Adi Shankara: Encyclopedia - Adi Shankara

Adi Shankara

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 the Lord) (approximately 8th century, 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. He is considered the founder of the Dasanami sannyasin.

Adi Shankara - 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 is 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. In fact some of them are blatantly misleading. For example it is mentioned in Madhaviya Sankaravijaya that Adi Sankara had an encounter with a great tantric Abhinavagupta of Kamarupa. In fact the great scholar Abhinavagupta, who wrote Tantraloka and Tantrasara among his many books, was a contemporary of Abhinava Sankara and was from Kashmir and not Kamarupa.

Adi Shankara - Birth

Shankara's parents were childless for many years, and prayed at the Vadakkumnathan (vRashAcala) temple in Thrissur, Kerala, for the birth 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.

Adi Shankara - Formal education

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.

Adi Shankara - Renunciation

From a young age, Shankara was attracted to asceticism and to the life of a renunciate. However, his mother, Aryamba, was 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 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 or ascetic. At the end of her wits, his mother agreed; Shankara immediately recited the words that made a renunciate of him, entered Sannyasa, and awaited death. But inexplicably, the crocodile released him from its very 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.

Adi Shankara - 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 Ātman 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). It was from Benaras (Kashi) that he started his Vishwa Vijaya Yatra (journey to conquor the world).

Once he was saved by Sri Narasimha from being sacrificed to goddess Kali by a Kapalika. He then composed the Laksmi-Nrsimha stotra. Another famous composition of Sri 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 visited the Sarvajnapitha (lit., the Throne of Omniscience) in Kanchi, where he attained samadhi. A later day famous Abhinava Sankarachaya is known to have visited the Sarvajnapitha in Kashmir before he withdrew to Kedarnath and attained samadhi. 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 at Kanchi when only thirty-two years of age.

Adi Shankara - Shankara's dates

All modern scholars do not agree to the dates in the 8th century, though it has proved controversial to reach agreement on Shankara's precise dates of birth or death. The protagonists of the 8th century CE cite the quoting of Dharmakirti,a Buddhist scholar of the 7th century CE, in the Brahmasutra Bhashya. According to other scholars the Brahmasutra Bhashya was not a work of Adi Sankaracharya because while commenting on a verse in Bhagavad Gita, where there is reference to Brahmasutra, Adi Sankara in his Bhagavad Gita Bhashya refers to a verse of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and not of Brahmasutra. Brahmasutra Bhashya was most probably composed by Abhinava Sankara. Again some other scholars believe that Several authors have contributed to the Brahmasutra Bhashya. 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 used to serve as an anchor for modern academic history of India). Modern Scholars think that Max Muller and Sir William Jones wrongly identified Sandrocottus as Chandragupta Maurya whereas it was Chandragupta of the Gupta dynasty, who was Sandrcottus. Thus Buddha's date gets moved back by more than 1200 years.

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.

Adi Shankara - 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. His philosophy is known as Advaita Vedanta.

Shankara's theology maintains that spiritual ignorance (avidya) is caused by seeing the self (Ātman) 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 Ātman? 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 in his own charismatic manner 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 greatest 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, as both Buddha and Sankara's views were based on the ancient shastras. Buddhas shunyata is misconsrued by many as negation of being. Nagarjuna in Mulamadhyamakakaika clearly states that shunyata of Buddhism is neither nothingness nor no-nothingness. It is like the Nisadiya sutra of the Rig veda telling that the ultimate reality is neither existence nor non-rxistence. Sankara 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.

His beliefs form the basis of the Smarta tradition, or Smartism and influenced Sant Matha lineages such as Advait Matha. ^[1]

Even though he lived for only thirty-two years, his impact on India and on Hinduism cannot be stressed enough, 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, as well as reformist measures, across the land, travelling from as far up as Kashmir from areas in South India. His Hindu revival movement paved the way for the strict theistic movements of Ramanuja and Madhva. The historians like Vincent smith suggested that it was doe to Adi Sankaracharya there was decline of Buddhism in India. But this is not true as it was due to the Muslim invasion (of Bakhtyar) that Nalanda was routed and the library there was completely burnt as well as thousands Buddha viharas were destroyed subsequently. This was the deathknell to buddhism in India.

Adi Shankara - Works

Adi Shankara has authored many works of stotras, and bhashyas, many of these are debated and questioned but below are a list of 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 Vedanta
• The commentary Bhashya on the Brahma Sutra
• The commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
• The commentary on the Taittiriya Upanishad
• The commentary on the Bhagavad Gita
• The Thousand Teachings or Upadesasahasri
• A hymn to Krishna as the Herder of Cows, known as Bhaja Govindam
• Benedictory invocation to Shiva and Shakti, namely Shivanandalahari 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.

Adi Shankara - Mathas monasteries

Shankara is said to have founded four maṭhas (a matha is a monastery or religious order), which are important to this day, to guide the Hindu religion in the future. 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 Trotakacharya respectively; the heads of the mathas trace their authority back to them. Each matha was assigned one Veda. The Jyothir Math near Badrinath in northern India is assigned with Atharva Veda; Sharada Math at Shringeri in southern India with Yajur Veda; Govardhan Math at Jagannath Puri in eastern India with Rig Veda and Kalikā Math at Dwarka in western India with Sama Veda. Each of the abbots of these four mathas also have the title of Jagadguru Shankaracharya — and are regarded as Patriarchs of Hinduism by many Hindus. However, some claim that there is no concrete evidence for the existence of these mathas before the 14th century.

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 mahāsamādhi (i.e. left his body), but there are other, accounts which claim that he attained mahāsamādhi at Kedarnath.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Adi Shankara", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki