@KeshavSrinivasan in South India, those who worship Grama Devatas (Forms of Devi and Vishnu) are more than any proper sects. You can add it to your answer.
@TheDestroyer Well, those people can select "other" or "I don't identify with a particular sect". By the way, can you do me a favor? Can you delete my "I'm a Sri Vaishnava" answer and repost it in your name? That way I'll be able to upvote it. Because you can't upvote your own post.
@TheDestroyer Yeah, I left out a lot of sects, because they wouldn't have very many adherents on the site. In any case if there are any they can always select other and then specify in the comments.
@TheDestroyer I left out Sauras, Shaktas, Ganapatyas, Ramanandis, Swaminarayan people, Nimbarka people, Vaikhanasas, Arya Samaj, etc.
@KeshavSrinivasan No. There are many people who pray to Grama Devats in south. They all come to Shakta sect or at least have form of Devi as Kula Devata.
@KeshavSrinivasan In anycase, i suggest you to add Shakta. There are three users on this site who are Shaktas. Me by birth, Rakesh, Rickross (though he is Vaishnava by birth).
@TheDestroyer Haha no, for that I would want to do research on formal demographic studies. The purpose of this question is basically to get a database of what users belong to what sects, so I know who I can ask if I have a question about a particular sect.
I often post questions about obscure sects of Hinduism, and I'm unsure of whether we have any members of those sects on the site. So I thought I'd it would be helpful to myself and others to create a poll to identify what sects of Hinduism are represented in our community.
You can participate...
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There are several methods of transliteration from Devanāgarī to the Roman script (a process known as romanization) which share similarities, although no single system of transliteration has emerged as the standard.
== IAST ==
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a subset of the ISO 15919 standard, used for the transliteration of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Pāḷi into Roman script with diacritics. IAST is a widely used standard. It uses diacritics to differentiate between retroflex and dental consonants (e.g. making dental द=d and retroflex ड=ḍ, which is more readable...
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@Tezz @TheDestroyer Have you read Sri M's second book? It got delivered to me yesterday and I completed the whole book the same day! Quite a lot of fascinating stuff in there!
@TheDestroyer @Tezz Yes he mentioned about his past lives, he mentioned a lot about Mahavatar Babaji as well, in fact he mentioned his meeting with lots of great personalities including Lord Krishna in one of his past births. He was born in Mahabharata era and participated in the war.
@TheDestroyer Sri Krishna said to Sri M that he will be born in Jaisalmer in the family of Yadu lineage and there he(Krishna) will send a great Siddha, that siddha was Mahavatar Babaji
@TheDestroyer I think yes, in 1st book, voice of Babaji was coming from Shiva and now Krishna says Babaji is his manifestation so I also think the same, Shiva = Krishna
@TheDestroyer No but he did mention about Krishna playing flute on full moon night and then his meeting with him where Sri Krishna told him about his future births, he met Krishna once more in Mahabharatara war
Krishna said his austerities of several past births were the reason that he got opportunity to meet him
@TheDestroyer Krishna asked him to participate on Pandavas side and told that he will die in war, also he was born a rishiputri in that birth so Krishna told him to disguise as a soldier.
@TheDestroyer @Pandya It's nice and interesting... we commented using the phrases like missiles, telescopes, Dharma themselves fight etc ... etc... haha... while watching...
@Pandya When are you watching... ?
@ChinmaySarupria Oh... it's interesting... do you have soft copy or hard copy.... if its pdf can you send it to me....
@Pandya wow it's nice site...
@KeshavSrinivasan omg... I downloaded that pdf of that question... I don't understand what he exactly is trying to say in other points also... It's like horrible points... haha😀😀
@Pandya Haha no, it was inspired by someone telling me that a Madhwa had just joined the site. So then I said that the site now has four Madhwas on it (Bhargav Rao, Aditya S, the new guy, and one other person whose name I forget), and I wanted to know all the sects of Hinduism that are represented on the site.
@Pandya Yeah, Brahma Sampradayam includes both Madhwas and Gaudiya Vaishnavas.
@Pandya The reason that Gaudiyaa Vaishnavas consider themselves part of the Brahma Sampradayam is that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's guru Ishwara Puri was a follower of Madhvacharya.
@Pandya By the way, Ishwara Puri was the shishya of Madhavendra Puri, who was the one who discovered the Srinathji statue in Govardhana Giri.
@Pandya But ironically it is Rudra Sampradayam people, i.e. Vallabhacharya's Pushtimarga sect, who mainly worship Srinathji, not Brahma Sampradayam people.
@RakeshJoshi It's your initiation anniversary? Congratulations! Who were you initiated by and what Parampara/Sampradayam does that person belong to?
Lalla's Shishyavriddhida Tantra is a Hindu astronomical work dating to the 8th century. In this excerpt from the Shishyavriddhida Tantra, Lalla describes the geography of Bharatavarsha, i.e. the Indian subcontinent:
There are (nine) parts of (the country of Bharata), viz., Aindra, Kaseru, Ta...
@Tezz By the way, it's interesting that one of the theories he refutes is that night is caused by Mount Meru blocking the Sun. I've never come across the claim in Hindu scripture, so I may post a question on that.
@Pandya Yeah, at least Vallabhacharya's Pushtimarga sect is the only surviving sect of Hinduism that traces its origins to Rudra Sampradayam. Although some people say that Vallabhacharya does not come from Vishnuswami and the Rudra Sampradayam at all, as I discuss here:
As I discuss in my question here, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kum...
@Pandya By the way, in case you don't know, there are four Vaishnava Sampradayams: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam. That's because Vishnu had four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumaras.
@Pandya The Sri Sampradayam contains the Sri Vaishnava sect, the Ramanandi sect, and the Swaminarayan sect.
@Pandya The Brahma Sampradayam contains the Madhwas and Gaudiya Vaishnavas.
@Pandya The Rudra Sampradayam presently contains only the Pushtimarga sect, although at one point it contained Vishnuswami's sect which may or may not be completely different from the Pushtimarga sect.
@Pandya And the Kumara Sampradayam contains Nimbarkacharya's sect.
@Pandya I think Nimbarkacharya's sect is very small. I know they have Mathams and international organizations and all that just like the other sects, but I don't think I've ever met a single follower of Nimbarkacharya.
@KeshavSrinivasan To be specific Ramanandis and SwamiNaryana people associate themselves with Sri Sampradayam on just their speculations, Sri Sampradya denies their presence as part of Sri Sampradaya.
@KeshavSrinivasan Also We can find out the Philosophy of Vishnuswami by looking into his philosophical works like bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-01-01.html BG commentary
@SreeCharan Dude! your DP is awesome where do you get soo many good pics?!
@Yogi There are no surviving works of Vishnuswami. The Rudra Sampradayam commentary in that web page is by Sridhara Swami, who was a follower of Vallabhacharya.
@Yogi Because Ramananda founded his own sect of Hinduism. Ramanandis believe Ramananda was originally a shishya of a Sri Vaishnava Acharya and then he founded his own sect. It's just like Gaudiya Vaishnavas consider themselves part of the Brahma Sampradayam, because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was originally a shishya of Ishwara Puri who was a follower of Madhvacharya.
@KeshavSrinivasan Oh yeah! It Showed VishnuSwami's photograph so I assumed that it is his own commentary.
@KeshavSrinivasan It doesn't matter if they don't follow sect rules they are indisputably outside the parampara, because they have described their own "Rules"
@Yogi Well, the question of whether you belong to a given Guru Parampara and the question of whether you belong to a given sect of Hinduism are separate questions. Gaudiya Vaishnavas are still in the Parampara of Madhvacharya even though their disagree with Madhvacharya.
@KeshavSrinivasan Do you know about any Sri Vaishnava Matha / Parampara(Swayam acharya /Jeeyars)Supporting the Ramanandis as part of Parampara? I don't think I know any one matha.
As I discuss in this question, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four gods: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And they in turn started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Samp...