In a landmark religious ceremony held on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, Rig Vedic scholar Duddu Satya Venkata Surya Subramanya Ganesha Sharma Dravid from Annavaram, Andhra Pradesh, was formally anointed as the 71st Shankaracharya of the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham on 30 April 2025. Upon initiation into sanyasa, he was conferred the monastic title Satya Chandrashekarendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya.
The ceremony was held in Kanchipuram at the Sri Kamakshi Amman Temple and associated shrines of the Kanchi Mutt, attended by spiritual leaders, scholars, and devotees from across the country. The event coincided with the 2534th birth anniversary celebrations of Adi Shankaracharya, the revered philosopher-saint credited with establishing the Peetham in 482 BCE.
However, Dravidianists and DMK allies could not keep their mouth shut on this momentous occasion and had to just run their mouths. Some uninformed Dravidianists questioned why a junior pontiff was anointed when the senior seer was very much alive – they seemed to follow Vatican traditions to sound so unaware of their Hindu leaders and the rituals involved.
Among those who derogated the Shankaracharya were DMK Ally, Communist leader Arunan. In a post on his X handle, he wrote, “Advaitis, who say that the world is illusion, worship a human being like a god!”
உலகே மாயம் எனும் அத்வைதிகள் ஒரு மனிதருக்கு கடவுள் போல தீபாராதனை செய்கிறார்கள்! pic.twitter.com/tVMg9ndR0I
— arunan (@Arunan22) April 30, 2025
People like Arunan do not understand Hinduism, its rituals, or the concept of Advaita.
A guru is considered God to all Hindus, we even have the saying – Mata Pita Guru Deivam – where the Guru comes before God Himself.
Additionally, if one were to look from an Advaitic perspective, Arunan has hit a self-goal. In Advaita, the philosophy believes in non-duality and the oneness of reality – that there is God within everyone, every being on this planet. Going by this, the junior seer is only worshipping the God within His Guru and His Guru as God Himself – perfectly adhering to Advaita philosophy.
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