Thought of the week: Sripada Sankaracarya

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Thought of the week: Sripada Sankracarya

 

Birth of Sankara

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Vidyadhiraja lived in the small village of Kaladi in Kerala, South India. His

only son, Sivaguru, was inclined to asceticism and spirituality. He later

married Sivataraka (also known as Aryamba) from a nearby village. In spite of a

virtuous life, they were not blessed with a child for a long time. However

after many prayers it is said that Lord Siva appearing in a dream gave them the

benediction that soon he would personally descend as their son. Shortly

thereafter, the couple was blessed with a wonderful son and they named him

Sankara. According to historians, Sankara was born in the year 805 AD, though

there are some others who fix his year of birth to be 788 AD.

 

Sannyasa

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Sankara was a child prodigy. At the age of one he could speak and write. His

father, Sivaguru, passed away when he was only five years, and his mother

completely dedicated herself to him. By the time he was eight years old, he

well versed in Vedic scriptures and expressed the desire to accept sannyasa or

the renounced order of life. However, out of affection, his mother refused to

grant him permission. One day when Sankara was taking bath in the Purna river,

a crocodile caught hold of his leg and started to drag him. Hearing the cries

of the children nearby, Aryamba rushed to the scene. Since every Hindu,

specially brahmans, are supposed to enter the phase of sannyasa before death,

Sankara requested the permission of his mother to become a sannyasi. Having no

choice, Aryamba gave her consent. The crocodile let go of his leg immediately

and Sankara after consoling his mother embarked on the mission he had descended

to perform and became a wandering monk at the age of eight.

 

After taking sannyasa, Sankara studied under Govinda and accepted him as his

spiritual master. Govinda was a disciple of Gaudapada, the notable author of an

important Vedanta work Mandukya-karika, in which the influence of Mahayana

Buddhism--a form of Buddhism aiming at the salvation of all beings and tending

toward nondualistic or monistic thought--is very strongly evident, specially in

the last chapter. At the age of fifteen Sankara went to Kashi (Varanasi), a

city celebrated for its intellectuals. On the instructions of his spiritual

master, Sankara began to write commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras,

Bhagavad-gita and the Upanishads. In a very short time, he had established

himself as an authority on Vedanta philosophy.

 

Preaching

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Sankaracarya vigorously opposed Buddhism which he regarded as covered atheism.

Buddhism was first introduced by Lord Buddha about a thousand years ago in the

face of rampant misuse of the Vedas. Now that these gross misinterpretations of

the Vedas were more or less eliminated, Sankaracarya proceeded to re-introduce

the Vedas. Since the environment was so strongly atheistic, he introduced God

as formless and impersonal, in a way that would be easier for the atheists to

relate with. In doing so he rejected the personal form of God and thus his

philosophy is called advaita or that of universal oneness between God and

living entity. Sripada Sankaracarya said that though God is there, He is

present as an all-pervading, impersonal energy, and is the cause of all causes.

He said that this material cosmos was false, "brahma satyam jagan mithya:

material world is false, but the spiritual world is eternal".

 

When Sripada Sankaracarya received the tidings of his mother's grave illness,

he rushed to the bedside of his dying mother at Kaladi. It is interesting to

note that at this time the king of jnanis (impersonal knowledge) resorted to

bhakti and composed various hymns in praise of Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu to

appease his distressed mother. The chanting of these verses calmed her as she

left her body. Shortly after the death of his mother, Sankara had to endure

the blow of another death -- his guru, Govinda. He paid his last respects to

Govinda and established a temple in his honor. Sankara then proceeded to tour

the vast country of India and establish his philosophy. This is often referred

to his dig-vijaya - conquests in all directions. His spiritual insights and

vast knowledge won him many disciples and many debates.

 

One the most famous debates was with Madana Mishra, a famous mimamsa scholar of

the Vedas. As per this philosophy karma-kanda (performing prescribed

activities) is superior to all other paths of liberation, while Sankara

propounded the path of knowledge. The debate that was judged by Ubhaya Bharati,

the wife of Madana Mishra and a great scholar herself. After many days of

debating, Madana Mishra finally acknowledged defeat. Subsequently Sankaracarya

also debated with Ubhaya Bharati and converted her to his philosophy. He then

accepted both the husband and wife as his disciples.

 

Sankara continued his travels around the land refuting all objectionable

practices. He founded the dasanami (ten) order of sannayasis. In order to

spread his teaching evenly around the country, he established maths (centers)

in four places; Vimala pitha at Puri, Kalika pitha in Dwaraka, Sarada pitha in

Sringeri and the Jyoti Math in Badrinath. He appointed his four foremost

disciples as the head of each of these maths. He placed Sri Sureswaracharya

(who according to some is the same as Madana Mishra) at the head of the Math in

Sringeri, Sri Padmapada in Dwaraka, Sri Totaka in Badri and Sri Hastamalaka in

Puri.

 

The disappearance of Sripada Sankracarya is clouded with a great deal of

mystery and there are at least four distinct accounts of this. However it is

generally agreed that he left his body at the age of thirty-two. In a

relatively short time of two decades he almost single-handedly reversed the

tide of atheism in the form of Buddhism that had become so entrenched in all

corners of the country over the past thousand years and re-established the

Vedas in some form.

 

Impersonalism and Mayavada

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The impersonalists are attracted by the impersonal aspect of Krishna, also

known as the Brahmajyoti or His bodily effulgence. The impersonalists are also

transcendental, since they have developed attraction to some aspect of the

Lord. The four Kumaras (sons of Lord Brahma), Uddhava are some example of

devotees who began as impersonalists. However after getting some causeless

mercy, like the four Kumaras smelling the Tulasi on the Lotus feet of the Lord,

Uddhava meeting the gopis of Vrindavana, they became great devotees of the

personal form of the Lord.

 

While the impersonalists are attracted to the impersonal, they do not deny that

the supreme personal form of Lord that is the basis of the Brahman. However,

because of a lack of knowledge or their natural propensity towards grandeur,

knowledge or mysticism, they get attracted to the impersonal Brahman.

 

The Mayavadis in the line of Sripada Sankara deny the personal existence of

God. In order to prove this there are complex logical treatises to show the

Vedas in a different light. They claim that the personal incarnations of the

Lord emanate from the impersonal. They consider that each and every one is God

and has forgotten this fact since he is covered by Maya. Vaishnava acaryas

refute this by saying that since by definition God is greatest, He can never be

overpowered by anyone or anything. Since as per the Mayavadis, Maya is forcing

the living entities to forget that they are God, thus Maya is stronger than God

and hence Maya must be God. That is why philosophers in this line are referred

to as Mayavadis, since they are implicitly accepting Maya to be God.

 

The hidden reason for the appearance of Sankaracarya

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The hidden reason for Lord Siva, the greatest Vaishnava, to propound the path

of mayavada, is revealed by him in the Padma Purana, to his wife Parvati Devi:

 

mayavadam asac chastram pracchannam bauddham ucyate mayaiva kalpitam devi

kalau brahmana-rupina brahmanas caparam rupam nirgunam vaksyate maya

sarva-svam jagato 'py asya mohanartham kalau yuge vedante tu maha-sastre

mayavadam avaidikam/mayaiva vaksyate devi jagatam nasa-karanat

 

"The mayavada philosophy is impious. It is covered Buddhism. My dear Parvati,

in the form of a brahman in the Kali yuga I teach the imagined mayavada

philosophy. In order to cheat the atheists, I describe the Supreme Personality

of Godhead to be without form and without qualities. Similarly, in explaining

the Vedanta I describe the same mayavada philosophy in order to mislead the

entire population toward atheism by denying the personal form of the Lord."

 

Thus it was to bewilder the atheists that Lord Siva in the form of

Sankaracarya preached impersonalism. However under the guise of this

impersonalism he was able to reverse the atheistic Buddhist philosophy,

re-introduce the Vedas and cultivate the faith of people towards God. Without

the effort of Sankaracarya it would have been impossible for the later

Vaishnava acaryas like Madhavacarya, Ramanujacarya and Nimbarkacarya to once

again introduce bhakti yoga, the worship of the Supreme Lord in His personal

form.

 

Exalted position of Sripada Sankaracarya

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During Sankara's stay in Kashi, he once noticed a very old man engaged in the

early hours studying the rules of Sanskrit by Panini. Sankara was touched with

pity seeing the plight of the old man spending his years at a mere intellectual

accomplishment while he would be better off praying. With great compassion for

him and others like him who were also engaged in mere intellectual, sense

pleasures and not in the divine contemplation. Sankara burst forth with the

verses of Bhaja govinda, "Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda. Oh

fool ! Rules of Grammar will not save you at the time of your death."

 

Lord Shiva as the most compassionate, gives his association to the most fallen.

Even though closely associated with those in the mode of ignorance, he remains

largely untouched by it. Out of compassion for the souls bewildered by

atheistic philosophy, Sripada Sankaracarya gently steered them towards the path

of Godhead. It is not that because the Vaishnava acaryas attacked the mayavada

philosophy, they did not respect Sripada Shankaracharya. All great acaryas like

Madhavacarya, Ramanujacarya, Vishnuswami, Nimbarka and in the end, Lord

Chaitanya, had always offered the respects due to Sripada Sankaracharya, for

all of Them knew that Acharya Sankara was 'svayam Shankara' - Lord Shiva, who

is glorified in the scriptures as the greatest Vaishnava.

 

 

----- Festivals over the next week ------

*** Note all times are for Washington D.C, USA, EST ***

Jul 01 2001, Sunday Ekadasi Sayana (Break fast 04:47-06:58) (Fast)

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