Revision as of 17:02, 6 May 2022

Life and times

An overview

Amrith Lal, Nov 6, 2021: The Indian Express

The Adi Shankara story is a remarkable saga of travel and adventure, philosophical inquiry, conflicts in faith, exegesis, establishment of lineage, organisation and mobilisation, etc.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 12-foot statue of Adi Shankaracharya at Kedarnath, where the acharya is believed to have attained samadhi at the age of 32 in the ninth century. Calling Shankara a reincarnation of Lord Shiva, the Prime Minister compared the renovation at Kedarnath with the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the beautification of Kashi. “Today our culture, our tradition, and religious centres are seen with the same sense of pride as they should have been seen,” he said.

As in Ayodhya and Kashi, the Shankaracharya project too is about privileging select beliefs and traditions over the multiple narratives and histories about the acharya. The Adi Shankara story is a remarkable saga of travel and adventure, philosophical inquiry, conflicts in faith, exegesis, establishment of lineage, organisation and mobilisation, etc.

Over centuries, this story has been embellished by myth and legend — from the hagiographies of the medieval age, especially during the ascent of the Vijayanagara kingdom, to the cinema versions of the 20th century, it has been told and retold so often that it is difficult today to sift fact from fiction.

Shankara of legend

The story recounted today has been reconstructed from multiple Shankaravijayas (Conquests of Shankara) written over the centuries. In his biography of the acharya (Shree Shankaracharyar, 1994), Sanskrit scholar and former director of Adyar Library, K Kunjunni Raja, mentions texts that situate his lifetime between 788 and 820 AD.

Adi Shankara is said to have been born in Kaladi village on the bank of the Periyar, the largest river in Kerala. His parents, the Brahmin couple Siva Guru and Arya Antharjanam, had fallen on difficult times. He left home very early in search of learning and to become a sanyasin.

In one legend, a crocodile caught hold of the young Shankara while bathing in the Periyar, and told his mother it would let him go if she allowed him to take sanyas. She reluctantly agreed and Shankara swam ashore.

In another legend, the young Shankara visited a poor Brahmin household, where the woman of the house apologetically fed him an amla, the only food she could offer. A grateful Shankara composed the Kanakadhara Stotram, following which there was a rain of golden amlas, which brought prosperity to the household.

Even the narrations about Shankara’s philosophical debates with scholars such as Mandana Misra and his wife Ubhaya Bharati, Kumarila Bhatta, etc., are embellished with stories that suggest his supernatural powers — after being challenged by Ubhaya Bharati on aspects of kama, the celibate Shankara is said to have undergone parakaya pravesha to gain knowledge about sex.

Remarkable scholarship

The picture we gain from these stories is of a remarkable scholar-monk who, after being initiated into studies by Govindacharya, a disciple of the scholar Gaudapada acharya, was constantly on the move — bearing the flag of Advaita Vedanta, challenging prevailing philosophical traditions including Buddhism and Jainism, establishing mathas, preparing commentaries on important texts, and organising monastic orders.

In a lifespan of just 32 years, he is said to have visited all the important spiritual centres of the time — from Kanchi (Kancheepuram) to Kamrup (Assam), and Kashmir and the Kedar and Badri dhams, as well as Sringeri, Ujjain, Kashi, Puri, and Joshimath. He is believed to have established the ritual practices at the Badri and Kedar dhams, and to have debated with tantrics in Srinagar. He is believed to have attained samadhi at Kedarnath; however, Kanchi and Thrissur are also talked about as places where Adi Shankara spent his last days. Adi Shankara is generally identified as the author of 116 works — among them the celebrated commentaries (bhashyas) on 10 Upanishads, the Brahmasutra and the Gita, and poetic works including Vivekachudamani, Maneesha Panchakam, and Saundaryalahiri. But scholars such as Vidyavachaspathi V Panoli have argued that Saundaryalahiri and Maneesha Panchakam are not his works, but attributions.

It has also been claimed that Adi Shankara composed texts like Shankarasmrithi, which seeks to establish the social supremacy of Nambuthiri Brahmins. Scholars point out that often authorship is credited to a great figure to claim legitimacy for texts that may in fact have been composed centuries later.

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)”.

Shankara’s contested legacy

In Bharatiya Chintha (Indian Thought), K Damodaran, scholar and a founding member of the Communist movement in India, says the essence of Adi Shankara’s philosophy is encapsulated in the much quoted formulation: “brahma satyam jagan-mithya, jivo brahmaiva naaparah” (brahman alone is real, this world is an illusion/ and the jiva is non-differential from brahman). Custodians of the caste system cite from Shankara’s commentaries to justify the unequal and unjust social order, whereas others claim these are extrapolations and point to works like Maneesha Panchakam to suggest a different reading of the acharya’s outlook.

The philosophy and legacy of this incomparable philosopher continue to be contested — and he has been claimed, reclaimed, interpreted and reinterpreted over the centuries. Among the interpreters of his philosophy would be those who suggested that the Advaita Vedanta borrowed the categories of Buddhist thinkers and called him the Prachhanna Buddha (Buddha in disguise), to Sri Narayana Guru who in the 20th century offered a radical reading of Advaita Vedanta to dismantle the theory and praxis of caste.

His political appropriation

The mathas Shankara is believed to have established in Sringeri, Dwaraka, Puri, and Joshimath for the spread of Advaita Vedanta are seen as custodians of Hinduism, and Shankara’s digvijaya (conquest) is often interpreted as a near nationalistic project where faith, philosophy and geography are yoked together to imagine a Hindu India that transcends the political boundaries of his time.

It is a project that fits in with the ideological exigencies of the present time. The image of the lonely seeker, looming above his peers, demolishing his foes, and seeking transcendence in the snow-clad mountains has rich connotations in today’s performative politics.

The first, earliest references to Adi Shankaracharya

Devdutt Pattanaik, Dec 5, 2021: The Times of India

Why does Hindutva not like historians?

Devdutt Pattanaik

Dec 4, 2021

Most Indians believe in the legend of Adi Shankaracharya. They believe he came from Kerala, travelled around India, and is responsible for driving Buddhism out of India, and re-establishing Hindu supremacy. He is also believed to be the organiser of various military ascetic academies or akhadas in the four corners of India. This was, it is claimed, because he foresaw the arrival of Islam, long before it actually happened. This kind of storytelling feeds into the triumphalist frenzy that is much loved by Hindutva. Nationalists love it.

However, historians have challenged this claim. Based on evidence, they say that information about Adi Shankaracharya comes to us only 500 years after his time. They were written when the Vijaynagar Empire was on the rise, and its kings were fiercely resisting what they called ‘Turuku Dharma’ coming from the North.

As they defended ‘Hindu Dharma’ or the local way of life, they patronised scholars who began organising Hinduism as a unit, something for which there was no need before. This is the time that Bheda-abheda Vedanta rose, trying to give Hinduism a common conceptual framework, based on ideas of the Upanishads that were over 2,000 years old.

The hagiographies of Shankara were composed by Vedanta scholars who were actually challenging his ideas. Vaishnavas saw him as a Shaiva, others saw him as Shakta. Ramanuja, who formalised temple worship combining Vedanta with Bhakti with rituals even called him Crypto-Buddhist (Prachanna-Baudha) as Shankara’s Advaita preferred the formless divine (Nirguna) and did not differentiate between deity (bhagavan) and devotee (bhakta). Legends that Adi Shankaracharya established military ascetic organisations in North India have also been challenged as being invented later to legitimise these organisations.

Aatm(a) Bodh

Pranav Khullar, Atma Bodha - Awareness Of The Self, April 29, 2017: The Times of India 

 Set in 68 verses only , Shankara's Atma Bodha seeks to put the abstruse philosophical speculation of the Brahma Sutras within easy reach of the common man. Using everyday common metaphors to illustrate Advaitic concepts, the Atma Bodha serves as a primer for those seeking to find a deeper reality beyond the desire-driven mind. Unlike his detailed reasoning in his Bhashyas, Shankara gets to the heart of the matter quickly . Atma Bodha declares that knowledge alone can be the cause of liberation, just as fire is the direct cause of cooking, and while this may include the requirement of water, pots and pans, it is fire that actually makes cooking possible.

Shankara declares that karma or action is powerless to destroy ignorance for “it is not in conflict with ignorance“.The Self can be known only through knowledge, just as light alone can dispel darkness. He compares jnana abhyasa or the practice of knowledge which purifies by removing ignorance, with the traditional method of purifying muddy water in rural India with kataka-nut powder. Just as the powder sprinkled on the surface of the water forms a film and drags all the impurities to the bottom, leaving pure water on the surface, constant use and practice of knowledge removes the dirt of ignorance. And just as the kataka-nut powder dissolves into the water after doing its work, knowledge too disappears after the Self emerges.

He refers to the illusion created by oyster shells scatter created by oyster shells scattered along the beach on a moonlit night. We mistake them for silver, only till we recognise the reality of the oyster shells. Similarly, the world of names and forms exists only till self-knowledge dawns. The phenomenal world exists in the mind of the perceiver alone, and names and forms exist like ornaments, and Vishnu, the all-pervading consciousness, is like gold. Shankara reinforces the spirit and content of the Upanishads by alluding to the Mahavakyas, in his delineation of the nature of Brahmn, reiterating the well-known method of arriving at the definition of Brahmn, by practising “neti, neti ... not this, not this“.

He emphasises the need for continuous meditation on the impermanence of things, which is essential to refocus on the Self. The flame of knowledge can only be kindled by constant meditation, which he compares to the act of rubbing wood to create fire. The story of Rama is allegorised as Atmarama, who derives satisfaction from the Self alone, having crossed the ocean of delusion to vanquish the creatures of passion, just as Rama crossed the ocean to kill Ravana.

Shankara seems to visualise his awareness of the Self as he alludes to the nature of Brahmn ­ sat-chit-ananda (knowledge-existence-bliss). These verses reflect the cosmic nature of his thought, as he says: “All things which can be perceived or heard are Brahmn itself and nothing else ... and though Atman is reality , it can be perceived only by one who has the eye of wisdom.“

Shankara exhorts us to undertake the real pilgrimage to “the shrine of the Atman“, which will bestow real equanimity . The Atma Bodha, like its companion-piece the Vivekachudamani, is a call from the heart, reflective of Shankara's reaching out to people as much as to the intelligentsia of his time.

Balancing the head and heart

Swami Sukhabodhananda, Fine Tune Heart And Head With Commitment, Feb 09 2017 : The Times of India

In Indian culture, there is a maxim called `andha panku nyaaya'. The narration goes further ­ a blind man and a lame person are trapped in a forest fire. One cannot see but he can walk, while the other cannot walk but he can see. They both help each other... lame person guiding and the blind person carrying the lame person and thus they both escape the forest fire.

We are caught in the forest fire of samsara, living a life of deficiency . Our head and heart each has one type of strength and also one type of weakness.Strengthening the strengths and weakening the weaknesses makes a person integrated. Krishna refers to such an integrated person as yuktaha.In such an integrated space one can come out of the forest fire of samsara, conflict and the ups and downs in life.

We need to amalgamate both head oriented knowledge and heart oriented devotion. In the words of Adi Shankaracharya, both head and heart should blend in the right proportion. Fine tune both your head and heart right now, in all walks of your life. Dealing with your patner, sometimes only the head may not work, sometimes only the heart may not work.At times, you have to be flexible with both dimensions of your heart and head.

The complete works of Adi Shankaracharya addresses both these methods: balancing your head and your heart. What is very important is your commitment towards growth and enlightenment ­ moksha, towards liberation, niravana, call it by any name it does not matter. It is such a commitment which brings about a certain synergy , brings about certain homeostasis in your whole being.

Without commitment all knowledge one acquires will only decorate one's ego. Without commitment towards enlightenment all the feelings in one's heart are directed towards decorating a feeling that one is a very heart oriented person. Have you seen a lot of `feeling oriented arrogance' as some people express? More often they shun knowledge and take shelter by declaring that they are just feeling oriented.

Therefore, the bottom line is ­ it is neither the head oriented knowledge nor heart oriented feelings but it is the commitment towards liberation ­ nirvana ­ which is most important. Just for a moment let us scan back to the lives of great masters. We realise that there existed thirst for achieving enlightenment irrespective of the situations or difficulties that they encountered in their lives.

By studying the lives of enlightened masters one gets in touch with the recipe for engaging in an adventure ­ a true adventure of life. In fact, this adventure is the very purpose of their whole lifetime. It is said, `What is the quality of an enlightened person (`Siddhashya lakshanaani yani') should become the effort for the seeker ­ saadhakasya saadhanani prayatnena sampaadyani iti shravanaat.

For example, if someone's cooking ability is something to be emulated, the recipe of that good cooking should be taken and adopted in one's life.

Pause for a moment; let us examine clearly our commitment and fine tune our understanding so as to get clarity and polish our understanding. All great masters had commitment towards enlightenment, and it is that commitment with which one's knowledge will sharpen the focus. One's heart, one's elevated feeling is going to smoothen one's way into understanding. Without a deep rooted commitment nothing substantial would happen.

Bhaj Govindam

Jaya Row, Shankara's Bhaja Govindam - Seek The Spirit, March 16, 2017: The Times of India

Composed by Adi Shankaracharya, Bhaja Govindam is one of the most lucid, insightful works of Vedanta.The first verse, which is the chorus, conveys its theme. Seek the higher, the Spirit.Do not get distracted by trivial attractions of the world as these will not stand by you while you face the greatest challenge of life, death. Through the text Shankara presents life from another perspective, pratipaksha bhavana, highlighting the futility of mundane enchantments.

Adi Shankara is credited with revival of Vedanta throughout India. His works are classified into three main categories.Bhashyas are commentaries on the Upanishads, Gita and Brahmasutras.Stotras are devotional compositions and Prakarana Granthas are introductory manuals for the Gita and other scriptures.

Bhaja Govindam belongs to the class of stotras. However, as the verses contain deep Vedantic thought, it is often included as a prakarana, introductory text. The style is simple and its melody appealing. Each of its 31verses is relevant to our lives. Another name for this text is Moha Mudgara, meaning, remover of delusion. Once, as Shankara and his disciples were travelling through Varanasi, he overheard an old pundit memorise Panini's grammar rules. This inspired a masterful oration by Shankara that we call the Bhaja Govindam.

The opening stanza is the chorus. Tradition has it that the next 12 verses were spoken by the great master himself. These are called Dvadashamanjarika Stotram, a bouquet of 12 stanza flowers. Just as a bouquet of fresh flowers can be appreciated even from afar, the Bhaja Govindam can be appreciated merely by listening to its melodious chant. Those who approach the flower enjoy its fragrance. Similarly , those who understand the meaning of the verses gain useful instructions on life. But only the bee that enters the flower gains the nectar. Similarly, those who absorb and live the philosophy of the Bhaja Govindam evolve spiritually. So inspiring was Shankara's oration that each of his 14 disciples added a verse each. These 14 verses form the Chaturdasha Manjarika Stotram. After listening to his students, Shankara blesses the seekers in the last four verses.

The Bhaja Govindam deals with our twin motivations in life ­ kanchana, acquisition of wealth, and kamini, enjoyment of it. We accumulate wealth for duhkha nivrutti, security against sorrow. And by the second motivation, we indulge in sukha prapti, enjoyment of accumulated wealth. Shankara encourages us to seek happiness within. He asserts that whether one is in spiritual practice or engaged in sensual enjoyment, whether one finds pleasure in company or solitude is immaterial. What gives true happiness is keeping the mind anchored in Brahmn.

All you need to do for this is study the Gita just a little, develop gratitude for all that has been bestowed on you and become service-minded. If not, you will be subject to the endless cycle of birth and death.

Urging us to get over our obsession with the trivialities of the world Shankara asks us to begin the search for the Divine Self within. He reminds us that we are not human beings going through a spiritual experience but that very Spirit going through a human experience. So together, we must work towards lifting ourselves out of our delusion, moha, to greater heights of awareness.

The Saundarya Lahiri

The Times of India, Oct 17 2015

Radha Kumar

The Saundarya Lahiri of Adi Shankara

Navaratri is the festive period of nine sacred days when the divine Mother Goddess is venerated.The terracotta figurines of the goddess at Harappa reveal the fact that human beings adulated nature or prakriti in the form of a woman perhaps because she is the symbol of genesis, nurture and sustenance. The goddess as Shakti has always been invoked in Ugra, aggressive and in Shanta, peaceful forms. Adi Shankara, the advaita philosopher, was the first to integrate metaphysical deliberation of Shakti, as Saguna Tattva. The quintessential aspect of Shankara's Advaita is the doctrine of Maya. Hence his philosophy is also called, Shakti Advaitism. While at a macro level, the supreme cosmic, omnipotent and omniscient Brahmn when limited by Mayashakti, becomes Ishwara, at the micro level, the Atman becomes jiva.

Maya is anadi, beginning-less; bhavarupa, positive; material, unconscious; jada, indescribable and indefinable ­ sadasadanirvachaniya, with a phenomenal and relative character. It is vyavaharikasatta, vivrata, only an appearance; adhyasa or superimposition. The compositions of Adi Shankara in the Saundarya Lahiri, evocatively capture in verse, the basic features of the philosophical deliberations of the Kaula and Samya traditions of Shakti Upsakas along with the very detailed descriptions of the Sri Yantra with aspects of tantra like the chakras and nadis.

The verses of the Saundarya Lahiri have deep metaphysical implications along with capturing the unimaginable glory of the Devi in this mysterious universe. Each verse is descriptive of the beauty , glory and the importance of Shakti. Nevertheless, it is interesting to read verse 51, which describes the look in the Mother's eye, which is beautifully significant of the navarasa. The composition thus highlights the poetic rendition and composition of the great seer, Shankara.

In this verse, Bhagavadpada Shankara, describing the rasas of the Devi says when the divine goddess looks at Shiva, it is shringara ­ “Sive Srngarardra“.And with dislike when she sees others “Tad-itara-jane kutsana-para“; when she looks at Ganga it is with anger as Ganga is also Shiva's wife ­ “Sarosa Gangaayam“, but that of wonder when she hears the stories of Shiva “Girisa carite vismayavati“.

When looking at the great serpents forming the orna ment of Shiva, her expression is that of dread ­ “Har'abhiyo bhita“ but looks with light hearted sympathy and a patronising smile at the sight of Shiva's ganas ­ “Sarasi ruha saubhagya janani“. She looks at devotees thus: “Sakhisu smera te mayi janani drstih sakurana“.

Shankaracharya, in this composition, captures beautifully the rasas of sringara, love; bibhatsa, disgust; raudra, anger; adbuta, wonder; bhayanaka, terror; vira, heroism; hasya, mirth; and karuna, compassion.

The 100 verses of the Saundarya Lahiri is the Shakta version of Advaita where Shakti changes into the world of multiplicity of jivas and jagat, without forfeiting its non-dual status as a being.“United with Shakti, Shiva is endowed to create; otherwise he is incapable of even movement,“ says the great seer, in his very first verse.

Here, Shakti personified as Devi Tripurasundari, is described in her ultimate beauty and splendour. Complete submission to the Devi is the way to surmount and redeem oneself from this maze of Maya and it is through her karuna, that one can break free from this complex web of the eternal cause and effect cycle.Hence, it was in Shakti Tattva or Devi that the Bhagvadpada saw the pathway to redemption.

Shakti worship

Shakt, Shaivism, Vaishnavism brought together

Anna N Subramanian, Shakta, Shaivite & Vaishnavite Come Together, September 29, 2017: The Times of India

The worship of Devi in Sri Chakra is set forth by Adi Shankara in his 'Prapanchasara' and 'Saundaryalahari', and this form of worship occupies a high place in the traditions of the Maths organised by him.

Shakti worship, properly understood, is a synthesis and harmony in which diverse, and sometimes, conflicting tendencies of human endeavour have been accommodated, and each, in union with the rest, has been assured its fullest development and satisfaction.

An adept in Sri Vidya can be a Shakta at heart, a Shaivite in outlook and a Vaishnavite in practice. That such a reconciliation is not only possible, but necessary , was revealed to us in Sri Ramakrishna, the avatara purusha of the age. He has proved that all paths pursued with devotion, lead to the one God, that mantras are efficacious, that yantras are potent, that devatas and higher powers exist, that siddhis do come, and that, step by step, the Divine Mother leads the sadhaka to higher and higher levels of perfection till he reaches the goal.

Sri Ramakrishna says: “That which is Brahmn is also Kali, the Mother, the Primal Energy . When inactive, it is called Brahmn. Again, when creating, preserving and destroying, it is called Shakti.Still water is an illustration of Brahmn. The same water, moving in waves, may be compared to Shakti or Kali.

What is the meaning of Kali?

She who communes with Maha Kala, the Absolute, is Kali. She is formless and, again, she has forms. If you believe in the formless aspect, then meditate on Kali, as that. If you meditate on any aspect of hers with firm conviction, she will let you know her true nature.

Ultimate Reality is Sat-Chit-Ananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. The essence in man is identical with this reality but under the influence of maya, illusion, he has forgotten his true nature.He takes to be real, a merely apparent world of subject and object, and this error is the cause of his bondage and suffering.

The goal of all spiritual practice is the rediscovery of his true identity with Reality .For the achievement of this goal, Vedanta prescribes an austere method of discrimination and renunciation. The way is, `Neti neti', to negate the asat or unreal upadhis.

If upadhis are eliminated through service to a guru and proper enquiry , one realises the identity of the jivatman and Paramatman. But this is not so easily done.

Sri Krishna says in the Bhagwad Gita, “The difficulty of those whose thoughts are set on the unmanifested, is greater, for the goal of the unmanifested Brahmn is hard to reach for embodied beings (who are attached to their bodies).“

Sri Ramakrishna says, “It is God Himself who makes us feel this difference, and on account of this difference, one sees man and woman, light and darkness, and so on. As long one is aware of this difference, one can accept Shakti as personal god. It is God who has put `i-consciousness' in us. As long as we are conscious of differentiation, we must accept Brahmn with attributes. Vedas, Puranas and Tantra have declared Kali, the Primal Energy , to be Brahmn with attributes. (Abridged from the Foreword to `Saundarya Lahiri of Sri Sankaracharya', translated by Swami Tapasyananda, published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.)