how misrepresentation, straw-manning, and moral asymmetry function as tools of what the author terms the Minority-Progressive Celebrity (MPC) narrative. At its core, the piece interrogates how Hinduphobia is normalized under the guise of liberalism while minority fundamentalism is minimized or denied.
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The author explains that Yoga is not a technique of suppression but a disciplined process of stilling the mind’s fluctuations - Citta-Vṛtti-Nirodhaḥ. Drawing on Vyāsa’s Bhāṣya, nirodhaḥ is presented as a progressive settling of mental modifications back into their unmanifest source. As the vṛttis dissolve, puruṣa is no longer obscured by reflection in citta and abides in its own svarūpa. Yoga thus culminates not in transformation, but in the revelation of the seer’s ever-present clarity.
Explorations of Quantum Physics and Its Weave into Advaita Vedanta Tenets
In this article, the author Priyavrat Gadhvi argues that what we perceive as solid matter is not fundamental reality, but an effect generated by deeper, unseen quantum fields. At the most basic level, humans, objects, and even space itself are excitations within an all-pervasive field rather than independent substances. This understanding blurs the boundaries between physics, metaphysics, and philosophy, revealing reality as relational and emergent. Gadhvi contends that modern quantum field theory echoes Advaita Vedanta’s insight - that multiplicity is apparent, while the underlying essence of existence is singular and indivisible.
Kadusarkara Yogam – The Ancient Technique of Vigraha Making
This article by Rema Raghavan explains the ancient tradition of vigraha-making as prescribed in the Shilpa Shastra, where every step, from skeleton to skin, is crafted with precision, sacred materials, and ritual discipline. The author describes how Kadusarkara Yogam, a uniquely Kerala method, builds the deity stage by stage inside the Garbhagriha itself. Drawing parallels with the human body, the process develops skeletal, muscular, and nāḍi systems before the final form emerges. This painstaking art, the author notes, demands exceptional shilpis and over a hundred pure ingredients, resulting in living embodiments of divinity rather than mere idols.
Tyranny of Asceticism: Case of the Charvaka
Charvaka has long been dismissed as a philosophy of excess, yet this caricature stems from an ascetic worldview that treats pleasure as inherently suspect. When perception alone is accepted as truth, morality need not depend on divine command but on an intrinsic human compass. The author contends that the Charvaka tradition reminds us that seeking material pleasure is not a fall from grace, but a legitimate way of living without forfeiting moral sense.