Life of Adi Sankaracharya Bhagavadpada Part 1

Sri Adi Sankaracharya Bhagavadpada or Sri Adi Sankaracharya was born as Sankara in a small town called Kaladi, in modern day State of Kerala in India, in the year 788 CE. This quaint little town located north of the metropolis of Kochi still reverberates with the sounds of Sankara even today.

Born to Sivaguru and Aryambal, Sankara was a born genius like no other. It is said that he was named ‘Sankara’ by his mother after the Lord Shiva, as it means ‘Sam’ (prosperity) and ‘karathi’ (giver) or the ‘giver of prosperity to all’.

Sankara showed a tremendous aptitude towards learning and was initiated into the ‘aksharabyas’ or the ‘exercise of learning’ at the tender age of 3. By the age of 5, he had been initiated into Brahmin hood through the thread ceremony.

Based on the Brahmin Dharma of begging for alms (‘Brihathi bhiksham dehi’), he went out one day. He found himself at the house of an Old Lady who lived in dire poverty. She had no food to give him, but did not want to send a Brahmin boy empty handed. So she gave him the only fruit she had – one single Amla. (‘Phyllanthus Emblica’ or commonly called gooseberry). Moved by the devotion of the lady, Sankara broke into a beautiful hymn to invoke the goddess Mahalakshmi. This is what we refer to today as the ‘Kanakadhara Strotram’. It was so beautiful and sung with so much devotion that the goddess appeared in front of Sankara. When asked, in keeping with the Vedanta philosophy, the goddess responded that the lady had not done any good deeds in her previous birth and hence was not entitled to happiness or wealth in this birth. Sankara argued that the simple selfless deed that she had just done by giving him the only remaining Amla fruit deserves the blessings of the goddess. Saying this, he broke into singing the beautiful strotram. As the words and melody reverberated through thick and thin, the goddess was moved and showered the lady with golden amla fruits and erased her poverty.

While this is a wonderful story, it is still very much in sync with the Vedanta philosophy. One does not have control over what vasanas carries over from the previous birth and does not have control over what is destined everyday. However, one has the option to choose how they react. According to Vedanta, the goal of every human being in a given lifetime is to exhaust all the Vasanas that they have. But each action that one does with ego leaves more vasanas. If the actions are done with a pure satvic mind, that is the only way to exhaust the Vasanas. An extremely pure action on the part of the lady got her the blessings of goddess mahalakshmi. Was all this destined for her in her lifetime?