Today is Adi Shankara Jayanti according to the Hindu calendar. He was born on Panchami (5th day) of Shukla Paksha (waxing moon), in the month of Vaishakha. Hindus consider Adi Shankara as Mahadev himself. He is the one of the towering Vedic scholars, Acharya and led the Bhakti movement. Buddha came just before him and Hinduism needed a revival. Adi Shankaracharya revived it and how !
While Wikipedia states the year of birth for Adi Shankara as 700 CE, there is enough evidence that he was born around 488 BCE. The 700 CE year is confirmed by Max Muller, so all the more reason for us to doubt it.
So we are in effect celebrating the 2513th birthday of Adi Shankara not the 1237th.
Adi Shankara’s Life
Adi Shankara was born in Kaladi, Kerala. He was the only son of Aryamba who was a widow. She never wanted her son to become a Sanyasi, but Adi Shankara was very keen. The following story of how he became a Sanyasi was posted on X. Resharing it here –
Adi Shankara is the proponent of Advaita Vedanta and Osho gives a beautiful explanation of Advaita –
“….This word is very meaningful. Advaita means literally nonduality, not two. They could have said one, but the Upanishads never use the word one; they say nonduality, not two. And this is very significant, because if you say one the two is implied, it becomes a positive statement. If you say there is only one you are asserting something positive.”
“….The moment you say one the two is implied, because one can exist only by the side of two. So the Upanishads never say that the Brahman is one, the truth is one; rather they use a negative term, they say he is not two. So one is implied but not directly asserted.”
Excerpt from discourse #12 of Vedanta – Seven Steps to Samadhi.
The one thing that I keep wondering about Adi Shankara is the fact that he walked across Bharat twice to establish the Mathas (learning/knowledge centres) and to have philosophical debates. He also managed to write some of the most lyrical shlokas of all time – Bhaja Govindam, Soundarya Lahiri, Sivananda Lahari etc. Bhaja Govindam is my all time favourite. I can listen to it in M S Subbulakshmi’s voice on a loop the whole day. Will write a separate post with Osho’s explanation of Bhaja Govindam.
So much accomplished in such a short life !!!
Kedarnath
The Kedarnath temple doors have been opened for the pilgrims today. Every year the temple can be visited only between May and Oct, the rest of the months its inaccessible. Kedarnath is significant because it’s believed that Adi Shankara just walked beyond the temple and was never seen again.
I had the good fortune of visiting Kedarnath in 1984 along with my parents. Actually it was a trip for my paternal grandmother who wanted to visit Badrinath. We went by bus from Delhi and visited Rishikesh, Badrinath and then Kedarnath. My grandmother did not visit Kedarnath because it was a 14 kms trek or a pony ride and she couldn’t do either. Appa and I walked, while Amma took a pony ride to the Kedarnath temple.
At 15 (I had just completed 10th) when I saw the Kedarnath temple for the first time, I felt like walking off. Momentarily, everything around me felt insignificant and there was a strong desire to just walk away. Ofcourse I didnt follow that instinct, but someday, in some life, I will. The story of Adi Shankara’s Mahasamadhi at Kedarnath always resonated with me, maybe because of that moment in time.
A few pictures from our visit in 1984.
Jaya Jaya Shankara Hara Hara Shankara ๐
Nice post mam.