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Revision as of 23:28, 7 November 2005 by Mel Etitis (talk | contribs) (rv)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Adi Shankara (Śaṅkara, Shri Shankaracharya, Adhi Shankaracharya, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya; 'the first Shankara' in his lineage), reverentially called Bhagavatpada Acharya (the teacher at the feet of Lord) (very approximately 788–820 C.E., but see below) was the most famous advaita philosopher, who had a profound influence on the growth of Hinduism through his non-dualistic philosophy. He advocated the greatness and importance of the important Hindu scriptures, the Veda (most particularly on the Upanishads), spoke to a spirituality founded on reason and without dogma or ritualism, and gave new life to Hinduism at a time when Buddhism and Jainism were gaining popularity.
Life
Shankara was born in Kalady, a small village in Kerala, India, to a Namboothiri (brahmin) couple, Shivaguru and Aryamba. The traditional source for accounts of his life are the Shankara Vijayams, which are essentially hagiographies. The most important among them are the MadhavIya Shankaravijaya, the AnandagirIya Shankaravijaya, cidvilAsIya Shankaravijaya, and keraliya Shankaravijaya. What follows is the standard story of Shankara's life; some of it is clearly mythical, but a substantial portion is historical, according to most scholars.
Shankara's parents were childless for many years, and prayed at the Vadakkumnathan (vRashAcala) temple in Thrissur, Kerala, for the gift of a child. Legend has it that Shiva appeared to both husband and wife in their dreams, and offered them a choice: a mediocre son who would live a long life, or an extraordinary son who would not live long. Both Shivaguru and Aryamba chose the latter. The son was named Shankara, in honour of Shiva.
Shivaguru died while Shankara was very young. The child showed remarkable scholarship, and is said to have mastered the four Vedas by the age of eight. Following the common practice of that era, Shankara lived and studied at the home of his teacher. It was customary for students and men of learning to receive bhiksha or alms from the laity; on one occasion, while accepting bhiksha, Shankara came upon a woman who had nothing to eat in her house except a single dried amlaka fruit. Rather than consume this last bit of food herself, the pious lady gave away the fruit to Sankara as bhiksha. Moved by her piety, Shankara composed the Kanakadhara Stotram on the spot. Legend has it that on completion of the stotram, golden amlaka fruits were showered upon the woman by the goddess Lakshmi.
From a young age, Shankara was attracted to asceticism and to the life of a renunciate. His mother Aryamba was, however, entirely against his becoming a sannyasi, and consistently refused him her formal permission, which was required before he could take sannyasam. Once when Shankara was bathing in the river, a crocodile gripped him by the leg and began rapidly to drag him into the water. Only his mother was nearby, and it proved impossible for her to get him away from the grip of the crocodile. Shankara then told his mother that he was on the verge of death; if she would give him her formal permission verbally, he would at this moment renounce the world and die a sannyasi. At her wits end, his mother agreed; Shankara immediately recited the words that made a renunciate of him, entered sannyasa, and awaited death. But the crocodile released him from its jaws and swam away. Shankara emerged unscathed from the river, now a sannyasi.
Seeing in this incident the hand of god, Aryamba put no further obstacles in the path of her son. Shankara then left Kerala and travelled thoroughout India. When he reached the banks of the river Narmada, he met Govinda Bhagavatpada, the disciple of the advaitin Gaudapada. Shankara was initiated as his disciple.
Travels
Shankara travelled extensively, while writing commentaries on the Upanishads, Vishnu sahasranama, Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita. He engaged in a series of debates with Buddhist scholars, and with scholars of the Purva Mimamsa school, which helped in cementing his spiritual ascendancy. One of the most famous of these debates was with the famed ritualist Mandana Mishra.
His most famous encounter was however with an untouchable. On his way to the Vishwanath temple in Kashi, he came upon an untouchable and his dog. When asked to move aside by Shankara's disciples, the untouchable asked: "Do you wish that I move my soul, the atman and ever lasting, or this body made of clay?" Seeing the untouchable as none other than the Lord Shiva, Shankara prostrated himself before Ishwara, composing five shlokas (Manisha Panchakam).
Once he was saved by Narasimha from being sacrificed to goddess Kali by a Kapalika. He then composed the Lakshmi–Narasimha stotra. Another famous composition of Adi Shankara is his Bhaja Govindam, in praise of Vishnu.
It is a traditional belief that Adi Sankara installed at Srirangam a yantra called janakarshana to attract pilgrims to this sacred temple, just as at Tirupati he installed the dhanakarshana yantra. Indeed, Srirangam is the most visited Hindu temple in the world, and Tirupati is the richest.
Shankara is believed to have attained the Sarvajnapitha in Kashmir. After a while, he withdrew to Kedarnath and attained samadhi at the age of thirty-two. The Kamakshi Amman temple at Kanchipuram also has a vrindavanam where he is believed to have attained siddhi. (A variant tradition expounded by keralIya Shankaravijaya places his place of death as Vadakkumnathan (vRashAcala) temple in Thrissur, Kerala.)
He died in 820 at Kedarnata in the Himalayas when only thirty-two years of age.
Shankara's dates
Modern scholarship is agreed on dates in the 8th century, though it has proved impossible to reach agreement on Shankara's precise dates of birth or death. Some religious institutions dedicated to Shankara, such as Shankara mathams, however, ascribe much earlier dates to him. If these dates were true, they would require moving back the date of Buddha (which serves as an anchor for modern academic history of India)..
Of the major Shankara Mathams active today, the Kanchi, Dwaraka, and Puri ascribe the dates 509–477 BCE to Shankara. The Sringeri Peetham, on the other hand, accepts the 788–820 CE dates. (See also below.)
According to Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati's biography of Shankara, published in his book Sannyasa Darshan, Shankara was born in Kalady, Kerala, in 686, and attained mahasamadhi at Kedarnath, Uttaranchal, in 718.
- See below for external web sites with evidence and arguments on this subject.
Philosophy and religious thought
At the time of Shankara's life, Hinduism had lost some of its appeal because of the influence of Buddhism and Jainism. Shankara stressed the importance of the Vedas, and his work helped Hinduism regain strength and popularity. Although he did not live long, he had travelled on foot to various parts of India to restore the study of the Vedas.
Shankara's theology maintains that spiritual ignorance (avidya) is caused by seeing the self (atman) where self is not. Discrimination needs to be developed in order to distinguish true from false and knowledge (jnana) from ignorance (avidya). Shankara proposed that, while the phenomenal universe, our consciousness and bodily being are certainly experienced, they are not true reality, but are rather maya. He considered that the ultimate truth was Brahman, the single divine foundation, which is beyond time, space, and causation. Brahman is immanent and transcendent, but not merely a pantheistic concept. Indeed, while Brahman is the efficient and material cause for the cosmos, Brahman itself is not limited by self-projection, and transcends all binary opposites or dualities, especially such individuated aspects as form and being.
We must pierce through a hazy lens to understand our true being and nature, which is not change and mortality, but unmitigated bliss for eternity. If we are to understand the true motive behind our actions and thoughts, we must become aware of the fundamental unity of being. How, he asks, can a limited mind comprehend the limitless atman? It cannot, he argues, and therefore we must transcend even the mind and become one with Soul-consciousness.
Shankara denounced caste and meaningless ritual as foolish, and exhorted the true devotee to meditate on god's love and to apprehend truth. His treatises on the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Vedanta Sutras are testaments to a keen and intuitive mind that did not want to admit dogma but advocated reason. His main lesson was that reason and abstract philosophising alone would not lead to moksha (liberation). It was only through selflessness and love governed by viveka (discrimination) that a devotee would realise his inner self. Charges that his philosophical views were influenced by Buddhism are unfounded, since Shankara vehemently opposed negation of being (shunyata), and believed that the unmanifest Brahman manifested itself as Ishwara, the loving, perfect being on high who is seen by many as being Vishnu or Shiva or whatever their hearts dictate. Shankara is said to have travelled throughout India, from the south to Kashmir, preaching to the local populaces and debating philosophy (apparently successfully, though no documentation exists) with other Hindu and Buddhist scholars and monks along the way.
Shankara's beliefs form the basis of the Smarta tradition, or Smartism.
Even though he lived for only thirty-two years, his impact on India and on Hinduism was extremely significant, as he countered the increasing sacerdotalism (the belief that priests can mediate between humans and god) of the masses, and reintroduced a purer form of Vedic thought. He presented a face of Hinduism that could reasonably contend with Buddhist ideas and spread it, together with reformist measures, across the land, travelling from as far up as Kashmir from areas in the South of India. His Hindu revival movement paved the way for the strict theistic movements of Ramanuja and Madhva, and helped lead to the decline of Buddhism in much of India.
Works
Books certainly written by Adi Shankara:
- The "Crest-Jewel of Discrimination" or Viveka Chudamani, one of his most famous works, which summarises his ideas of non-dual (advaita) Vedanta.
- The commentary Bhasya on the Brahma Sutra.
- The commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
- The commentary on the Taittiriya Upanishad.
- The Thousand Teachings, or Upadesasahasri.
- A hymn to Krishna as the Herder of Cows, known as Bhaja Govindam.
- Benedictory invocation to Siva and Sakti, namely Sivanandalahari and Saundaryalahari respectively.
- Commentary on Vishnu Sahasranama.
Books he probably wrote are:
- The commentary on Gaudapada's Karika to the Mandukya Upanishad.
- The commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, though there is no scholarly agreement on this.
Mathas (monasteries)
Shankara is said to have founded four mathas (a matha is a monastery or religious order), which are important to this day. These are at Sringeri in Karnataka, in the south, Dwaraka in Gujarat in the west, Puri in Orissa in the east, and Jyotirmath (Joshimath) in Uttaranchal in the north. He put in charge of these mathas his four main disciples: Sureshwaracharya, Hastamalaka, Padmapada, and Trotakaharya respectively; the heads of the mathas trace their authority back to them. However, there is no concrete evidence for the existence of these mathas before the 14th century, so the claim that Adi Shankara founded them is dubious at best.
The matha at Kanchipuram or Kanchi in Tamil Nadu claims that it was also founded by Shankara. According to this matha, it was where he settled in his last days and attained mahaasamaadhi (i.e., left his body), but there are other, equally well-founded accounts which claim that he attained mahaasamadhi at Kedarnath.
External links
- Advaita Vedanta library
- Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham
- The story of Adi ShankaraBiography of Adi Shankara
- Some of Shankara's works
- Website of the Shringeri Sharada Peetham
- Shankaracharya on OM
- Original Shankaracarya (PDF)
- "Life of Shankaracharya — The Adventures of a Poet Philosopher" — by Nitin Kumar
- Adi Śańkara — short introduction to his life & philosophy (by Peter J. King)
- biography of Shankara by Swami Shivananda
- Concerning Adi Shankara's dates:
