[Advaita-l] Understanding Srimad Bhagavad Gita from the perspectives of Visishtadvaita and Advaita - an exposition

[Vikram Jagannathan]

Namaskaram all,

Jai Shree Ram

I would like to share a brief article I wrote about the method of
understanding Srimad Bhagavad Gita from the perspectives of Visishtadvaita
and Advaita. The intent is to demonstrate that Advaita does not stand in
conflict with Visishtadvaita teachings and these two spiritual paths are
available to seekers purely based on their temperaments.

Kindle requesting the learned members to review and please share your
feedback on the directions and accuracy of the thought process:
https://archive.org/details/sbg-visishtadvaita-and-advaita/

To provide more context, I am born a SriVaishnava and belong to
Visishtadvaita sampradhayam. However philosophically I am aligned with
Advaita.  With a deeper understanding of both the perspectives, I believe
the teachings of the great acharyas are actually quite aligned (except for
the criticisms which are figuratively apples versus oranges). In a local
setting, we just started an initiative to discuss Srimad Bhagavad Gita
based on both perspectives - Swami Ramanujacharya's bhashya and Swami
Sankaracharya's bhashya. It is my strong conviction that without a clear
understanding of the fundamentals of both sampradayam, a comparative or
relative study will end up creating more confusion than illumining clear
directions. This is because of root-level differences regarding the nature
of bondage, ignorance, knowledge and liberation. When explained within the
right context, there is definite self-consistency and cohesiveness of both
philosophies. The attempt of this article is also to provide these
minimalistic fundamentals that will enable a clearer understanding of SBG
in different perspectives.

Based on your review and feedback I will share this with our group as an
introduction.

Thank you!

On a quick side note: a couple of weeks back I had shared another brief
write up on my reflections on Avidya (
https://archive.org/details/reflections-on-avidya). Earnestly soliciting
critical review and feedback on my understanding of this too.

with humble prostrations,
Vikram