The text of the Srimukhas (pontifical epistles) granted by the Jagadgurus of the Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha since time immemorial refers to Sri Sankara as Nikila-Pashanda-Kantakotgha patanena visadi- krta-Veda-Vedanta-Marga-Shanmatha-Pratishthapa-kacharyah: i.e. describes him as 'one who swept off the thorns that encumbered the various forms of worship of the six manifestations of God'. Worship of these deities had waned in our land due to the inroads of Buddhism and Jainism. It was Sri Sankara who rescued them from oblivion and rid some of them of their unholy encrustations. Particular mention may be made of the vamachara practices in the Sakta religion and the abhorrent rituals of the Kapalikas. Hence Sri Sankara is gratefully spoken of as Shanmathapratishtapakacharya, which means, not one who established the six forms of worship for the first time but one who revived and gave strength and stability to the existing ones. Nor were they to Sri Sankara six different, and much less, opposed forms. They are six alternative ways in which the same Supreme God is worshipped according to the preference of the worshipper. Each chooses his Ishta devata among them, determined by his family tradition (kulachara) and his inclination (Ruchi), and accommodates the rest also in a subsidiary way in his pattern of worship. Thus Sri Sankara was a great integrator within the fold of the Vedic religion and he brought about intra-religious amity among all those who professed the Hindu faith.
Such was the life and work of the illustrious Sankaracharya who packed within a brief period of thirty-two years a series of achievements that are unequaled both in their content and their variety. Judged by any test, as a writer, as a poet, as a thinker and debater, as a prophet and mystic, as a religious organization, and by any aspect of his diversified personality, Sri Sankara is unique among the great men of the world. He holds a pre-eminent position among the Master Minds that have shaped the thoughts and actions alike of their contemporaries and of posterity. Above all, the Advaita Vedanta that he expounded to such artistic perfection is the one and only philosophy that will effectively make for personal liberation from the shackles of life on the one hand, and for universal amity and peace liquidating social and national rivalries on the other. The Vedanta associated with his name belongs not to one section of the Hindus only. It is the philosophy of the entire humanity and deserves to be carefully studied and scrupulously practiced by men in every part of the globe. Most truly, Sri Sankara is referred to with love and devotion as Lokasankara, the most brilliant among the benefactors of mankind for all time and in all times.
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