The Infant Sankara - A Sankara Jayanthi Offering !

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Friday, May 17th 2002 is Sri Sankara Jayanthi, the

appearance day of Acharya Sankaracharya. Srimad

Adi Sanakra Bhagavatpada is undoubtedly the most

widely known of India's saintly philosophers, both

within the country and outside. Among the Vijayas

available in print, Madhava-Vidyaranya's

Sankara-Digvijaya excels all others as a philosophical

and biographical poem of remarkable literary beauty

and depth of thought.

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Sankara Digvijaya - by Madhava Vidyaranya

English translation from Sanskrit by Swami Tapasyananda

© Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras - 600 004, India

[sri Sri Adi Sankara Bhagavatpada]

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....

From the heavens the Devas rained fragrant flowers, which

were as pure and lovely as the hearts of good men, in

order to honor this advent of Siva's incarnation; and the

blessed mother with the child in her arms shone like the

sky with the brilliant sun, or like the earth with the

mount Meru, or like knowledge in the hands of scholars

endowed with humility. The learned astrologers, who were

received with honor by the head of the family, made the

following prediction about the child's future:

 

" This child will grow into a scholar capable of defeating

any opponent in debate. He will be the promulgator of a

new philosophy. He will gain recognition as a master of

all learning. His reputation will last as long as the

world exists. This child will indeed be a perfect man.

What more can we say! " About his lifespan no question

was put and no prediction was made also. For, virtuous

men never speak words that cause pain. A large number of

ladies of related and friendly families assembled near

the confinement room and saw the face of the infant with

the same joy and relief people feel on seeing the cool

rising moon on a hot summer night. The light kept in the

room at night was rendered quite dim and invisible by

the brilliance of the infant, so that visiting ladies

wondered how the room was lit up without any lamp at

all.

 

Sivaguru named the child as Sankara to indicate that he

is the bestower (kara) of happiness (sam ) to all who

resort to him, or may be, to commemorate the fact that

he was born out of Sankara's (Siva's) grace bestowed on

him as a result of long observance of austerity and

prayers. Though the child was all-knowing and possessing

all powers, he none the less passed through all the

usual stages of an infant's growth. He smiled, he kicked

his legs, he turned on his abdomen. The sight of him

in his cradle filled the hearts of good men with joy,

while it brought gloom on the face of proud and

argumentative scholars. While he lay on a soft bed

and kicked at the cradle sides with his infant legs,

it looked as if the hopes of all dualistic scholars

was being shattered to pieces. When the child began

to lisp two or three syllables, the dualists became

silent, and when he started standing up and taking a

few steps with a smiling face, those heroes took fright

and ran away helter skelter in all directions. The

Kokila found a rival in the sweetness of the infant's

prattle, while the swan felt abashed when it saw the

beauty of his steps.

 

When the child began to toddle, the ground looked as

if it were covered with saffron and coral bits, being

colored with the pinkish tinge of the infant's feet

blended with his moon-like bodily lustre. The

enlightened men could see in that child the reflection

of Siva's form with the crescent moon in it's locks,

the third eye in the forehead, the trident resting on

the shoulder, and the body sparking like crystal. His

nfant body gradually grew in size like the affluence

of a virtuous ruler, the fame of a diligent scholar,

and the disc of the waxing moon. With unwinking eyes

men gazed at the picture they saw in the child of the

Siva form with the crescent moon on the head, the

serpent round the chest, the Chamara mark on the sole,

and emblems like Damaru and the trident in the palms.

 

Thus, when in the course of time, confusion had set

in the minds of men regarding the values of life, when

the path to heaven was disturbed and the way to Moksha

closed, when the whole species of man had degenerated

as never before and utter doom was about to overtake

mankind, came this manifestation of Siva as

Sankaracharya.