The life and work of Sri Sankara
Prof. P. Sankaranarayanan
Among the renowned personalities celebrated in the hagiographies of the
world, by far the most distinguished for all time is Sri Sankara,
reverently referred to as Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada,
or simply as the Bhagavatpada. Whether considered, as tradition and the
Puranas would have it, as an incarnation of Lord Siva Himself or only
looked upon as a surpassing human being, either way, he is pre-eminent
among the prophets and religious leaders of all times. His achievements
during the little over three decades of his earthly life constitute a
marvel of uncommon rate.
He was an intellectual prodigy who
attained a phenomenal mastery over the scriptures even when he was less
than eight years of age. Using the Sanskrit language with a felicitous
clarity all his own, he wrote elaborate commentaries on the tripod of
Hindu religion and philosophy evincing a dialectical skill which even to
this day is the despair and envy of his adversaries. The original
treatises that he produced on Advaita Vedanta ranging from a single
verse to a thousand for all grades of mental comprehension live even
today as fresh as ever, in the thoughts and tongues of men. His
triumphal digvijaya to all parts of our land more than once had a double
purpose, to vindicate the truths of Advaita Vedanta against the
onslaughts of its disputants and to purify our religious theories and
practices out of the accretions that had gathered round them by the
lapse of time and the inroads of perverted minds. Mere sacerdotalism
which went by the letter ignoring the spirit and the corruption of
designing people had for long fouled the clear springs of our pristine
religion, resulting in the adoption of ways of worship which were
neither civilised nor moral. All this had happened before Sri Sankara
came on the scene. He accomplished the stupendous task of ridding our
religion of its unfortunate excrescence and raised it to a pedestal of
worshipful dignity. Buddhism, the rebel child of the Vedic religion and
philosophy, denied God and the soul, laid the axe at the very roots of
Vedic thought and posed a great danger to its very survival. This
onslaught was stemmed betimes, compelling Buddhism to seek refuge in
other lands. While the credit for this should go primarily to the
Mimamsaka, Kumarila Bhatta, it was because of Sri Sankara's dialectical
skill and irrefutable arguments that it ceased to have sway over the
minds of the inheritors of Vedic religion.
Having thus
enthroned our ancient religion and philosophy in the hearts and minds of
his countrymen, Sri Sankara established in several parts of the country
guardians of his teachings to preserve and propagate it to countless
generations of the future. While these should have been numerous when he
established them, five stand to this day as pontificates bearing his
name, and function at Kanchi, Sringeri, Puri, Dwaraka and Badri,
covering the whole of Bharata Varsha. There is not in legend or in
history a life like Sri Sankara's so short in years and yet so packed
with achievements in the realm of the spirit and whose glory extends
beyond the bounds of space and time. No wonder that even today, much as
protagonists of other schools may regret and protest, Vedanta is
identified with Advaita which Sri Sankara drew out of the Upanishads,
distilled out of the Bhagavad Gita and described in his commentaries on
the Brahma Sutras, and that this school of Vedanta has compelled the
conviction and obtained the assent of the thinking minds of the West.
II
It is unfortunate that no biography of Sri Sankara was written by his
contemporaries. For details about his life, we have to depend on Sankara
Vijayas composed at different times long after he lived. They do not
agree in all particulars about his life. The traditional date of Sri
Sankara varies from that assigned to him by modern historians. While the
latter fix him as having lived from 788 to 820 A.D., the tradition
determined by the pontifical succession in the celebrated Pithas that he
established take him to a time long before the Christian era. Be that
as it may, we may glean from the different biographies extant today a
generally accepted account of his life and work.
It is agreed
on all hands that Sri Sankara belonged to a Nambudiri Brahmana family of
Kerala in the hamlet of Kaladi situated on the banks of the Churna
river. His father was a pious wealthy person called Sivaguru and his
mother was Aryamba. Not blessed with a son for a long time, the devout
pair went to worship Lord Siva in the nearby celebrated temple at
Trichur. The story goes that, pleased by their devotion, the God
appeared before them in a dream and asked them to choose between a
number of long-lived sons who would remain ignorant and stupid and one
who would live for eight years only, but would be possessed of
phenomenal intellectual gifts. Sivaguru and his wife had no hesitation
in choosing the latter. According to the legend, it was conveyed to them
that Lord Siva Himself would condescend to be born to them.
In
fullness of time, Aryamba bore a child carrying such divine marks on
its person that those who beheld it proclaimed it an incarnation of Lord
Siva Himself. It was given the significant name of Sankara, calculating
by the season, the day and time of its birth and also as if to predict
the great service the child was destined to render to the world. (Sam
Karoti iti Sankarah: 'Sankara' is one who does good). As ill-luck would
have it, Sivaguru passed away before the child was five years old and it
was then brought up with care and affection by his mother. With the
assistance of her kinsmen, Aryamba got the upanayanam ceremony performed
for her precocious boy who then mastered all the Vedas and Sastras
which seemed to wait on his lips, eager to be uttered by him for their
own sanctification.
The eight years of the boy's allotted life
were drawing to a close. The fateful day dawned. On that day it happened
that Aryamba and Sri Sankara went to the Churna river to bathe. The
mother finished her ablutions and was resting on the bank of the river.
Suddenly she heard a cry of distress from her son telling her that a
terrific crocodile had got his leg in its mouth and was dragging him
down. The agony of the mother was indescribable.
Then Sri
Sankara told her that he could free himself from the grip of the monster
if, then and there, he assumed the Sannyasa asrama bringing about
thereby the 'death' of his former condition and the start of a new life.
Else, the crocodile would devour him and that would be the end of his
physical life. 'Choose' said he, 'this instant; for there is no time to
lose. Shall I pass away devoured by the crocodile or shall I live
converting myself into a sannyasin?' Aryamba was in a dilemma; but her
maternal instinct made her consent to Sri Sankara to live as a sannyasin
if thereby she could keep him alive. Then and there, standing in the
water, the boy Sankara uttered the incantation which automatically
admitted him into the holy order of mendicant sannyasins. And, for a
wonder, the crocodile loosened its grip and disappeared from water to
appear again on the sky, so the story goes, as a celestial Gandharva
released from his erstwhile curse by which he was condemned to be an
aquatic monster. Thus Sri Sankara 'died' as a Brahmachari at the
ordained age of eight and obtained a further lease of another eight
years.
Upon Aryamba quite innocently bidding her son accompany
her home, Sri Sankara reminded her that he had become a sannyasin, that
he had betaken to an itinerant life and must take leave of her. The
mother was anguished at this, grieving as to who could take care of her
son. She wailed in disappointment that it was not given to her to see
her son grow up, marry and raise a progeny for the continuation of his
line. Sri Sankara consoled her by saying: 'Mother dear! Do not grieve.
The whole world will be my home hereafter. All those who will initiate
me into the sacred lore will be my fathers. All women who give me
bhiksha (alms) will be my mothers. The peace that shall be mine by the
realisation of the Atman will be my consort. All my disciples will be my
sons.' He however promised to be at her bedside in her last moments and
speed her way to heaven by his presence. Aryamba then gave him
unwilling leave to depart. Sri Sankara traveled on foot from Kaladi to
the Narmada banks visiting many a sacred spot on the way. There, in a
place called Omkar Mandhata on the bank of river Narmada which from then
on is called Sankara Ganga, he met Govinda Bhagavatpada who formally
admitted him into the sannyasin order according to the prescribed
rituals and imparted the Brahma Vidya to him. After serving his guru,
for some time, obeying his command. Sri Sankara went to Kasi (Varanasi)
and engaged himself in writing commentaries on the tripod of Hindu
philosophy, namely, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma
Sutras. At this time an interesting incident happened in the life of Sri
Sankara. One morning, he was returning to his monastery after a bath in
the Ganga. Leading four dogs an outcaste, who should not approach him,
came along.
He was bidden by Sri Sankara to go away from his
path. Upon this, the outcaste queried him as to what he bade to go away;
if it was the outcaste's body or his Atman. If it was the former, he
said, it was compacted of the same five elements as Sri Sankara's own
body and was not different. So it need not go away. If it was the Atman,
then according to the Advaita that Sri Sankara taught, the Atman of all
persons, brahmana or outcaste, was one only and, being identical and
all-pervasive, it cannot move away. Sri Sankara immediately understood
that his questioner was no ordinary outcaste, but a realised soul and
broke forth into a pentad of verses acclaiming the outcaste's greatness.
Sri Sankara said in the verse that he deemed a person of such spiritual
realisation to be his Guru, be he an outcaste or a brahmana. According
to the legend, it was Lord Siva Himself who appeared as this outcaste.
The dogs were the four vedas. The outcaste and his retinue vanished and
Lord Siva appeared and blessed Sri Sankara exhorting him to finish
writing his commentaries.
Another incident occurred some time
later. While Sri Sankara was instructing his disciples in his Vedantic
commentaries, an aged brahmana appeared before him with a request that
he would be pleased to resolve some of his doubts. A vigorous discussion
followed between the Master and the brahmana who disputed for a number
of days with elaborate arguments Sri Sankara's interpretation of one of
the tersest of the Brahma Sutras. This went on for eight days, each side
vindicating its stand and there was no prospect of its conclusion. At
this time, one of Sri Sankara's disciples, Padmapada by name, wondered
who the doughty debater was. In an intuitive flash it struck him that he
must be the great Bhagavan Vyasa, the author of the Brahma Sutras. He
exclaimed: 'Sankara is Siva and Vyasa is Narayana Himself. When these
gods themselves dispute, what can a mere mortal like me do?' Sri Sankara
then realised who his disputant was. Prostrating before him he begged
to be blessed. Sage Vyasa there upon lauded the fidelity of Sankara's
commentaries and gave them the imprimatur of his approval. Now the
extended eight years of Sri Sankara's life were about to be over. Adding
another sixteen years to the span of his life, Vyasa bade him propagate
the Advaita Sastra in the far reaches of India.
III
Then
began the triumphant digvijaya of Sri Sankara. The first opponent of
Advaita which is the philosophy of the Upanishads (known as the
Uttaramimamsa) was the Purvamimamsaka who believed in the primacy and
the immediacy of the Vedic Karmic rituals as the means to Moksha. One of
the staunchest protagonists of this school was Kumarila Bhatta who lay
on the banks of the Ganga at Prayag (modern Allahabad) at the point of
death, having immolated himself by fire for the sin of gurudroha (being a
traitor to one's Guru), which he acquired by furtively learning the
tenets of Buddhism from a Buddhist savant in order to controvert them
later. Kumarila, according to the legend, was an incarnation of Kumara,
son of Lord Siva. He told Sri Sankara of his predicament which disabled
him from debating with him. He bade him go to his own disciple, Mandana
Misra living in Mahishmati, saying that he (Mandana) was a more
uncompromising ritualist than himself.
Sri Sankara hastened to
Mandana's place. On arriving at the city, he was at a loss to discover
Mandana's house. He enquired of a woman who was passing by and was told
that in the verandah of a house two parrots would be chirping between
themselves whether the Vedas were true in their own right or if their
truth was derived. That, she said, was Mandana's house. Arriving there,
Sri Sankara found the door closed against intruders as a sraddha
ceremony was being then performed by Mandana. The story is that Sri
Sankara let himself in by his yogic powers. Parrying the abuses of the
householder who was wroth at a sannyasin interposing himself in a
sraddha ceremony, Sri Sankara said that he did not come there for anna
bhiksha (alms of food) but made him agree to a vada bhiksha, (alms of
knowledge) after the sraddha ceremony was over. The disputants agreed
that Mandana's wife Sarasavani who was said to be an incarnation of the
Goddess Sarasvati, (Mandana being Brahma himself), should act as umpire
to the debate. The wager was that if either was defeated, he should
adopt the asrama of the other, that is, either Sri Sankara should become
a householder or Mandana should take to monastic discipline. Leaving
them to debate between themselves, Sarasavani went to attend to her
domestic chores. Before doing so, she adorned each disputant with a
garland of flowers saying that the person whose garland showed signs of
fading must be considered to have been defeated.
The debate
went on for a number of days. At the conclusion of the sessions on a
particular day, Sarasavani invited both of them together for bhiksha
signifying that her lord Mandana had become eligible for alms as only a
monk is, in other words, that he had been defeated and should, according
to the wager, become a sannyasin. This he did, adopting the name
Suresvara and thence forward accepted the supremacy of Advaita. He
became one of the foremost disciples of Sri Sankara who had earlier,
when he was in Kasi acquired a disciple in the person of Sanandana. This
disciple came to be known as Padmapada because the river Ganga caused
lotuses (padma) to bloom at every step of his foot (pada) to give
support to him, when once in his ecstatic devotion to Sri Sankara, he
walked right on the stream to fulfil a command of the master on the
other bank.
IV
Sri Sankara then traveled to Badri on the
Himalayas where His guru Govinda and His guru's guru Gaudapada were
living in the enjoyment of nirvikalpa samadhi. He made them revert to
world conscious-ness by singing the famous Dakshinamurti Stotra. He
received their blessings and went to Kailas. According to the story he
was affectionately received by his Great Original, Lord Paramesvara who
blessed him with five Siva Sphatika Lingas, the oval emblems of Siva
made of transparent crystals and a transcript of Soundaryalahari, a
century of hymns in praise of the Divine Mother. As ill-luck would have
it, he lost the later fifty nine of these verses which he subsequently
replaced by his own composition. The five lingas given by Siva were
known as Mokshalinga, Varalinga, Bhogalinga, Muktilinga and Yogalinga.
Sri Sankara then returned to Kedara where he installed the Muktilinga
and established one of his pontificates, in the nearby Badri, which is
called the Jyotish Pitha. Proceeding thence to Nepal, he vanquished the
Buddhists who denied the soul and God. He installed the Varalinga at
Nilakanta Kshethra which is even now in worship at Nepal.
Wending his steps southward the Bhagavatpada went to Dwaraka in the
Western corner of India, sacred to the memory of Sri Krishna. He
established the Kalika Pitha there and also a pontificate. Crossing the
country travelling eastward, he came to Puri where he founded the Vimala
Pitha after worshipping Lord Jagannatha. Thence he went to Srisailam in
the Andhra Pradesh where he composed the famous hymn Sivanandalahari
and installed a Srichakra in front of the shrine of the presiding
goddess Sri Bhramarambika. It was at this time that Sri Sankara
vanquished the Kapalikas and put down the homicidal practice to which
they were addicted to in their religious worship.
It was at
this time that Sri Sankara's supreme spirit of self-sacrifice and his
boundless compassion towards even an enemy with murderous intent was
evidenced. (The sage of Kanchi used to narrate the incident with his
deep feeling of Guru Bhakthi). The chief of the Kapalikas wanted to do
away with Sri Sankara. But he knew that such a divine person could not
be done away with unless he himself gave his consent for that. The
Kapalika, in addition, also knew the loving heart of Sri Sankara and his
self-sacrificing nature. So he made bold to request Sri Sankara himself
to give permission to behead him! He further said that he would offer
the head to his god Kapali, the dreadful form of Siva, and by this offer
of the head of a true monk he would reach the heaven of Kapali.
Without a moment's hesitation Sri Sankara gave his hearty approval for
the atrocious request! He said, "Till now I had been thinking that the
human body alone is incapable of being of service to fellow beings. The
hide of the sheep serves as blanket, that of the cow for making musical
instruments. The nerves of many animals find use as strings. So on and
so forth. But the human body, once dead is just burnt or buried, without
being of any use to anybody. I have been thinking so till now. But now,
dear man, you say that my head would serve to confer Kalpali's heaven
itself on you. I am glad to be utilised thus. If you are sure that I am a
true monk do quickly chop off my head before my disciples turn up".
Unmoved by even such an exalted expression of love the Kapalika aimed
his sword on Sri Sankara. But before it could touch the neck of Sri
Sankara, the Kapalika himself fell dead due to the outburst of the wrath
of the Almighty Vishnu in the Man-lion form of Narasimha.
Traversing thence to the Western Ghats, Sri Sankara worshipped Sri
Mukambika. There he discovered the dumb prodigy who, on being cured of
his defect, became his disciple and attained the name Hastamalaka.
Another of the disciples was one Giri by name, generally considered to
be backward by his fellow-disciples. Receiving a special mark of grace
from Sri Sankara, he broke forth into a soul-stirring hymn of eight
verses in praise of his guru, celebrated as the Totakashtaka, himself
getting the sannyasa name of Totakacharya.
Resuming his travel,
Sri Sankara went to Karnataka and reached Sringagiri (Sringeri). Here
he erected a shrine to Sri Sarada, established another pontificate known
as the Sarada Pitha and installed there the Bhogalinga from among those
that he had brought from Kailas.
V
Meanwhile, Sri
Sankara's mother was on the point of death. True to his promise to her,
Sankara hastened to her bedside and invoked the grace of Vishnu to take
her to Vaikuntha. As a sannyasin should not engage in any kind of
ritual, his kinsmen refused to permit him to perform the lady's
obsequies himself. Upon his insisting that the duty to one's mother
overrode all rules and that he would himself perform his mother's
cremation, they all to a man, withheld their co-operation. Sri Sankara
carried the dead body to the backyard of his house unaided by anybody
and lighted the funeral pyre by invoking his spiritual prowess. Sri
Sankara went thence to Tirupati where he established the Dhanakarshana
Yantra which, to this day, draws vast sums of wealth from pious
devotees. Reaching Jambukeswaram in modern Tiruchirapalli, he tempered
the ferocity of Akhilandeswari, the presiding Goddess by installing a
shrine to Sri Vighneswara in front of Her, and fixing on the ears of Her
person two rings known as Tatankas in the mystically designed Srichakra
pattern. He then went to the land's end in Rameswaram to worship Lord
Ramanatha in the Linga that he celebrated in his Dvadasalingstotra. in
praise of the Lingas installed in the twelve (dvadasa) foremost temples
of Siva. Returning, he visited Chidambaram and left the Mokshalinga,
another of those he got in Kailas, to be worshipped there.
Travelling through the length and breadth of the country over, Sri
Sankara ultimately reached Kancheepuram near Madras. Kanchi is known as
one of the seven Mokshapuris of our sacred land (places which confer
Liberation) and has had, through the ages, a memorable political,
literary, cultural and religious history. Scholars and saints of all
denominations and sects have either visited it in their time or taken
permanent residence there. It has been the venue of philosophical
disputations of all schools of thought. No religious leader considered
his mission fulfilled or his victory complete unless he vanquished
rivals of other faiths in that famous city. As its name signifies,
Kanchi is the waistline of the earth and its central spot. It was but
appropriate that Sri Sankara also should go to this place to proclaim
the Advaita Vedanta vindicating it against other schools of religion and
philosophy. Acclaimed by everyone as the supreme master of all that is
to know, Sri Sankara ascended before a large assembly the throne of
omniscience known as the Sarvajna Pitha at Kanchi.
He then
mitigated the ugrakala, the fierce aspect of the Goddess Kamakshi
drawing it into a Srichakra which he placed in front of Her and
consecrated it. After renovating the temple to Lord Vishnu in the person
of Sri Varadaraja, he asked the reigning king of Kanchi to fashion the
city in the form of a Srichakra giving the central place to the shrine
of Sri Kamakshi.
A few things are noteworthy in this
connection. Kanchi is famous for its numerous temples in honour of
Vishnu and Siva. But the main tower of all of them, howsoever distant
they may be from the temple of Sri Kamakshi, face it without exception.
The processional idols of all these shrines are taken round this
Kamakshi temple when their annual festivals are celebrated. In none of
the Siva temples of Kanchi is there a shrine for Siva's Consort, that of
Kamakshi doing service for all of them. The city is famous as the place
where Brahma himself performed a yajna attended by all the celestials.
VI
No wonder that Sri Sankara chose Kanchi to establish the pontificate
known as the Kamakoti Pitha there. Of the five Lingas which he got from
Kailas, he reserved the Yogalinga for worship by himself here in the
Kamakoti Pitha. Entrusting the four chief maths that he had established
in the important religious centers of the country in-charge of each of
his four eminent disciples, Sankara chose the fifth that he established
in Kanchi known as the Saradamatha, for his own stay and ministration.
These five maths function to this day as bastions of our ancient
Sanatana Dharma in general and of Advaita Vedanta in particular. They
have had since Sri Sankara's time a long and illustrious line of
pontifical successors who bear his hallowed name and continue to
discharge the great mission that he entrusted to them. The Math
associated with the Kanchi Kamakoti Pitham has a special significance by
reason of its being the place where Sri Sankara spent his last days and
finally shed his mortal body merging into the beautitude of
Brahmanubhava.
VII
The text of the Srimukhas (pontifical
epistles) granted by the Jagadgurus of the Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha since
time immemorial refers to Sri Sankara as Nikila-Pashanda-Kantakotgha
patanena visadi-
krta-Veda-Vedanta-Marga-Shanmatha-Pratishthapa-kacharyah: i.e. describes
him as 'one who swept off the thorns that encumbered the various forms
of worship of the six manifestations of God'. Worship of these deities
had waned in our land due to the inroads of Buddhism and Jainism. It was
Sri Sankara who rescued them from oblivion and rid some of them of
their unholy encrustations. Particular mention may be made of the
vamachara practices in the Sakta religion and the abhorrent rituals of
the Kapalikas. Hence Sri Sankara is gratefully spoken of as
Shanmathapratishtapakacharya, which means, not one who established the
six forms of worship for the first time but one who revived and gave
strength and stability to the existing ones. Nor were they to Sri
Sankara six different, and much less, opposed forms. They are six
alternative ways in which the same Supreme God is worshipped according
to the preference of the worshipper. Each chooses his Ishta devata among
them, determined by his family tradition (kulachara) and his
inclination (ruchi), and accommodates the rest also in a subsidiary way
in his pattern of worship. Thus Sri Sankara was a great integrator
within the fold of the Vedic religion and he brought about intra
religious amity among all those who professed the Hindu faith.
Such was the life and work of the illustrious Sankaracharya who packed
within a brief period of thirty-two years a series of achievements which
are unequalled both in their content and their variety. Judged by any
test, as a writer, as a poet, as a thinker and debater, as a prophet and
mystic, as a religious organiser, and by any aspect of his diversified
personality Sri Sankara is unique among the great men of the world. He
holds a pre-eminent position among the Master Minds that have shaped the
thoughts and actions alike of their contemporaries and of posterity.
Above all, the Advaita Vedanta that he expounded to such artistic
perfection is the one and only philosophy that will effectively make for
personal liberation from the shackles of life on the one hand, and for
universal amity and peace liquidating social and national rivalries on
the other. The Vedanta associated with his name belongs not to one
section of the Hindus only. It is the philosophy of the entire humanity
and deserves to be carefully studied and scrupulously practised by men
in every part of the globe. Most truly, Sri Sankara is referred to with
love and devotion as Lokasankara, the most brilliant among the
benefactors of mankind for all time and in all times.
