The life and work of Sri Sankara Part 1

Among the renowned personalities celebrated in the hagiographies of the world, by far the most distinguished of all time is Sri Sankara, reverently referred to as Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada, or simply as the Bhagavatpada. Whether considered, as tradition and the Puranas would have it, as an incarnation of Lord Siva Himself or only looked upon as a surpassing human being, either way, he is pre-eminent among the prophets and religious leaders of all times. His achievements during the little over three decades of his earthly life constitute a marvel of uncommon rate.

He was an intellectual prodigy who attained a phenomenal mastery over the scriptures even when he was less than eight years of age. Using the Sanskrit language with a felicitous clarity all his own, he wrote elaborate commentaries on the tripod of Hindu religion and philosophy evincing a dialectical skill that even to this day is the despair and envy of his adversaries. The original treatises that he produced on Advaita Vedanta ranging from a single verse to a thousand for all grades of mental comprehension live even today as fresh as ever, in the thoughts and tongues of men. His triumphal digvijaya to all parts of our land more than once had a double purpose, to vindicate the truths of Advaita Vedanta against the onslaughts of its disputants and to purify our religious theories and practices out of the accretions that had gathered around them by the lapse of time and the inroads of perverted minds. Mere sacerdotalism which went by the letter of ignoring the spirit and the corruption of designing people had for long fouled the clear springs of our pristine religion, resulting in the adoption of ways of worship that were neither civilized nor moral. All this had happened before Sri Sankara came on the scene. He accomplished the stupendous task of ridding our religion of its unfortunate excrescence and raised it to a pedestal of worshipful dignity. Buddhism, the rebel child of the Vedic religion and philosophy, denied God and the soul, laid the axe at the very roots of Vedic thought and posed a great danger to its very survival. This onslaught stemmed betimes, compelling Buddhism to seek refuge in other lands. While the credit for this should go primarily to the Mimamsaka, Kumarila Bhatta, it was because of Sri Sankara's dialectical skill and irrefutable arguments that it ceased to have sway over the minds of the inheritors of Vedic religion.

Having thus enthroned our ancient religion and philosophy in the hearts and minds of his countrymen, Sri Sankara established in several parts of the country guardians of his teachings to preserve and propagate it to countless generations of the future. While these should have been numerous when he established them, five stand to this day as pontificates bearing his name, and function at Kanchi, Sringeri, Puri, Dwaraka, and Badri, covering the whole of Bharata Varsha. There is not in legend or in history life like Sri Sankara's so short in years and yet so packed with achievements in the realm of the spirit and whose glory extends beyond the bounds of space and time. No wonder that even today, much as protagonists of other schools may regret and protest, Vedanta is identified with Advaita which Sri Sankara drew out of the Upanishads, distilled out of the Bhagavad Gita and described in his commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, and that this school of Vedanta has compelled the conviction and obtained the assent of the thinking minds of the West.