Today is Sri Sankara Jayanthi. A brief life is posted here.
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Sankara lost his father
when quite young, and his mother performed his upanayana ceremonies with the
help of her relatives. Sankara excelled in all branches of traditional vaidika
learning. A few miracles are reported about the young Sankara. As a brahmacarin,
he went about collecting alms from families in the village. A lady who was
herself extremely poor, but did not want to send away the boy empty-handed,
gave him the last piece of Amla fruit she had at home. Sankara, sensing the
abject poverty of the lady, composed a hymn (kanakadhara stavam) to Sri Lakshmi,
the goddess of wealth, right at her doorstep. As a result, a shower of golden
Amlas rewarded the lady for her piety. On another occasion, Sankara is said to
have re-routed the course of the Purna river, so that his old mother would not
have to walk a long distance to the river for her daily ablutions.
Birth and childhood:
Sankara [also known as Śaṅkara Bhagavatpādācārya and Ādi
Śaṅkarācārya (788 CE - 820 CE)] was born
to the nambudiri brahmana couple, Sivaguru and Aryamba, in a little
village called Kaladi in Kerala. The couple had remained childless for a long
time, and prayed for children at the Vadakkunnathan (vrshacala) temple in
nearby Trichur. Lord Siva is said to have appeared to the couple in a dream and
promised them a choice of one son who would be short-lived but the most
brilliant philosopher of his day, or many sons who would be mediocre at best.
The couple opted for a brilliant, but short-lived son, and so Sankara was born.
Sannyasa:
Sankara
was filled with the spirit of renunciation early in his life. Getting married
and settling to the life of a householder was never part of his goal in life,
though his mother was anxious to see him as a grhastha. Once when he was
swimming in the river, a crocodile caught hold of his leg. Sankara sensed that
he was destined to die at that moment, and decided to directly enter the fourth
Asrama of sannyasa right then. This kind of renunciation is called Apat sannyasa.
The crocodile released him when he thus mentally decided to renounce the world,
and Sankara decided to regularize his decision by going to an accomplished
guru. To comfort his anxious mother, he promised that he would return at the
moment of her death, to conduct her funeral rites, notwithstanding the fact
that he would be a sannyasi then.
Sri Sankara then
traveled far and wide in search of a worthy guru who would initiate him and
regularize his vow of sannyasa, till he came to the banks of the river Narmada
in central India. Here was the Ashrama of Govinda Bhagavatpada, the disciple of
Gaudapada, the famous author of the Mandukya Karikas. Sri Sankara was accepted
as a disciple by Govinda, who initiated him into the paramahamsa order of sannyasa,
the highest kind of renunciation. Seeing the intellectual acumen of his
disciple, Govinda commanded Sri Sankara to expound the philosophy of Vedanta
through commentaries on the principal Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Gita.
Sri Sankara took leave of his guru and traveled to various holy places in
India, composing his commentaries in the meantime. At this time he was barely a
teenager. He attracted many disciples around him, prominent among whom was Sanandana,
who was later to be called Padmapada. In this period, Sri Sankara wrote
commentaries on badarayana's brahmasutras, the various upanishads and the Bhagavad
Gita. These commentaries, called bhashyas, stand at the pinnacle of Indian
philosophical writing, and have triggered a long tradition of sub-commentaries
known as Varttikas, TIkas and Tippanis. He also commented upon the adhyatma-patala
of the Apastamba sutras, and on Vyasa's bhashya to Patanjali's Yogasutras. In
addition to these commentarial texts, Sri Sankara wrote independent treatises
called prakarana granthas, including the Upadesasahasri, Atmabodha, etc.
In addition to writing
his own commentaries, Sri Sankara sought out leaders of other schools, in order
to engage them in debate. As per the accepted philosophical tradition in India,
such debates helped to establish a new philosopher, and also to win disciples
and convert from other schools. It was also traditional for the loser in the
debate to become a disciple of the winner. Thus Sri Sankara debated with
Buddhist philosophers, with followers of Samkhya and with Purva Mimamsakas, the
followers of Vedic ritualism, and proved more than capable in defeating all his
opponents in debate.Sri Sankara then sought out Kumarila Bhatta, the foremost
proponent of the Purva Mimamsa in his age, but Bhatta was on his deathbed and
directed Sri Sankara to Visvarupa, his disciple. Visvarupa is sometimes
identified with Mandana Misra.
Sri Sankara's debate
with Visvarupa was unique. The referee at the debate was Visvarupa's wife, Bharati,
who was herself very well-learned, and regarded as an incarnation of Goddess Sarasvati.
At stake was a whole way of life. The agreement was that if Visvarupa won, Sri Sankara
would consent to marriage and the life of a householder, whereas if Sri Sankara
won, Visvarupa would renounce all his wealth and possessions and become a sannyasi
disciple of Sri Sankara. The debate is said to have lasted for whole weeks,
till in the end, Visvarupa had to concede defeat and become a sannyasi. Bharati
was a fair judge, but before declaring Sri Sankara as the winner, she
challenged Sri Sankara with questions about Kamasastra, which he knew nothing about.
Sri Sankara therefore requested some time, during which, using the subtle yogic
process called parakaya-pravesa, he entered the body of a dying king and
experienced the art of love with the queens. Returning to Visvarupa’s home, he
answered all of Bharati's questions, after which Visvarupa was ordained as a
sannyasi by the name of Suresvara. He was to become the most celebrated
disciple of Sri Sankara, writing Varttikas to Sri Sankara's Bhashyas on the Yajurveda
Upanishads, in addition to his own independent texts on various subjects.
Establishment of Maths:
Sri
Sankara continued to travel with his disciples all over the land, all the while
composing philosophical treatises and engaging opponents in debate. It is said
that none of his opponents could ever match his intellectual prowess and the
debates always ended with Sri Sankara's victory. No doubt this is true, given
the unrivaled respect and popularity that Sri Sankara's philosophical system
enjoys to this day. In the course of his travels, Sri Sankara stayed for a long
time at the site of the old Ashama of the Rishis Vibhandaka and Rshyasrnga, in
the place known as Sringeri. Some texts mention that Sri Sankara stayed at
Sringeri for twelve years. A hermitage grew around him here, which soon
developed into a famous Math (monastery). Suresvara, the disciple whom he had
won after long debate, was installed as the head of this new Ashrama. Similar Maths
were established in the pilgrim centers of Puri, Dvaraka and Joshimath near
Badrinath, and Padmapada, Hastamalaka and Trotaka were placed in charge of
them. These are known as the Amnaya Maths, and they continue to function today.
Their heads have also come to be known as Sankaracaryas, in honor of their
founder, and revered as jagadgurus, or teachers of the world. Sri Sankara also
organized the community of Ekadandi monks into the sampradaya of Dasanami sannyasins,
and affiliated them with the four Maths that he established.
Meanwhile, Sri Sankara
heard that his mother was dying, and decided to visit her. Remembering his
promise to her, he performed her funeral rites. His ritualistic relatives would
not permit him to do the rites himself, as he was a sannyasi, but Sri Sankara
overrode their objections, and built a pyre himself and cremated his mother in
her own backyard. After this, he resumed his travels, visiting many holy
places, reviving pujas at temples that had fallen into neglect, establishing Sri
Yantras at Devi temples as in Kanchipuram, and composing many devotional hymns.
Ascension of the Sarvajnapitha:
In
the course of his travels, Sri Sankara reached Kashmir. Here was a temple
dedicated to Sri Sarada (Sarasvati), the Goddess of learning, which housed the
Sarvajnapitha, the Throne of Omniscience. It was a tradition for philosophers
to visit the place and engage in debate. The victorious one would be allowed to
ascend the sarvajnapitha. It is said that no philosopher from the southern
region had ever ascended the pitha, till Sri Sankara visited Kashmir and
defeated all the others there. He then ascended the Sarvajnapitha with the
blessings of Goddess Sarada. (A few centuries later, Ramanuja, the teacher of Visishtadvaita,
would visit the same Sarvajnapitha in search of the Baudhayana Vrtti. However,
a variant tradition places the Sarvajnapitha in the south Indian city of Kanchipuram.)
Sri Sankara was
reaching the age of 32 now. He had expounded the Vedanta philosophy through his
writings; he had attracted many intelligent disciples to him, who could carry
on the Vedantic tradition; and he had established monastic centers for them in
the form of Maths. His had been a short, but eventful life. He retired to the
Himalayas and disappeared inside a cave near Kedarnath. This cave is
traditionally pointed out as the site of his samadhi. Other variant traditions
place Sri Sankara's last days at Karavirpitham or at Mahur in Maharashtra,
Trichur in Kerala or Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. It is a measure of Sri Sankaracarya's
widespread fame that such conflicting traditions have arisen around his name.
True to the traditions
of sannyasa, Sri Sankara was a peripatetic monk, who traveled the length and
breadth of the country in his short lifetime. His fame spread so far and wide,
that various legends are recounted about him from different parts of India. The
true sannyasi that he was, he lived completely untouched by the fabric of
society. So much so that even the location of Kaladi, his birth-place, remained
generally unknown for a long time. The credit of identifying this village in
Kerala goes to one of his 19th-century successors at Sringeri, Sri Saccidananda
Sivabhinava Narsimha Bharati.
Reference:
SrimatSwami Tapasyananda, The Sankara-dig-vijaya of Madhava-Vidyaranya, Ramakrishna Math,
Chennai-4.
Courtesy: sringeri.net
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