Shankar Acharya (788 - 820)

Shankaracarya is a renowned Vedic philosopher. There are many devotional works and philosophical texts attributed to him. He is said to have established a religious order and four pilgrimage sites in the four corners of India.

Shankaracarya is said to have lived in the eighth and ninth centuries (788 - 820) of the Christian era. He was a south Indian, born in a small village in the state of Kerala. His father apparently died when he was still young, thus his mother raised him predominantly.

Shankaracarya desired to renounce the world from a very young age. He did so, making his way to Varanasi, where he taught and gradually began to acquire disciples. He lived in the Himalayan town of Badrinath for four years, one of the sites where he established his four mathas or hermitages. The others were founded in Puri, Dwarka and Kanchi in the south. After composing his major works in Badrinath, Shankaracarya returned to Varanasi where he continued to teach.

He is recognized as the greatest contributor towards a philosophical school known as advaita or non-dualism. According to this school, there is only one supreme spirit.

Of the numerous texts that are attributed to Shankara, the Brahma Sutra is the one that was definitely produced by him. There are three other texts that most believe are his own words: commentaries on the Brhadaranyaka and Taittiriya Upanishad and a text called the Thousand Teaching, Upadeshasahasri. He is also said to have written a commentary on the Bhagavad - gita, among other things. Shankaracarya was categorically opposed to Buddhism and is said to have been largely responsible for its ultimate demise in India, with his assertion that the Buddha was a avatar of Vishnu.

Shankaracarya's basic theology was that ignorance and maya (illusion) are caused by the superimposition of the non-self on to the self. He believed that this prevented people from seeing their true nature or the subjectivity of the self and its connection to the supreme spirit. He believed that in order to realize one's relationship with the supreme spirit one has to develop to ability to discriminate. He is credited with having re-established the relationship between the supreme spirit and the jeeva.

He developed a method of reading texts that aided the understanding of his philosophy in the light of his advaita or non-dualist view. It involved listening to the text, thinking and then reflecting deeply.

Shankaracarya remains as one of the great philosophical thinkers in Vedic history. He transformed the orthodox position of his age with a radical belief system, known as advaita or non-dualism, where the soul and the supreme spirit are understood to be the same. Because of the time and the place he did not reveal everything to his followers but revealed as mush as could be comprehended. Remember there was a large atheistic population and he had to cut throught it. His teachings have revealed his devotion to Govinda as the following story suggests.
 

Shankar Acharya was walking along a path in Varanasi, one day, accompanied by his disciples. He heard the sound of grammatical rules being recited by an old scholar. Taking pity on the scholar, he went up to him and advised him not to waste his time on grammar at his age but to turn his mind to God in worship and adoration. The Hymn to Govinda was composed on the spot. Besides the refrain of the song beginning with the words "Bhaja Govindam" , Shankara is stated to have sung twelve verses, hence the hymn bears the title "Dvadasamanjarika-Stotra" (A hymn which is twelve blossoms - verses). The fourteen disciples who were with the Acharya, are believed to have added one verse each. These fourteen verses are together called "Chaturdasa-manjarika-Stotra" (A hymn which is a bunch of fourteen blossoms - verses).

Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda. Oh fool! Rules of Grammar will not save you at the time of your death.

Oh fool! Give up your thrist to amass wealth, devote your mind to thoughts to the Real. Be content with what comes through actions already performed in the past.

Do not get drowned in delusion by going wild with passions and lust by seeing a woman's navel and chest. Bodies are flesh, fat and blood. Do not fail to remember this again and again in your mind.

Uncertain is the life of man as rain drops on a lotus leaf. Know that the whole world remains a prey to disease, ego and grief.

So long as a man is fit and able to support his family, see the affection all those around him show. But no one at home cares to even have a word with him when his body totters due to old age.

When one is alive, his family members enquire kindly about his welfare. But when the soul departs from the body, even his wife runs away in fear of the corpse.

Childhood is lost in play. Youth is lost by attachment to woman. Old age passes away by thinking over many past things. Alas! hardly is there anyone who yearns to be lost in Parabrahman.

Who is your wife? Who is your son? Strange is this samsara. Of whom are you? Where have you come from? Brother, ponder over these truths.

From Satsanga comes non-attachment, from non-attachment comes freedom from delusion, which leads to self-settledness. From self-settledness comes Jivan Mukti.

What good is lust when youth has fled? What use is a lake which has no water? Where are the relatives when wealth is gone? Where is samsara when the Truth is known?

Do not boast of wealth, friends, and youth. Each one of these are destroyed within a minute. Free yourself from the illusion of the world of Maya and attain the timeless Truth.

Daylight and darkness, dusk and dawn, winter and springtime come and go. Time plays and life ebbs away. But the storm of desire never leaves.

This bouquet of twelve verses was imparted to a grammarian by the all-knowing Shankara, adored as the bhagavadpada.

Oh mad man! Why this engrossment in thoughts of wealth? Is there no one to guide you? There is only one thing in three worlds that can save you from the ocean from samsara. Get into that boat of satsangha quickly.

There are many who go with matted locks, many who have clean shaven heads, many whose hairs have been plucked out; some are clothed in saffron, yet others in various colors --- all just for a livelihood. Seeing truth revealed before them, still the foolish ones see it not.

Strength has left the old man's body; his head has become bald, his gums toothless and leaning on crutches. Even then the attachment is strong and he clings firmly to fruitless hope.

Behold there lies the man who sits warming up his body with the fire in front and the sun at the back; at night he curls up the body to keep out of the cold; he eats his beggar's food from the bowl of his hand and sleeps beneath the tree. Still in his heart, he is a wretched puppet at the hands of passions.

One may go to the Ganga, observe fasts, and give away riches in charity! Yet, devoid of jnana, nothing can give mukthi even at the end of a hundred births.

Take your residence in a temple or below a tree, wear the deerskin for the dress, and sleep with mother earth as your bed. Give up all attachments and renounce all comforts. Blessed with such vairagya, could any fail to be content?

One may take delight in yoga or bhoga, may have attachment or detachment. But only he whose mind steadily delights in Brahman enjoys bliss, no one else.

Let a man read but a little from the Gita, drink just a drop of water from the Ganga, worship Murari just once. He then will have no altercation with Yama.

Born again, death again, birth again to stay in the mother's womb ! It is indeed hard to cross this boundless ocean of samsara. Oh Murari ! Redeem me through Thy mercy.

There is no shortage of clothing for a monk so long as there are rags cast off the road. Freed from vice and virtue, onward he wanders. One who lives in communion with God enjoys bliss, pure and uncontaminated, like a child and as someone intoxicated.

Who are you? Who am I? From where do I come? Who is my mother, who is my father? Ponder thus, look at everything as essenceless and give up the world as an idle dream.

In me, in you and in everything, none but the same Vishnu dwells. Your anger and impatience is meaningless. If you wish to attain the quality of Vishnu soon, have Sama Bhaava always.

Do not waste your efforts to win the love of or to fight against friend and foe, children and relatives. See yourself in everyone and give up all feelings of duality completely.

Give up lust, anger, infatuation, and greed. Ponder over your real nature. Fools are they who are blind to the Self. Cast into hell they suffer there endlessly.

Regularly recite from the Gita, meditate on Vishnu in your heart, and chant His thousand glories. Take delight to be with the noble and the holy. Distribute your wealth in charity to the poor and the needy.

He who yields to lust for pleasure leaves his body a prey to disease. Though death brings an end to everything, man does not gives up the sinful path.

Wealth is not welfare, truly there is no joy in it. Reflect thus at all times. A rich man fears even his own son. This is the way of wealth everywhere.

Regulate the pranas, remain unaffected by external influences and discriminate between the real and the fleeting. Chant the holy name of God and silence the turbulent mind. Perform these with care, with extreme care.

Oh devotee of the lotus feet of the Guru! May thou be soon free from Samsara. Through disciplined senses and controlled mind, thou shalt come to experience the indwelling Lord of your heart!

Thus was a silly grammarian lost in rules cleansed of his narrow vision and shown the Light by Shankara's apostles.

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, Oh fool! Other than chanting the Lord's names, there is no other way to cross the life's ocean.