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Adi Shankara was one of those rare geniuses who are all things to all people and
still remain free of any definitive label. To the West he is known as India's most
impressive contribution to Philosophy anticipating many of the propositions and
ideas of Kant by over a millenium. To many millions of devout Hindus he is one of
the most important saints in India's history. To many other equally devout Hindus
he is a dangerous preacher of illusion and contempt for the world. He spent his
life in combating the Buddhist theologians' assault on the old religion and as his
reward had his fellow religionists dub him the pravaccha baudha - the hidden
Buddhist! Not only was he India's greatest philosopher he was also one of the great
demons of action of all time. His energy level was incredible and he was the supreme
organizer of people and institutions.
For yet others he is the hero of a panegyric poem where he is forcibly fitted to
the grand tradition of miracle working guru. Few hardy souls realize in him a serious
trampler of tradition, an aspect of his personality that is overlooked nowadays.
That is because he and his works became the new tradition, so pervasive was his
impact. Lovers of Sanskrit poetry realize that he is one of the great poets of the
world, all the more remarkable because he never covers that staple of the poetic
imagination, love! Men as great as Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan have
realized his singular impact on Indian society and above all his great contribution
to religious thought in the system of the Advaita Vedanta. All this and he died
at the age of 32.
Shankara was born in a little Kerala backwater village called Kaladi. It was the
literal equivalent of a one-horse town. The date of his birth is in dispute with
western authorities plumping for the eight century AD while Indians seem to be inclined
to the fifth century AD. His father was a learned brahmin called Shivaguru and his
mother a remarkable woman called Aryaamba. These names seem chosen more for the
similarity they have with Shiva and his wife Parvati as it would become a vital
part of the legend of Shankara that he was an avatar of Shiva. The usual auspicious
signs - dreams of white bulls, divine music, peace ad good will on earth between
all living creatures when he was born - were all manifest in measures generous enough
to satisfy the mythmakers. That they were using a template that began with the birth
of the Buddha seems to have been overlooked by them. The name Shankara however means
that he is the bestower (KARA) of happiness (SAM) on all and is an original derivation.
Astrologers predicted that the baby would become a boy wonder. They also knew that
he was destined to die when he was just sixteen and Shankara was always in a tremendous
hurry as though this knowledge was never absent form his waking consciousness. He
was a formidably brilliant child, with an eidetic memory and an ability to absorb
things that has probably never been matched since then. Years later he would reconstruct
an epic-poem that had been deemed lost because the only manuscript was burnt by
fire. He was not only brilliant he was only too aware of his brilliance, a fact
that did not make him to popular amongst his fellow villagers. He was of an astringent
nature and only really cared about his mother. Because she was too weak to go to
the river to bathe he diverted the river to flow past the house. However his mother,
widowed when he was three, would not grant him his ardent wish to become a sannyasin.
She finally consented only when he was in the jaws of a crocodile, whereupon he
was immediately released. Shankara gave a promise that even though he was a renouncer
of the world and all its ties, he was sure to return and perform her funeral rites.
This is unthinkable in the Hindu ritual context, a sannyasin is dead to his family,
but Shankara as usual followed his own light.
He soon found his guru who would formally initiate him into monastic life in the
great scholar Govindapada. In answer to the guru's question as to who he was the
young boy sang the six stanzas on nirvana, the nirvana - shatakam, which is a precis
and crash course of Vedanta all at once. The teacher immediately realized that he
was dealing with hot stuff here, and promised to initiate him if the boy would propagate
the knowledge he learnt all over the land. He is supposed to have formally begun
learning the Vedanta Sutras of Vyasa here. He was only eight years old.
By the time he was sixteen he had completed the bulk of his phenomenal philosophic
works. Prominent amongst these are the Vivekachudamani, the crest jewel of
right discrimination, the Atma Bodha, or Awareness of the Self and of course
his path breaking commentaries on the Upanishads and the Bhagvad Gita. He was the
first great figure to make the Upanishads and the Gita the touchstone of authentic
religious experience and his Gita interpretation was so powerful that many people
actually though he wrote the Gita himself! The gods, it is said, were so pleased
by his prodigious efforts that they doubled the span of his life. For the rest of
his life he wrote only philosophic and devotional poetry, with one exception we
shall come to. In this embarrassment of riches, his hymns to the Ganga, the Bhaja-Govindam,
the Saundarya Lahiri and the Ai Giri Nandini stand out. The latter
two poems are perhaps the greatest devotional poetry ever addressed to the divine
mother in any culture known to man. In all his writings however he constantly maintained
the doctrine of the Advaita Vedanta, the fierce and uncompromising non-dualistic
creed that maintains Brahman to be the only truth and everything else a secondary
reality or Maya. (See
our glossary on the word Maya)
He moved to Kashi, or Banaras, as all scholars with a reputation inevitably have
to in India. He began to accumulate a band of fiercely intelligent disciples around
him, and they soon gained a reputation for routing all disputants with flair and
ease. This was a tough band with high standards and if respect would not be given
them it would be exacted. Some jealous rivals attempted to assault Shankara once
but the only disciple with him gave them the thrashing of their lives though he
was careful not to kill them. It is a measure of his unusual attitude that he did
no think there was anything wrong with this. The sannyasi's non-violence is only
a commitment never to seek trouble. It does not imply that they become a football
for all the bullies of the world. Shankara however was in danger of becoming a wee
bit inflated with his success and he got his comeuppance unexpectedly.
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