Jagadguru Adishankaracharya :- The Reviver of Vedanta.

Communial conflicts are seen very often in India these days. News of religious riots are as frequent as weather forecasts. Actually, this problem has been disturbing our nerves since past couple of centuries. It appears that the New India is not yet modern, liberal and broad enough to either let go all of its communial tensions by adopting pure secularism or else set up a new mould of spirituality which is a common ground of all religions or atleast adress the conflicting ideas of religions and think upon them rationally.

Look, the irony is this. People who don't even know a penny worth of spirituality are roaming around every nook and corner of India with their chest open considering themselves saviours of their religion. With no sincere inquiry about life and this universe, with no scriptural study or any idea about the spiritual quest of a true seeker, they are the most injured creatures when their "religious sentiments" are hurt. They are worthless groups of persons who are a bit too identified with their religious identity that they have their own communities to "protect their religion".

A similar situation had once arose in this pious land of India around 1200 years ago, when religion meant all chaos and all fuss. It is well recorded that a young, bright monk known as Adi Shankara, who hailed from South India had provided a solution for this.

Adi Shankara was the propagator, also widely regarded as the reviver, of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of the Vedic India.

Life and Works of Adi Shankara 

Throughout the course of his early life, Shankara astounded many with his knowledge intelligence. He started writing his own analysis of the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita at a young age. Right from his childhood, he was keen on becoming a monk.

He then went in search of a guru and according to a few ancient scripts, a young Shankara walked at least 2000 kilometers before meeting Govinda Bhagavatpada. Under Govinda Bhagavatpada’s guidance, Shankara studied ‘Gaudapadiya Karika’, ‘Brahmasutra’, Vedas, and Upanishads. To his teacher’s amazement, Shankara was able to master almost all the ancient scripts in a short time. He even started writing commentaries on major religious scripts.

At one ocassion, Swami Vivekananda says about Shankara in this way, "It has been declared that at the age of sixteen he had completed all his writings; the marvellous boy Shankaracharya arose. The writings of this boy of sixteen are the wonders of the modern world, and so was the boy. He wanted to bring back the Indian world to its pristine purity, but think of the amount of task before him."

Once Adi Shankara had a clear understanding of the ancient Hindu scripts, he started traveling across India, propagating ‘Advaita Vedanta’ and ‘Dashanami Sampradaya.’ During the course of his journey, Shankara’s teachings were challenged by many philosophers and thinkers. He was even involved in a number of debates pertaining to Hinduism and its beliefs, but Shankara managed to astound all his doubters with his intelligence and clarity. He then went about propagating his ideas and was soon accepted as a guru by many.

At the age of 32, Adi Shankaracharya retired to the Himalayas and is believed to have entered a cave near Kedarnath. He was never seen again and the cave that he entered is considered as his final resting place.

This is the link to know about all the commentories, literary and poetic works of Adi Shankara :- https://vivekavani.com/works-adi-shankaracharya/

What exactly did Adi Shankara teach?

(What exactly is Vedanta as taught by Shankara?)

Vedanta is one of the world's most ancient religious philosophies and one of its broadest. Based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India, Vedanta affirms the oneness of existence, the divinity of the soul, and the harmony of religions.

Vedanta, literally means the "end of Vedas". Thus, Vedanta is referred to as the footnotes of Vedas. The Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and the Bhagvad Geeta, also called as "Prasthanatrayi", is considered the major texts of Vedanta.

According to Vedanta, God is Satchidananda or infinite existence, infinite consciousness, and infinite bliss. The term for this impersonal, transcendent reality is Brahman, the divine ground of being. Yet Vedanta also maintains that God can be personal as well, assuming human form in every age. Most importantly, God dwells within our own hearts as the divine Self or Atman. The Atman is never born nor will it ever die. Neither stained by our failings nor affected by the fluctuations of the body or mind, the Atman is not subject to our grief or despair or disease or ignorance. Pure, perfect, free from limitations, the Atman, Vedanta declares, is one with Brahman. The greatest temple of God lies within the human heart.

Vedanta asserts that the goal of life is to realize and to manifest our own divinity. This divinity is our real nature, and the realization of it is our birthright. We are moving towards this goal as we grow with knowledge and life experiences. It is inevitable that we will eventually, either in this or in future lives, discover that the greatest truth of our existence is our own divine nature.

Vedanta acknowledges that while the goal before us may be the same, there are any number of ways of attaining that goal. In the words of Vivekananda: “[Vedanta] has nothing to say against anyone—whether you are a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Jew, or a Hindu, whatever mythology you believe, whether you owe allegiance to the prophet of Nazareth, or of Mecca, or of India, or of anywhere else, whether you yourself are a prophet—it has nothing to say. It only preaches the principle which is the background of every religion and of which all the prophets and saints and seers are but illustrations and manifestations.

I will try to make more blogs on Vedanta and some of its best explanations. Let us end our blog by these great words of Adi Shankara.

दिनयामिन्यौ सायं प्रातः

शिशिरवसन्तौ पुनरायातः ।

कालः क्रीडति गच्छत्यायु-

स्तदपि न मुञ्चत्याशावायुः ॥ १२॥ 

Daylight and darkness, dusk and dawn, winter and springtime come and go.

Time plays and life ebbs away.

But the storm of desire never leaves.

“As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment and purity through meditation and attains Reality.”

Thanks,

Daksh Parekh.