Adi Sankara , a great visionary of Vedic Religion .

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Hare Krishna,

Adi Sankara, a great visionary of Vedic Religion.

Sanatana Dharma has been founded on the Vedas (God's revelations) and that is the reason why it is also called the ``Vedic'' religion . It flourished well as it drew its inspiration and obtained its strength from frequent Divine intervention. But, a few centuries ago, this peaceful religious life in the country experienced a state of flux when the noble thoughts were attacked by some sectarian groups. In this state of confusion, there was a dire need for resuscitating it, for putting it back on the right path after countering the challenges and for restoring it to its past glory.

God, the Merciful, desired to stem the rot and decided that an eminent spiritual personality should appear and revive ‘Santana Dharma’ based on the Vedas and guide humanity. Accordingly, the divine messenger Adi Sankara took up the task of reformation. A great visionary, a teacher, a philosopher and a missionary, Adi Sankara, during his brief stay in this world, unified people and inspired them to follow the Vedic path. As an infant prodigy, he mastered the scriptural lore within a short time. Later, he took to monastic order, travelled extensively and spread vedic faith. His accomplishments are thus

incredible.

Two distinct schemes of religious life were available before the people, the one giving scope to duty and worship and the other, emphasising on dispassion and knowledge. To acquire knowledge it required efforts, but Adi Sankara, who presented his philosophy on the bedrock of scriptures, wrote commentaries for ``Brahma Sutras'', Bhagavad Gita , and other major works. To stress the importance of escaping from the clutches of worldly pleasures, an example was given viz., that no one will even touch the food that has been tasted by a crow by dipping its beak into it .

This great guide extolled ``devotion'' and contributed several hymns .

On his rounds to collect alms Adi Sankara reached the house of a poor woman who was unable to give him anything but a gooseberry. Instantaneously, he offered prayers to Goddess Lakshmi imploring Her to extend Her mercy to the woman and there was a shower of gold coins in the hut. A popular hymn when recited will fetch prosperity ; Her benign glance at a devotee will result in a shower of grace, says this hymn known as ``Kanakadhara Stotram ''.

Adi Sankara’s famous hymn Sri Krishnashtakam is given below :

1. May He, who is ever held in embrace by Sri Lakshmi, the Goddess of abundance, who is all-pervading, in whose physical form is the entire created world-the animate and the inanimate, who is the theme of the Vedas, who is the unattached and impartial witness of the actions of the human intellect, who is ever pure, who is the remover of the ills of the devotees, destroyer of the dark forces, who is lotus-eyed, and the holder of the club, the conch, and the Sudarshana Chakra, who wears a garland of wild flowers of unstained glory, who is everlasting sweetness, who is that worthy refuge of all and the Lord of the Universe –

Sri Krishna be visible to me .

2. May He, from whom has emerged all this universe composed of ether, air, water, fire and earth, who is the destroyer of Madhu, who by his own Guna of Satva protects the infinite creation, who at the time of deluge withdraws everything into himself, who is the all-pervading substance and the refuge of all and the Lord of the Universe, that Krishna be visible to me.

3. May He, whom the pure-minded sages, by practicing first the Yogic injunction of restraint and Pranayama thus subduing all the mental faculties, perceive in their heart as Vishnu – the adored of the three worlds, who has assumed the Maya body, who is the shelter of the entire Universe, that Sri Krishna grant me his vision .

4. May He, whom the Vedas declare , ‘ One without second, stainless, He stays in the world and controls the world, but Him the world knows not ”, who is the supreme director of the play of the universe, who is the sole object of contemplation of Devatas, sages and mankind, who is the bestower of liberation to all living beings, refuge of the entire universe and the Lord of the world, that Sri Krishna be visible to me .

5. May He, by whose power Indra and other Devatas became powerful and conquered the demons, without whose doing no one can act and has any freedom to do anything at all, who takes away the pride of poetic talent of the world, conquering all the learned, refuge of the Universe, that Sri Krishna be visible to me .

6. May He, without meditation on whom a man is born in a lower body like a pig, without knowledge of whom man is oppressed with the dread of birth and death, without the remembrance of whom man gets the body of hundreds of worms, who is the refuge of the universe, that Krishna grant me his vision .

7. May He, who is the destroyer of fear and remover of delusion, who is the help of the helpless, who has the complexion of a new rain-cloud, who is the playmate of the children in Gokula and a friend of Arjuna, who is self-existent, the parent of all beings and giver of happiness to beings according to their karma, that Sri Krishna be visible to me .

8. May He, the birth less Lord of the universe, who appears in the form of Vishnu for the deliverance of the pious, like a bridge of righteousness, whenever there is a frightening decline of Dharma, who is devoid of all changes, whose glory the Vedas sing, who is the lord of the Vrajabhoomi, that Sri Krishna grant me his vision .

Bhagavan Krishna says in Gita, Chapter 15, Sloka 17 & 18 :

uttamah purusas tv anyah / paramatmety udahrtahyo loka-trayam avisya / bibharty avyaya isvarah

yasmat ksaram atito' ham / aksarad api cottamahato' smi loke vede ca / prathitah purusottamah ( There is, however, another superior aksara-purusa known as Paramatma. He is Isvara, the unchanging controller who enters and sustains the three

worlds.Since I am beyond ksara-tattva (the fallible jiva), and even excel aksara-tattva (the two-fold purusa, brahma and Paramatma), I am well known both in this world and in the Vedas as Purusottama, the Supreme Person. )

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA!!!

 

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