The prodigal child and an extraordinary scholar, a devotee of Lord Shiva with almost superhuman capabilities was born on 11th May 788 AD, at Kaladi near Kochi, Kerala. The level of wisdom and knowledge he showed at a very early age made him a shining light for humanity.
At the age of two, he could fluently speak and write Sanskrit. At the age of four, he could recite all the Vedas, and at the age of twelve, he took sanyas and left his home. Even at such a young age, he gathered disciples and started walking throughout the country to re-establish the spiritual sciences.
He was responsible for reviving Hinduism in India to a great extent when Buddhism was gaining popularity. He also established four Mathas in the four corners of India at Shingeri, Puri, Dwaraka and Badrinath - for propogation of Sanatan Dharma (which was the first religion of the world).
Unfortunately, by the age of thirty-two, he left his body, but in those twenty years from the age of twelve to thirty-two, he crisscrossed India a few times, north to south, east to west, from Kerala right up to Badrinath and back, travelling everywhere in all directions. The man must have been a really brisk walker to do so much walking in a short span of life, and in between he produced thousands of pages of literature.
As a Disciple
Adi Shankara's guidance came from Acharya Gowdapada. Under his guidance, Shankara went about doing all this incredible work. Gowdapada is very much a part of our tradition also. He was an extraordinary Guru, but his teachings were never written down. He made sure it was not written down. He must have taught thousands of people but he produced fifteen to twenty good people who re-established the spiritual science in the country very quietly, without any noise, without starting a new religion or anything.
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| Birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya |
His Relation with Badrinath Temple
Badrinath has historical significance because the temple here was installed by Adi Shankara. He set up his own people there. Even today, the descendants of the families that he set up - traditionally, the Nambudiris - are the priests in the temple. From Kaladi to Badrinath, the distance is more than three thousand kilometers by walk. Adi Shankara walked such distances.
His Mother's Death
Once, when Adi Shankara was up in the North, he intuitively came to know that his mother was dying. At the age of twelve, his mother had given him permission to take sanyas only after he had promised her that he would be there with her at the moment of her death. So when he realized that his mother was ill, he walked all the way back to Kerala just to be with her beside her deathbed. He spent a few days with his mother and after she had died, he walked back north again. When you travel to the Himalayas, you will wonder how anyone could have walked through this, imagine the effort involved.
A Practical Lesson to his Disciples
Once, while walking briskly with a bunch of his diciples trotting behind him, he came to a village. Outside the village, he saw a few people drinking, most likely the country homebrew liquor, which is arrack or toddy. In those days in India, and even up to about twenty-five , thirty years ago, drink shops were only ever outside the village. They were never brought into the village. Nowadays, alcohol is sold in the village, next to your house and in front of your child's school. Those days, it was always outside the town.
Adi Shankara looked at these few people in their inebriated condition. You know, drunkards always think they are having the best time of their life and everyone else is missing it. So they made some comments at him. Without a word, Adi Shankara walked into the shop, took a pitcher, drank it and walked on.
Behind him, his disciples were trotting and among themselves they started discussing, "When our Guru can drink, why can't we?" Adi Shankara was aware of what was happening. When we came to the next village, there was a blacksmith working there. Adi Shankara went inside, picked up the pot of molten iron, drank it and walked on. Now you are not going to imitate him!
Master of Advaita Vedanta
Shankara’s great standing is derived from his commentaries of the prasthanatrayi (Upanishads, Brahmasutra and Gita), where he explains his understanding of Advaita Vedanta.
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Advaita Vedanta articulates a philosophical position of radical nondualism, a revisionary worldview which it derives from the ancient Upanishadic texts. According to Advaita Vedantins, the Upanishads reveal a fundamental principle of nonduality termed ‘brahman’, which is the reality of all things. Advaitins understand brahman as transcending individuality and empirical plurality. They seek to establish that the essential core of one’s self (atman) is brahman. The fundamental thrust of Advaita Vedanta is that the atman is pure non-intentional consciousness. It is one without a second, nondual, infinite existence, and numerically identical with brahman. This effort entails tying a metaphysics of brahman to a philosophy of consciousness.”
This philosophical tradition, according to the encyclopedia entry, found its most sustained early articulation in the works of Shankara, who “endeavoured to communicate nonduality through systematised theories of metaphysics, language, and epistemology”, and whose “philosophy and methods comprise a teaching tradition intended to culminate in a direct liberating recognition of nonduality that is synonymous with liberation or freedom (moksha)”.
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Advaita Vedanta articulates a philosophical position of radical nondualism, a revisionary worldview which it derives from the ancient Upanishadic texts. According to Advaita Vedantins, the Upanishads reveal a fundamental principle of nonduality termed ‘brahman’, which is the reality of all things. Advaitins understand brahman as transcending individuality and empirical plurality. They seek to establish that the essential core of one’s self (atman) is brahman. The fundamental thrust of Advaita Vedanta is that the atman is pure non-intentional consciousness. It is one without a second, nondual, infinite existence, and numerically identical with brahman. This effort entails tying a metaphysics of brahman to a philosophy of consciousness.”
This philosophical tradition, according to the encyclopedia entry, found its most sustained early articulation in the works of Shankara, who “endeavoured to communicate nonduality through systematised theories of metaphysics, language, and epistemology”, and whose “philosophy and methods comprise a teaching tradition intended to culminate in a direct liberating recognition of nonduality that is synonymous with liberation or freedom (moksha)”.
What Makes Adi Shankara a Great Being?
How do you produce such a Being? In the brief span of his life, he walked the length and breadth of this nation. Where did this energy, this zest and this wisdom come from? One aspect which is both important and symbolic is that Adi Shankara came from a village called Kaladi, which is a small town today. Kaladi literally means “beneath the feet.” In the South, we are at the feet of Bharat Mata, and this has paid off for us in so many ways.
There is a beautiful story from the Mahabharat. When Arjuna and Duryodhana went to seek support from Krishna for the Kurukshetra war, one of them stood at Krishna’s head, the other chose to stand at his feet – that decided everything. That afternoon, when Arjuna stood at Krishna’s feet, he basically won the war. This is the fundamental nature of our nation and culture – because we bow down to everything, we rise. We do not rise by elbowing our way – we rise by bowing down. Bharat means we always learnt how to be at the feet of the Divine. This is not a culture of pumped up pomp, but a culture of natural piety. Whether it is a god, a man, a woman, a child, an animal, a tree, or a rock – we learnt to bow down to everything. Just with this one aspect, we could produce great beings. By being at the feet of the Divine, we learnt, evolved, blossomed, and became shining lights to the rest of the world for a long time. Thousands of years ago, well before Adi Shankara, right from the Adiyogi, many Yogis, mystics, sages, and saints have said this in so many ways.
He propounded the Doctrine of Advaita (Monism) and wrote many commentaries on the Vedic canon (Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita) in Sanskrit.
It is the intellectual clarity with which he expressed himself and the zest and energy with which he spread it across the nation, that make Adi Shankara stand out. One aspect that is very important in today’s world is that all this knowledge, all this wisdom came not by faith or belief, but by realization. Unless the spiritual process is in some way in sync with fundamental human logic and current scientific findings, people will not take it. Future generations will reject anything that does not make logical sense to them, and is not scientifically correct. In this context, Adi Shankara is very significant today.
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| His Statue unveiled by PM Modi (Uttarakhand). |
His Teachings on Maya
There is some misunderstanding about what Adi Shankara said. I think we owe it to him to clear at least one. A lot of people are saying, “What is this nonsense that he said, ‘Everything is maya.’” The way it is being (wrongly) interpreted is – “maya means it doesn’t exist.” Maya does not mean it does not exist. Maya means an illusion, in the sense that you are not seeing it the way it is. Here you are with this seemingly solid body, but with the food that you eat, the water that you drink, and the air that you breathe, the cells of your body are being exchanged on a daily basis. The tissues and organs in your body completely rejuvenate in a matter of a couple of days to a few years, depending on the type of cells. This means after some time, you have a completely new body. But in your experience, it looks like it is the same thing – this is maya. Similarly, the way you perceive existence, the way you know the world through the five senses, is completely off the mark – this is the illusion. It is like a mirage. If you are driving on the highway, sometimes, far away, there seems to be water. When you go there, definitely there is no water. This does not mean there was nothing there. There was some refraction of light that created this illusion. What is one thing seems to be something else. What you think is “me” is actually everything – this is the maya. What you think is “the other” is actually you. What you think is everything is nothing too. That is the maya that Adi Shankara is talking about.
The Creation and Creator Are One
He also said that by knowing the human system, one can know the whole universe. Modern physics is telling you that the entire universe is fundamentally one energy. Similarly, Adi Shankara said that Creation and Creator are one. Today, after a long haul, modern science has come parallel to what Adi Shankara and many sages of the past have stated with utmost clarity.
The Pertinence of Adi Shankara in Today's World
This spiritual wisdom needs to come down from the mountains into the cities, towns, villages, and above all, into the hearts and minds of people. It is time to bring back this culture, this piety and sense of humility that has paid enormous dividend for us – to learn to bow down. This has been our strength, this has been our way, this has been the process and the method of our evolution and realization. This is going to be the greatest treasure – this is going to be the future of the nation. If we do this one thing, the entire world will seek guidance from us. Let us reignite the spirit of Adi Shankara in this country and the rest of the world.
He took Samadhi at the age of 32, at Kedarnath, Uttarakhand in India.
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