There
was a time when teachers of Philosophy including several
Mathas maintained that true Indian thought is basically Advaita supposed
to be thought of Upanishads. They also sent a silent, yet powerful message that
other Schools of thought are based on Theology, not pure philosophy, modelling
on Western Philosophies.
While
most of such dialogues happened outside India in English, local religious heads
of Vaishnava thought were not aware of its consequences later on young minds,
who were for a large part English educated and trying to move abroad for
various reasons. Gurus ranging from Ramana till Chinmayananda, preached Gita
and Upanishads as pure Advaita Vedanta while others are ‘Sects’ which spread
locally!
Since
we do not know exactly when Shankaracharya’s Advaita trickled across the
subcontinent, it was possible through Christian Missionaries like Maxmuller.
Originally, they made a study of Buddhist thought and Advaita but ignored
Vaishnava schools like that of Ramanuja- Madhvacharya for reasons best known to
them! Hence there continued a wider but not accurate information carried
through English language. This again received a massive support from the likes
of Dr S Radhakrishnan, Prof. M Hiriyanna and a gamut of their students across
India. While Dvaita remained in Karnataka and Ramanuja thought on Tamil Nadu.
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