An article on Acharya Shankara Bhagavatpada

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Namaste Advaitins:

 

An article on Acharya Shankara published in The Hindu of 2nd May, 2004 is

reproduced here.

With warm regards,

subbu

 

 

PERSPECTIVE

Saint as philosopher

At a time when Hinduism is going through unprecedented convulsions and

its past is being appropriated for political ends, understanding the

contribution of Sankara is of profound importance, writes K.N. PANIKKAR.

NO other religious thinker and philosopher of India has been as much at the

centre of intellectual and religious attention as Sankara. His contribution in

the philosophical and religious realms are such that those who followed him

could not but take cognisance of his ideas, either in contestation or in

approval. The Indian religious and philosophical traditions have been

continuously enriched by the debates, interpretations and commentaries, which

drew upon his erudition. Despite this continuous scholarly engagement, given the

complex character of his contribution, there are still several grey areas, which

deserve exploration and interpretation, if the real import of his contribution

is to be holistically understood.

It is not surprising that around the life of an inspired genius like Sankara

who achieved so much within such a short period of time several myths and

legends have evolved. This raises an important question about how to study the

life of a religious ascetic. The biographical literature is not a highly evolved

genre in India, more so about religious leaders and thinkers, as the details of

their life are more often enmeshed in what the devotees and followers conjure

up, generally from imagination and, indeed, as a part of deification. Sankara's

life is no exception. Except a bare outline of his life, almost everything else

appears to be uncertain, be it the date of his birth or the number of works he

has authored.

A fairly large corpus of literature exists on how to reconstruct and interpret

the life and work of religious saints, employing the methods of mythology,

history, anthropology, linguistics and psychoanalysis. In an interesting essay

on the life of Sankara, David Lorenzen has tried to locate his life in a broader

religious and philosophical context. An important aspect of his essay is a

variety of questions he raises about several legends surrounding the life of

Sankara. A rereading of these legends on the lines on which he suggests is

likely to yield considerable insight. The birth myths of supernatural heroes

have been a subject of considerable interest to psychoanalysts. One of them,

Otto Rank, has identified features which are common to birth-related myths all

over the world. Although Indian myths are not part of his study, they too share

the common features identified by him in other myths. The legend about the birth

of Sankara, who according to tradition was an incarnation of

Shiva, which accounts for the miracles he performed as well as for his

intellectual accomplishments also fall within the same paradigm. The myths and

legends in which Sankara's life is now submerged would perhaps never be fully

unravelled, as it is futile to look for historical facts in legends or to treat

them as historically true. Yet, since myths and legends do represent reality,

though in an illusory manner, they deserve to be carefully dissected. The

meaning of the legends of Sankara has been variously interpreted; most of them

enclosed within a religious perspective tend to be legitimatory rather than

explanatory. Subjecting them to a theoretically informed analysis might help to

illumine the process by which he arrived at his intellectual position. After all

we do not have the life of Sankara as the focus of a similar study as of Luther

by the famous psychoanalyst, Eric Ericson.

In this context the formative influences on Sankara is an area, which can be

approached from a holistic perspective. At present the understanding of the

making of Sankara as a philosopher and religious saint is influenced more by the

supernatural than by the analytic. Any academic exercise to probe other

dimensions and to locate him within a broader context, both intellectual and

religious, is therefore likely to have many skeptics. Yet no serious attempt to

assess the contribution of such an outstanding intellect as Sankara is possible

without looking beyond the belief, however difficult it is. Madhava's

Sankaradigvijayam, considered the most important of the hagiographies, has

traced his intellectual development as follows:

In his first year Sankara mastered his mother tongue and to read letters. In

his second he could read and was able to intuitively understand recited Sanskrit

texts. By his third year he was reciting the Vedas, teaching his fellow students

and defeating in debate adults. Sometime in his third year his father died.

After Sankara has been consecrated for a full year, his mother with the aid of

her kinsmen, had him invested with the sacred thread. This took place in his

fifth year. By this time he had mastered everything his teacher could teach him

including the Vedas and their six auxiliary subjects, analytical philosophy,

Sankhya and Mimamsa. He had also intuitively grasped the truth of Advaita.

In grasping the truth of Advaita Vedanta "intuitively", as Madhava suggests,

the existing knowledge in the field could not but have an influence over him.

Through his teacher Govinda who was a disciple of Gaudapada, "the first

systematic exponent of the Advaita Vedanta", Sankara was privy to the extant

discourse. How he turned that into a system of interpretation and elaboration

through commentaries and debates would ever remain a curiosity for intellectual

historians. What Prof. Belvalkar termed as "philosophical despair" about the

lack of his biographical detail may as well apply to this field. The process of

this intellectual engagement and its consequences have been appropriated by

many, as suggested by Prof. G.C. Pandey. "... The medieval legend of Sankara,

obscures and distorts his original history through the lavish exercise of a

mythical imagination used for the purpose of authenticating and popularising the

influence of many medieval monastic institutions claiming to

derive their several traditions from Sankarachaya. This apparently required,

among other things, the projecting of a god like image of Sankara who performs

miracles freely and is regarded as a divine incarnation with a mission. Apart

from the haze of exaggerations and miracles, it was also apparently felt

necessary by some to invest Sankara with a hoary antiquity which would defy

ordinary historical proof."

It may be argued that Sankara lived in an age of historical and religious flex

and the real import of his contribution lies in his success in giving a new

direction and epistemological foundation to the latter by emphasising that

jnana, or knowledge of the supreme spirit, as the chief end of man's endeavour.

By then Buddhism was on the decline, killed as is said, by a fraternal embrace

of Brahminism. The latter silently assimilated many Buddhist practices,

"condemned animal sacrifices, accepted Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu, and thus

absorbed the best elements of the Buddhist faith". Buddhism had exercised a

profound influence on Sankara's mind to the extent that the tradition opposed to

Sankara holds that he is a Buddhist in disguise and his mayavada but

crypto-Buddhism. The influence of other religious systems on Sankara is not that

pronounced, a point, however, is a matter of controversy among scholars. At any

rate it was a critical period in the history of Hindu religion in

India when as Radhakrishnan has remarked, there was a general wariness with the

wrangling sects. Sankara sought to give a common basis by stretching the old

moulds without breaking them and thus arose his philosophy of Advaita Vedanta.

Strongly opposed to any ceremonial piety Sankara imparted a sense of religious

unity through his interpretations of religious sources. The very tenor of his

thought demarcated him from popular Hinduism, which was gaining ground at that

time. It is arguable that Sankara's highly intellectualised interpretation was

an antidote to the popular Hinduism of the times. Yet it was limited in its

social reach. Vivekanda has recognised this limitation: "Vedanta is too

abstruse, too elevated to be the religion of the masses. Even in India, its

birthplace, where it has been ruling supreme for the last 3,000 years, it has

not been able to permeate the masses. As we go on we shall find that it is

difficult for even the most thoughtful man and woman in any country

to understand Advaitism."

What the later society made of Sankara's philosophy not only reflects its

highly abstract character and thus a limited reach but also its socially elitist

appeal. Many see the Bhakti Movement, which gave a new synthetic credo to

popular Hinduism, as a counter to the religious path chalked out by Sankara. But

then the Bhakti movement itself is not homogeneous but heterogeneous in its

religious and philosophical outlook. The Saguna Bhaktas like Chaitanya,

Tulsidas, Surdas and Mirabai and several others believed in a personal god and

salvation through Bhakti. On the other hand the Nirguna Bhaktas like Kabir and

Nanak upheld the monistic view of the ultimate reality and the importance of

jnana and thus were closer to the ideas of Sankara. However, a large number of

heterodox sects which flourished in different parts of the country were outside

the influence of Sankara's philosophy, indicating thereby how differentiated the

religious practices were among the Hindus. Yet, it is

worthwhile to enquire whether the influence of Advaita transgressed the charmed

circle. The vast corpus of religious literature in regional languages which has

not been adequately studied can provide interesting insights into how religious

ideas percolated into different strata of society. It might also reflect upon

the hegemonising character of Sankara's ideas.

Would it be correct to say that Advaita had a social reincarnation in the 19th

century when the social and religious reformers were seeking a philosophy as an

aid to unification and homogenisation of Hinduism? Most of them saw Advaita as a

powerful ideological system, which can effectively undermine social divisions

and legitimise the idea of religious universalism. One of the early writings of

Rammohun Roy was the translation of an Abrigdement of the Vedanta. He also

defended Vedanta against the criticism advanced by the Christian missionaries.

Afterwards almost all reformers of this period invoked Vedanta for the reforms

they were trying to undertake. Keshab Chandra Sen's notion of universalism was

rooted in his conception of Advaita. Vivekananda saw it as the future religion

of the world. In Kerala both Narayana Guru and Chatambi Swamikal made it the

basis of their reform efforts. Thus advaita reemerged in the 19th Century as a

powerful force for the unification of Hinduism as

well as for imparting to it a higher philosophical foundation. That it was also

the inspiration for the purification of religious practices is an important

factor. The Vedanta thus played a dual role in modern times: a philosophical

foundation for the homogenisation of Hindus on the one hand and the regeneration

of Hinduism on the other.

Much has been written on Sankara and much more will be written, as one

philosopher has observed, "The doctrine advocated by Sankara is from a purely

philosophical point of view, and apart from all theological considerations the

most important and interesting one which has arisen on Indian soil."

It is indeed not possible to separate the philosopher from the religious

saint. But the religious character of such remarkable men tends to be isolated,

foregrounded and appropriated in every age. Therefore at a time when Hinduism is

going through unprecedented convulsions and its past being appropriated for

political ends, how we understand the contribution of Sree Sankara is bound to

have profound importance.

The writer is the Vice Chancellor of the Sri Sankaracharya University, Kochi

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