Shankaracharya

One of the earliest mystic Masters of India is Sankara, more properly known as Adi Shankarahchrya, the prefix Adi meaning the prime, the original, the first. Shankara's interpretations of Vednta have so dominated the intellectual life of the country and has become so well-known in the rest of the world that his work has almost become synonymous with Vednta inspite of the fact that other interpretations exist and are followed widely. The great temples and holy places of India where he lived, preached and prayed have made his name legendary and have left an indelible image in the Hindu mind.His greatness is not only in the context of Hinduism and Indian philosophy. His exposition of Advaita has a relevance to the cultural history of the entire world philosophy This is because Advaita does not need for its validity the symbolism or the prop of the religion and mythology of Hinduism. The one fact that comes to the mind of a non-Indian the moment the country of India is mentioned is its contribution to the spiritual evolution of the human species over the centuries, particularly through its Vedic and Upanishadic thought processes. But if any single individual Master is to be associated with this contribution one of the earliest such is Sankara.

Shankara was not only a great philosopher who professed a sophisticated philosophy with precision

and clarity but he was a great reformer also. In his short span of 32 years he achieved what no one ever before or after him achieved. At the age of three he had mastered the language of Sanskrit. At the age of six he had already learnt whatever formal learning there was to learn. At the age of eight he was ready to renounce the mundane world along with its glamour and he did. Before the age of twelve he had already found his formal Guru at whose feet he reached the shores of all existing knowledge at that time. By the age of sixteen he had already written his famous commentaries (bhashyas) on the Upanishads, the Gita, the Brahma-sutras, the Vishnu sahasra-namam and sanatsujatiyam. Before the end of his life he had toured by foot the entire subcontinent three times and more, established several religious organizations called mutts ,carried on verbal debates with almost 76 other schools of religious thought and brought them all under his banner of Advaita, left behind him scores of devotional poems, at least one for each deity or temple then known in India, wrote five unique expository works: viveka chudamani, aparoksha anubhuti, Atma-bodha, upadesha sahasri and prashnottara-ratna-malika, each one of which constitutes, in its own way, a concise, encyclopaedia of advaita vedanta.His immediate disciples whom he later nominated to lead the mutts he established were: Sureshvaracharya (former name Mandana-Mishra), Hastamalakacharya, Padmapadacharya (former name Sanandana) and Totakacharya (former name Giri).

Shankara was also an acclaimed poet. His compositions both in prose and poetry excel even some of

the greatest literary poets India has known. He was not only one of the deepest thinkers of the world but he also had the unique distinction of being very lucid in his expositions (both written and oral) of his thoughts. He was a profound and well-read scholar but was in addition a blessed saint who had the grace of God in all its fullness. He exhibited, even in his childhood, marvellous powers of spirituality and scholarship. Shankara was a great mystic and Yogi who had a direct perception of the Infinite Consciousness and at the same time he was also a practical, socio-cum-religious reformer.