Sankara’s Life
Sankaracharya was born towards the end of the eighty century A.D. at Kaladi, a village in Central Kerala. He was the only son of a devout Nambudiri Brahmin couple, Sivaguru and Aryamba. It is believed that he was born as a result of their long prayers to Lord Shiva of the famous Vrishabachaleswara temple at Trichur. He was an infant prodigy and completed his vedic studies by the age of eight. His father died when he was still young and it was his mother who brought him up with loving care as he was her only source of consolation and support now. The boy exhibited ascetic tendencies and the mother felt very upset. Yet, the divine mission for which that great genius had been born had to be fulfilled, and so something of a miracle had to happen to set Sankara free from worldly ties. So once when the son was bathing in the nearby Purna river and while the mother was standing on the bank, a crocodile caught hold of the boy’s leg and started dragging him into deeper waters. When death was (seemingly) near, Sankara asked permission of the mother to enter the last Ashrama of Sanyasa, which every Hindu was supposed to take before his death. Formal renunciation at such a critical situation. Apatsanyasa was a common practice. Very reluctantly Aryamba gave her consent and lo! mysteriously the crocodile let go of the boy! Emerging from the river-the Bala Sanyasin decided to become a wandering monk and soon left his village after consoling and assuring his mother that he would be at her side during her last days and even perform her funeral rites. Thus Sankara set forth on his divine mission at the very young age of eight, when most of the boys would not have even left their toy trinkets.
After leaving Kaladi the young sanyasin scholar wandered through South India and ultimately reached the banks of Narmada in search of a Guru. There he met Govinda Bhagavatpada, a prominent disciple of the great Gaudapada of Mandukya Karika reputation. Govindapada welcomingly accepted this bala-sanyasin as his disciple and initiated him into the intricacies of Vedanta. After about seven years, when Sankara had completed his Vedantic studies and sadhana, his guru told him to proceed to Kashi, the ancient city of learning and spirituality and spread the message of Advaita Vedanta from the there by writing commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, the Upanishads and the Bhagawad – Gita. As instructed he proceeded to Kashi and there, within a short time established himself as the greatest champion of Vedanta philosophy. He won many debates and disciples came to him in large numbers. Padmapada, Hastamalaka and Totaka were the chief among them. Thus, by the age of sixteen, Sankara had established himself as a great philosopher in the city of Varanasi, then the very heart of the intellectual and spiritual movements in India.
After establishing himself at Kashi as the invincible champion of Vedanta philosophy, Sankara started on a tour of this vast country for Dig-Vijaya or spiritual conquest, under specific instruction from sage Veda Vyasa who blessed him with a vision while Sankara was writing the Brahma Sutra Bhashya. Wherever he went, he won over eminent leaders of the other existing systems of philosophy and firmly established Advaita Vedanta. None could stand against his vast erudition, dialectical skill and spiritual insight. Amongst these debates, the one which was of great importance was his encounter with Mandana Mistra the great disciple of Kumarila Bhatta, a staunch protagonist of ritualism. The Karma Kanda portion of the Vedas had much hold on Hindu religion at that time and this was largely due to the philosopher- leaders and religious authorities like Kumarila Bhatta and Mandana Misra. In order to establish the truths of Jnana Kanda, Sankara had to defeat and win over these two intellectual giants. Kumarila Bhatta was at that time entering the self immolation Fire, a rite which is believed to release the soul into freedom from bondage of matter forever. Therefore as Kumarila Bhatta could not undertake a debate with Sankara he directed the Vedantin to meet his disciple, Mandana Misra with Ubhaya Bharathi, the scholarly wife of Mandana Misra, acting as the judge. After many days of discussion, Mandana Misra accepted defeat.
The condition of the debate was that whoever would be defeated would become the others’ disciple and take up the victor’s way of life. Thus Mandana Misra became a Sanyasi and was given the name Sureswara. This victory gave a new impetus to Sankara’s spiritual conquest. Sri Sankara and his disciples traveled all over the land refuting false doctrines and purifying objectionable practices which were then in vogue in the name of religion. He also established Mutts at four places: Sringeri in the South, Badri in the North, Dwaraka in the West and Jagannath Puri in the East. At Kanchi also, he is said to have established a Mutt, Known as Kamakoti Mutt. He chose these places for the beauty of their natural environments amidst snow clad mountains, forests and rivers or on the shores of the ocean, places where heaven and earth meet and transport man’s thoughts to sublime heights. He placed Sri Sureswaracharya at the head of the Mutt in Sringeri, Sri Padmapada in Dwaraka, Sri Totaka in Badri and Sri Hastmalaka in Puri. The establishment of these Mutts indicate Sri Sankara’s realisation of the physical and spiritual unity of India. He wrote in Sanskrit, the lingua franca of cultured India of those times, which alone could appeal to the intellectuals all over the land.
After a pretty long day at Sringeri, he hastened to the bedside of his dying mother in his ancestral home at Kaladi and sped her soul to the “ Immortal realms of light”, to the strains of mellifluous hymns in praise of Shiva and Vishnu. Undeterred by the opposition of his pharisaical (religious formalist) kinsmen, he cremated his mother’s body on the river bank behind the house, and the spot has since become hallowed as a place of pilgrimage.
He visited all the sacred shrines of the land around which have gathered the cultural traditions of the people, purifying the forms of worship and establishing the Sri Chakras in many of them, such as Kamakshi temple of Kanchi, Nara Narayana temple of Badri and Guhyeshwari temple in Nepal, etc.
This “best of peripatetic teachers” (Paramhamsa Parivrajaka Acharya) crowned his triumphal tours by vanquishing the great scholars of Kashmir, and ascended the Sarvajana Pitha as the symbol of recognition by world of his scholarship and undisputed mastery in all the(then known) branches of learning.
During his last visit to Nepal, he had the vision of Sri Dattatreya and from there, he went to Kedarnath at which place, at the age of 32 he is said to have disappeared from his moral existence. A spot not far from the shrine of Kedarnath is said to be the place of his disappearance. (One version, however is that merged in Mother Kamakshi in the Holy Kanchi, thus ending his earthly carrier).
Sankara made the edifice of Hindu religion strong by his rational and scientific exposition of the Upanishadic philosophy so that Sanatana Dharma could face all the challenges during the vicissitudes of history till modern times. His contribution to Indian Philosophy is so great and lasting that all the later philosophers have only tried either to refute him or to elucidate his ideas. In foreign countries, Indian philosophy has always come to be identified with Sankara’s Advaita.
Sankara symbolises the great Rishi-culture whose greatest exponent he was. The message of Sankara is a message of hope and optimism. He says that man is not a finality, a finished product; he has divine potentiality in him which is to be discovered through self conscious evolution. The kingdom of peace, fullness and joy are within each one of us, says Advaita. We will have to realise it. As his very name suggests (Sam karoti iti Sankara” “He who blesses is Sankara”), Sankaracharya was one of the greatest benefactors of mankind because he expounded the Advaita Vedanta Philosophy which is the essence of vedas and which is a pathway to Bliss and Immortality.