Life of Adi Sankaracharya Bhagavadpada Part 4

As I try to understand the life of Adi Sankaracharya, I would argue that his legacy of revitalizing the Advaita philosophy was achieved primarily through two different means.

1. His commentaries and writings on the three canonicals of Advaita: The updanishads, the Bhgavad Geetha and the Brahma Sutras. While all three texts had existed

2.    His exhaustive arguments with other philosophers that have been captured and documented.

Today, Vedanta almost defines the lifestyle in India entirely. While Hinduism as a religion originated from this as well, Hinduism as a non-religious way of life, which most people living in India follow, is from Vedanta.

Sankara’s mission in life was to spread spiritualism and the teachings of Advaita or non-duality. Through the works of his life, he established the non-duality between Jeevatman and Brahman, the supreme – the infinite. He expounded the teachings in the Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Gita.

As he traversed the length and breadth of the country propagating the philosophy of Advaita, he crystallized the philosophy and became its greatest follower.

Some of the notable stops during his travels:

1.Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh: He composed the Shivanandalahari and the Lakshmi-Narasimha Strotra

2. Gokarna in Karnataka: He argued and defeated the famous philosopher, Neelakanta

3.  Ujjayini in Gujarat: He argued and defeated Bhatta Bhaskara

4. Bahlika in Northwest India: This was the famous debate against the philosophers of Jainism

5.   Sarvanjnapitha in Pakisthan-occupied-Kashmir: His debate and defeat of all scholars earned him the title of ‘Sarvanjna pitha’ – the ultimate pedestal of the knowledge – Transcendent Wisdom

As he continued to travel, he expounded the philosophy and argued against all other prevailing thoughts. For most part, he won all the arguments and managed to convert the people to Advaita. Some of the biggest rivals he had to the Advaita Vedanta philosophy were the Mimamsa and Sankhya schools of philosophy that preached fundamentally that God was not a unified being.

The fundamental idea of Sankara’s Advaita was that god was Brahman, the infinite one and everything else was from that one Brahman. He argued that only through direct knowledge could one obtain Brahman. Just like a person sees the illusion of a snake in a rope in a dark room due to ignorance, in real life he does not see the Brahman, but just the mere illusion due to his ignorance.

Vedanta (Including the Gita) describes the essence of our human life as the continuous attempt of exhausting the vasanas that we acquire, and by holding a true Satvic mind, not acquiring anymore. The moment we can exhaust the vasanas of this lifetime, the human body dies. Most humans (with the exception of the extremely Satvic sages) never exhaust their vasasanas in their lifetime and hence live longer and are reborn to continue the attempt at exhausting them.

True sages with a pure satvic mind which realizes the ‘maya’ of the world and that there is only one absolute infinite Brahman and the life/body is but an instrument through which Brahman is acting – hence total detachment – Such a person is the only one who becomes self realized and attains ‘moksha’ or liberation.

Towards the last stages of his life, Adi Sankaracharya traveled and reached Badrinath-Kedarnath. It was here that he attained the ‘Videha Mukti’ or ‘moksha’ or ‘liberation. Just as the case is with many famous people in the world, there are arguments as to where exactly he attained his mahasamadhi (where his soul left his body). Each historical commentary (‘sankara vijaya’) argues differently. The Kerala ones argues that he attained Samadhi in Thrissur. The followers of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetha claim it was in Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.

While the place where he attained Samadhi is being argued, there is no argument that he attained Maha Samadhi and total liberation.

If you were to go by the Vedanta argument I have given above, that – if you have a pure satvic mind and exhaust your vasanas, you can get liberation. Adi Sankaracharya Bhagavadpada was truly an enlightened soul. He realized the Brahman very early in his life and hence had a pure Satvic mind. That must have been reason he exhausted his vasanas very quickly and attained Moksha/Samadhi at the young age of 32.

As the years go by and stories and legends keep getting modified to suit the ages, the only constant is the impact he had on Indian philosophy and society. No one has had such a deep impact that affected almost every aspect of Indian lives today, especially Hinduism. There have been many contempories and other scholars of Vedanta over the ages, but none as influential as Adi Sankaracharya.

Adi Sankaracharya’s philosophy of Advaita was non-sectarian and advocated the worship of many dieties – not just shiva or Vishnu but others including Sakti, Ganapti etc. However most of the Sankaracharyas over the generations have been a lot more influential with the Shaivaite (shiva followers) community than the Vaishnavaite (Vishnu follower) community.

While Sankara argues that the Brahman was infinite, attributeless and impersonal, many of his contempories argued on similar lines but had a single god as the absolute. While Sankaracharya’s have traditionally been more associated with Shaivates, Sankara’s brilliant composition of the Bhaja Govindam is in the name of Govinda or Vishnu. The Bhaja Govindam is a great summary of Advaita Vendanta through the devotion to Lord Govinda or Vishnu. This is one piece of Sankara’s legacy that the Vaishnavaites typically embrace as well.

Over the next series of blogs, I will try and explain the various tenets of Advaita and related works.