Sloka on Sankaracharya

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Dear Gurudevs,

The following is a sloka from the Sankara Digvijayam of Swami Vidyaranya, about

the greatness of Sri Sankara:--

ajnaanaantar gahanapatitaan aatmavidyoadesaih

traatum lokan bhavadavasikhaa taapa paapachyamaanaan|

muktaa maunam vatavitapinor moolato nishpatanti

sambhor murtih charati bhuvane sankaracharyaroopa||

 

Meaning—

“Lord Siva Himself is now moving about in the world in the form of

Sankaracharya, in order to save those who have fallen into the forest of ajnaana

(ignorance) and are being roasted in the forest fire of worldly existence, by

imparting to them Atmavidya. He has given up silence, which he had adopted as

the means of teaching as Dakshinamurti and has come down from the foot of the

banyan treeâ€.

Note- Lord Siva Himself was Dakshinamurti. He had the four sages, Sanaka,

Sanandana, Sanatana, and Sanatkumara as disciples. He taught them through

silence, sitting under a banyan tree. It is Lord Siva Himself who has incarnated

as Sankaracharya. Since the people of the world are not capable of understanding

through silence, he has given up silence and teaches through speech.

It is to be noted that this sloka says that Sankaracharya is moving about, in

the present tense, though the sloka was written long after Sankaracharya left

his mortal coil. The implication is that, though he is not present in physical

form, he is always there, imparting knowledge.

As the sloka in Roman script may be difficult to read, I am giving the same in

Devanagari and Malayalam scripts in the attachment.

S.N.Sastri

 

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Sankara-sloka.pdf