Adi Shankara – also known as (Adi) Shankaracharya or Shankara Bhagavatpada. Shankara in Sanskrit, bestower of happiness – was an Indian saint and philosopher from Kaladi (the ancient Tamil kingdom of the Cheras) present day Ernakulam district, Kerala, India. (Life time approximately 788–820 CE) His father died while Shankara was very young. Shankaras initiation into student-life, had to be delayed due to the death of his father, and was then performed by his mother. As a child, Shankara showed remarkable scholarship, mastering the four Vedas by the age of eight (Vedas -large body of texts.Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest Sanskrit literature,dated roughly between 1500–1000 BCE, the Sanskrit word véda knowledge, wisdom is derived from the root vid- to know) At the age of 8, Shankara was inclined towards sannyasa (is traditionally taken by men or women over fifty or by young Brahmacharis who wish to renounce worldly and materialistic pursuits and dedicate their lives to spiritual pursuits. People in this stage of life develop vairāgya, or a state of dispassion and detachment from material life, renouncing worldly thoughts and desires in order to spend the remainder of their lives in spiritual contemplation. A member of the sannyasa order is known as a sannyasin (male or female) or sannyasini (female); however, the term sannyasini isnt quite right, since one renounces even the gender by taking sannyasa). But it was only after much persuasion that his mother finally gave her consent. According to legend, While bathing in the river Poorna one day, a crocodile caught hold of his leg and appeared to be about to devour him. Shankara appealed to his mother, who had arrived at Poorna, asking for permission to become a sanyasi at least in these last moments of his life. His mother finally gave consent, only to have the crocodile let go of young Shankara. A crocodile had never been found in Poorna ever since. Assuring his mother that he would be at her bedside at her last moment,he walked on. He would cover long distances on foot, ask for Biksha (alms) and accept the food, take rest, and walk on. Sankara finally reached Omkarnath by the river Narmada. An old monk told Sankara, Child, The holy Yogi Govinda Bagavatpada lives in that cave. He has been in trance for a long time. We have been waiting here. Immediately, Sankara prostrated before the caves. He was waiting for instructions to enter the caves. With tears welling up from within and flowing down his tender cheeks, he stood with folded hands and started praying. All of a sudden, he heard a voice, loud and clear, from inside the cave, “Who is there?” Sankara’s heart was flooded with an inexpressible sublime bliss driven by a powerful urge of devotional emotion. He started answering: “The person who has come here is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air, nor ether, nor a sense-organ, nor the aggregate of all these (meaning, ‘I am not a human being’) because all these are transient, variable by nature. (This answer by Shankara became popularly known Nirvana Shatakam. Shankara also gave out these very verses to His disciples before leaving this world, when they asked Him to instruct them on the ideas to be contemplated and meditated upon). Govinda Bhagavatapada was impressed and took Shankara as his disciple. In a short span of two years, he mastered various philosophical systems. Once some pupils were arguing about the number of seeds inside a melon. Young Sankara said that the number of seeds inside that melon would correspond to the number of gods who created the universe. When the children cut open the melon, they found only one seed ! The guru instructed Shankara to propagate the Advaita philosophy. Advaita (non-dualism) holds that in the ultimate analysis, all that exists is only the which is limitless. The vast amount of multiplicity seen in the world of human beings, the diverse kinds of individuals who identify themselves with different names, families, castes and races, indeed the entire universe, from the largest stars to the smallest atom - all this is indeed nothing but one undivided entity. It is only ignorance of this astonishingly simple, yet complex truth that leads to misery. The individual is also ultimately not different from the ultimate self, and realization of this important doctrine is liberation. Such a realization is not just something learnt from a text-book, but this is to be learned from an accomplished Guru who is himself liberated, reflected upon by the student and finally experienced personally in the grandly eloquent silence that accepts all as equal and yet denies all individual characterization. The young genius went to Varanasi, the ancient seat of Vedic religion and culture, and started spreading the advaitic view of Unity in diversity. When Shankara travelled to Kashi, he met a young man named Sanandana, hailing from Chola territory in South India, became his first disciple. According to legend, while on his way to the Vishwanath Temple, an untouchable accompanied by four dogs came in the way of Sankara. When asked to move aside by Shankaras disciples, the untouchable replied: Do you wish that I move my ever lasting Ātman (the Self), or this body made of flesh? Realizing the grave error Shankara prostrated himself before him. Then he wrote his famous commentariesand philosophical treatises. He held disputations with the learned leaders of various schools of thought, and, by uncovering false assumptions and questioning assumed certainties, he established the supremacy of his system of thought. From Varanasi, the he journeyed on to Badrinath in the Himalayas with his disciples, spreading the message of his synthetic philosophy. He visited many holy places such as Prayag, Hardwar, Hrishikesh, Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Nandaprayag, Kamarupa and Gomukhi, worshipped the Deities on the way, and thus demonstrated that a knower of Nirguna Brahman [Attributeless Absolute] is not devoid of devotion to Saguna Brahman [Absolute with Attributes]. Then he wandered about from place to place engaging himself in discussions with leaders of diverse creeds and sects, and, by his superb dialectic skill, he went on deflating false dogmas and puncturing erroneous presumptions. Tradition has it that it was during these peregrinations that Sankara met Mandana Misra, the greatest champion of the Mimamsa system which upholds Vedic ritualism as against the way of Self-knowledge and the monastic ideal. Sankara engaged Mandana in a disputation and, on defeat, Mandana became a disciple of Sankara with the name Suresvaracharya. Sankara travelled all over the length and breadth of the vast sub-continent four times, established four principal, still existing, monasteries at the four cardinal points of India, 1-the Sringeri Math on the Sringeri hills in the South, 2-the Sarada Math at Dwaraka in the West, 3-the Jyotirmath at Badarikashrama in the North, and 4-the Govardhana Math at Puri in the East, and appointed his four chief disciples as pontiffs of these Maths. He also assigned to each Math one Veda. Thus Rig-Veda went to Govardhana Math, Yajur-Veda to Sringeri Math, Sama-Veda to Sarada Math and Atharva-Veda to Jyotir Math. Many obnoxious cults had vitiated the Indian society then, and temples were in the hands of a coterie of corrupted priests. Sankara, with his authoritative knowledge in variuos ancient texts convinced authorities and reformed these corrupt practices by transforming them into means to Self-realisation. He reformed and reinstituted the worship of the six Deities [Shanmata]: Ganesha, Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu, Surya (Sun) and Skanda and demonstrated that ideas of image worship too had a place in the Vedanta philosophy. This is based on the belief in the essential oneness of all deities, and their conceptualization of the myriad deities of India as various manifestations of the one divine power. His deep affection for his mother triumphed over the rules governing the Order of Sannyasins [Monks], and, on her passing away, he performed the funeral rites of his mother in the face of stiff opposition from his relatives. He passed away in Kedarnath on the Himalayas, at the age of thirty-two, according to tradition. It was Sankaras genius that organised the great body of wandering monks in India into ten well-knit orders —the Dashanami Sampradaya (named Saraswati, Bharati, Giri, Puri etc.)— and assigned them to the four mathas he founded. Shankaras Quotes: -There are three things which are rare indeed and are attained by grace, namely, a human birth, desire for liberation and the protecting care of a perfected sage. Having by some means obtained a human birth if a person does not try for self-realisation, verily commits suicide, for he kills himself by clinging to things that are unreal. -Among things conducive to liberation, devotion alone holds the supreme place. The seeking after ones real nature is designated as devotion. -The dream is unreal in waking, whereas the waking is absent in dream. Both, however, are non-existent in deep sleep which again is not experienced in either. Thus all the three states are unreal, but their witness is eternal, and is Consciousness itself, becoming one with this conciousness is liberation.(this is whats been pointed out by Ramana and Mooji in their own way) -Sorrow and delusion are for one who does not know the cause of desire and action. -The wise man should, at all times, meditate attentively upon his own Self. -The two sources of misery are the sense of I-ness in the body and the sense of mine-ness arising from there. -Through the knowledge of the inner Self, ignorance, which is the cause of transmigration and of desire and action, is removed without residue. -To get liberated is to discard the ideas of me and mine in all respects and to get convinced in the realisation of the Self. -One who in dream, sees things good and bad, high and low, favourable and fearful, thinks that they are actually real, and never for a moment thinks that they are unreal while dreaming. Even so is this world till the dawn of Self-Knowledge. -One may have bathed in the holy Ganges or even in the Ganga Sagar (its source); he may have performed many charities and observed many vows; yet unless one has attained self realisation, he will not gain liberation even after a hundred lives. -Seeking the Self everywhere, be amiable and equal-minded towards all, treating all alike. -Give up identification with this mass of flesh.It is owing to peoples worldly desires, their desires for scriptures, and their desires concerning their bodies that they do not achieve realisation. -Only he who is free from the terrible hankering after the senses is fit for liberation, and no-one else, not even if he is an expert in all written scriptures. -Liberation is achieved not by observances or by analysis, nor by deeds or learning, but only by the realisation of self. -As the mind becomes more and more inward-turned, it becomes gradually freed from external desires, and when all such desires are fully eliminated self-realisation is completely freed from obstruction.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 06:33:12 +0000
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