Adi Shankaracharya

Adi Shankaracharya is also known as Shankara, was born in 700 CE in Kaladi village in India, and died in 750 CE in Kedarnath. He is a great philosopher and theologian, wrote commentaries on the Brahma-sutra, the principal Upanishadulu, and the famous Bhagavadgita, declaring his belief in one of the eternal and unchanging reality brahmana and including the illusion of plurality.

Knowing about his birth was a mystery. There are eleven works that pretend to be the biographies of Adi Shankara. All of them were composed centuries later than the time of Adi Shankara that were filled with mythical stories and incredible tales of him, some of the tales, which are mutually incompatible.

Today there are no materials and texts to rebuild his life with faith. His date of birth was basically a controversial problem. It was once conventional to specify the birth and death date most probably from 788 to 820, but the dates from 700 to 750 were grounded in modern scripts, are most commonly accepted.

According to one of the stories, Adi Shankara was born in a Nambudiri Brahmana family in a village named Kaladi on the Purna River in Kerala, a Southern State in India. Shankara is said to have lost his father Shivaguru in his early life. He abandoned the world and became an ascetic against his mother’s will. He studied under teacher Govinda, who was a pupil of Gaudappa.

There isn’t much information scripted in history, but Gaudapada is known as the author of Mandukya-karika, which involves the influence of Mahayana Buddhism, a form of Buddhism aiming for the salvation of all people, tending towards the non-dualistic was evident and even extreme, in its last chapter.

A tradition says that Lord Shiva, one of the principal gods of Hindu, was the deity of Shankara’s family and that he was, by birth the worshipper of Shakti and Shiva. Later he was regarded as a worshipper of Lord Shiva or even incorporation of Shiva himself. His theory, however, is far removed from Shaivism. And was favourable to Vaishnavism, the worshipper of the Lord Vishnu It is highly possible that he knew about Yoga.

Moving onto his later life. Most of the biographers say that Adi Shankara first went to Kashi or Varanasi, a famous city celebrated for spirituality, and then he travelled all over India, persevering in discussions with philosophers. He had a heated debate with Mandana Mishra who is also a philosopher of the Mimasa school, whose wife served as a justice, which is considered as the most interesting part of his biography reflecting historical facts raising conflict between Shankara, who is regarded as the knowledge of brahmana.

Adi Shankara was most active in the political age. He would not teach his theory to city residents. The belief of Buddhism was strong in the cities of India, though they declined Jainism, also prevailed among the people. Popular Hinduism was occupied in the minds of ordinary people.

There were also sybarites in cities. It became difficult for Shankara to teach Vedanta philosophy to these people. Consequently, Adi Shankara developed his teachings to sannyasins in the villages, and then he gradually earned the respect of Brahmans and feudal lords of that time.

He enthusiastically tried to restore the orthodox Brahmanical myth without paying attention to the devotional movement, which had made a deep impression on ordinary people of Hindu at his age.

After becoming the great philosopher, It is more likely to know that Adi Shankara had many pupils out of them only four are known namely Padmapada, Sureshwara, Totaka, and Hastamalaka. Shankara founded four monasteries, at Sringeri, Puri, Dvaraka, and Badrinath, following the Buddhist monastery or vihara system. Their foundation has more significant factors in the development of his teachings that are the leading philosophy of India.

Let us now know about his famous works. More than 300 works like commentating, expository, and poetical writings in Sanskrit, are credited to him. His famous masterpiece is the Brahma-sutra-bhashya, which was a primary text of the Vedanta school. The explanations on the principal Upanishads that were attributed to Adi Shankara were all genuine. The annotation on the “Mandukya karika” was also composed by great Adi Shankara himself and he is also the author of “Yoga sutra bhashya vivarana” of the Yoga school. The Upadesasahasri, which is marked as a good introduction to Shankara’s philosophy, is certainly authentic.

Adi Shankara’s style of writing was lucid. Penetrating insight and skill characterize his famous works. His approach to truth was psychological and religious rather than being logical and he is considered to be a prominent religious teacher rather than considered a philosopher in the modern era.

The basic structure of his philosophy is more similar to Samakya and the Yoga school to Buddhism. It is believed that Adi Shankara died at Kedarnath in the Himalayas.

This was all about the great Philosopher Adi Shankaraya and his life.