AdiShankaracharya

AdiShankaracharya

Subject – Art and Culture

Context – Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 12-foot statue of AdiShankaracharya at Kedarnath

Concept –

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 12-foot statue of AdiShankaracharya at Kedarnath, where the acharya is believed to have attained samadhi at the age of 32 in the ninth century.
• In his biography of the acharya (Shree Shankaracharyar, 1994), Sanskrit scholar and former director of Adyar Library, K Kunjunni Raja, mentions texts that situate his lifetime between 788 and 820 AD.
• AdiShankara is said to have been born in Kaladi village on the bank of the Periyar, the largest river in Kerala.
• He left home very early in search of learning and to become a sanyasin.
• In one legend, the young Shankara visited a poor Brahmin household, where the woman of the house apologetically fed him an amla, the only food she could offer.
  • A grateful Shankara composed the KanakadharaStotram, following which there was a rain of golden amlas, which brought prosperity to the household.
• He challenged prevailing philosophical traditions including Buddhism and Jainism.
• In a lifespan of just 32 years, he is said to have visited all the important spiritual centres of the time — from Kanchi (Kancheepuram) to Kamrup (Assam), and Kashmir and the Kedar and Badridhams, as well as Sringeri, Ujjain, Kashi, Puri, and Joshimath.
• He is believed to have established the ritual practices at the Badri and Kedardhams, and to have debated with tantrics in Srinagar.
• He is believed to have attained samadhi at Kedarnath; however, Kanchi and Thrissur are also talked about as places where AdiShankara spent his last days.
• AdiShankara is generally identified as the author of 116 works — among them the celebrated commentaries (bhashyas) on 10 Upanishads, the Brahmasutra and the Gita, and poetic works including Vivekachudamani, ManeeshaPanchakam, and Saundaryalahiri.
  • But scholars such as Vidyavachaspathi V Panoli have argued that Saundaryalahiri and Maneesha Panchakam are not his works, but attributions.
• It has also been claimed that AdiShankara composed texts like Shankarasmrithi, which seeks to establish the social supremacy of Nambuthiri Brahmins.
• Shankara’s great standing is derived from his commentaries of the prasthanatrayi (Upanishads, Brahmasutra and Gita), where he explains his understanding of Advaita Vedanta.
• The mathasShankara is believed to have established in Sringeri, Dwaraka, Puri, and Joshimath for the spread of Advaita Vedanta are seen as custodians of Hinduism.

Advaita Vedanta

• Advaita Vedanta articulates a philosophical position of radical nondualism, a revisionary worldview which it derives from the ancient Upanishadic texts.
• According to Advaita Vedantins, the Upanishads reveal a fundamental principle of nonduality termed ‘brahman’, which is the reality of all things.
• Advaitins understand brahman as transcending individuality and empirical plurality.
• They seek to establish that the essential core of one’s self (atman) is brahman.
• The fundamental thrust of Advaita Vedanta is that the atman is pure non-intentional consciousness.
• It is one without a second, nondual, infinite existence, and numerically identical with brahman.
• This effort entails tying a metaphysics of brahman to a philosophy of consciousness.
• In BharatiyaChintha (Indian Thought), the essence of AdiShankara’s philosophy is encapsulated in the much quoted formulation: “brahma satyamjagan-mithya, jivobrahmaivanaaparah” (brahman alone is real, this world is an illusion/ and the jiva is non-differential from brahman).