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Adi Shankara contd…

As we have observed since yesterday, Sri Adi Shankara was the first saint to visualize the whole of India as his karmabhoomi. In a short life of 32 years, he was able to cover the whole of the country at least twice on padayatra and leave an indelible impression on the lives of the people from Kalady to Badrinath.
*Institution builder*
He was also responsible for cultural integration of the country through the establishment of four regional monasteries at Dwaraka, Sringeri , Jagannatha Puri and Badrinath and ordained them to be headed successively by selfless devoted scholars to preserve, protect and perpetuate our religious culture. This was also the first ever exercise in institutional framework for Sanathana dharma
He alone could save Hinduism from degeneration, re-establish the supremacy of knowledge and give a new impetus to the Advaitha philosophy. Shankara cleared the cobwebs of agnana through his expositions on the Vedas and Upanishads and convinced everyone that rituals were only a means and not an end in themselves.
*Advaitha*
With Advaita philosophy as his sheet anchor, Shankara was able to answer most of the questions raised by the people and refuted the Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisesika, Buddhist,Jain and other systems of thought opposed to his non dualistic school. His masterly treatises on all aspects of philosophical thought are proof of his being the greatest intellect that this universe has ever seen.
The doctrine of advaita vedanta as expounded by Shankara can be summed up in half a verse: “Brahma Satyam Jagan Mithya Jivo Brahmaiva Na Aparah” — Brahman (the Absolute) is alone real; this
phenomenal world is unreal or an illusion; the Jivatma or the individual soul is not different from Paramatma.
According to Shankara, whatever is, is Brahman. Brahman itself is absolutely homogeneous. All differences and plurality are illusory.Through intense practice of the concept of Advaita, ego and ideas of duality can be removed from the mind of man.
*Nirguna and Saguna Bhakthi:*
Even though Adi Shankara propagated Advaita, he realized that common people cannot associate themselves as easily with formless Nirguna as with Saguna (form) worship. Therefore, Shankara while stressing the sole reality of Brahman, did not undermine the phenomenal world or the multiplicity of Gods in the scriptures. He recommended Bhakti as a means of conditioning one’s mind and focusing on one’s personal God.
*Shankara’s treatises*
His major works fall into three distinct categories – commentaries on the Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Bhagavad Gita. The most important of Shankaracharya’s works are his commentaries on the Brahmasutras – Brahmasutrabhashya – considered the core of Shankara’s perspective on Advaita, and Bhaja Govindam that forms the centre of the Bhakti movement and also epitomizes his Advaita Vedanta philosophy.
Shankara’s many prakaranas (minor works) and stotras on several deities help us to feel a sense of nearness to the Divine. Among the minor works, Aparoksanubhuti, Vakyavritti,Viveka Chudamani, Bhaja Govindam and Prasnottharamalika are notable contributions to humanity. Among the large number of stotras composed by him, many are popular among Bhaktas and recited everyday –Kanakadhara stotram, Dakshinamurthy stotram, Lakshminarasimha Karavalamba stotram and Soundarya Lahari, to name a few.
*Classification into Shanmatham*

The Acharya found objectionable the inappropriate forms of worship adopted by the people. Several communities in India, were forgetting the core Vedic principles and focusing more on irrelevant and irreverent forms of worship such as bali (sacrifice of living beings), branding of religious symbols on the bodies of devotees, and so on:
Therefore Adi Shankara realized that it was necessary to identify the core cults in Hinduism and realign their ways of worship on the Vedic path, so that even those who could not get enlightened spiritually would at least be expressing their Bhakti in peaceful and non- violent methods.
During those turbulent times, there were more than sixty-eight different ways of worship of the Hindu Gods with corresponding Deities. The Acharya classified them into worship of six principal deities of the Hindu pantheon – Ganapathyam (the worship of Lord Ganesha), Kaumaram (the worship of Lord Kumara or Karthikeya), Sauram (the worship of the Sun God – nature worship), Shaktham (the worship of Goddess Shakthi), Shaivam (the worship of Lord Shiva), and Vaishnavam (the worship of Lord Vishnu).
These six major streams worship are referred to as Shanmatham. Of these, Vaishnavam and Sowram belong to the Vaishnava school while the others belong the Saiva school. While these six sects initially had separate followers, Adi Shankara, succeeded in bringing all of them under the same umbrella of Advaita. All of them now worship one divine power, Brahman in all its six manifestations.
With all these contributions, he made a significant impact on Indian Philosophy, poetry, science and metaphysics is evident even today. No individual has had deeper influence on Indian thought and spiritual life than him. He never claimed for himself any kind of originality in his teaching: his originality was in reinterpreting the great Indian traditions.
Bharatavarsha would never have survived the religious intolerance of successive invaders, if Shankara had not lived the life he lived and taught the lessons he taught which are still pulsating in all true Hindus.

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