The Genius of India ..a note

 

When history is studied with an inner vision it is understood that all the aspects of  the  national development are influenced by the spiritual progress.  The soul unfoldment seen as devolution and evolution, for them to happen in a harmonic way an avatar or a vibhuti of the Godhead comes down and rises the human consciousness. India, the Karma bhoomi is selected as a stage for this core development.  Hail India and proud to be the Indians.

 

Adi Shankara, the Jagat guru is one of them, treated as the incarnation of Lord Siva himself. He can be called as the Genius of India. who in his short life span of 32 years  wrote many stotras and stutis which are appraisal of the Gods and Goddesses.  This is an example for his sakara bhakti.  Later he wrote many commentaries and books on tatva vichara like atma bodha, viveka chudamani etc. Nirvana shatkam shows his nirguna nirakara bhakti with great philosophy and the soul concept.

He condensed the essence of the scriptures into a single statement  “Brahma Satyam Jagan Mithya, Jeevo Brahmaiva Na Para”--- which means Brahman pure consciousness is the absolute reality.  The world is unreal.The individual is not different from Brahman.

He also formulated the rituals and rites to be followed in most of the major temples in India.

He formulated the six sect system of worship to the main godheads – Vishnu, Siva, Shakti, Muruga, Ganesha and Surya.

He composed 72 devotional and meditative hymns like Soundarya Lahari, Sivananda Lahari, Nirvana Shatkam, Maneesha panchakam, Bhaja Govindam, Kanakadhara stotram etc. 

He is also the author of 23 books which include Viveka Chudamani, Atma Bodha, Vaakya Vritti, Upadesa Sahasri, etc.

He surpassed with his Advaita philosophy the six schools of thought called Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Samkhyam , Yoga, Purva Mimamsa, Uttara Mimamsa and Vedanta.

Two things are essential--detachment and acquisition of knowledge.

The same is told by Adi Shankara as sadhana chatushtaya.

 

·       discriminate between the transient  and eternal.

·       absence of desire

·       desire for freedom

• spirit of renunciation and power of concentration. 

 

He wrote many bhashyas to Vedas, Prakaranas, Statras, hymns and many other books. He promoted Sanyasa dharma, spread them in the four corners of the India by founding four peethas at Sringeri, Kanchi, Dwaraka and Badiri. At an early age itself he could invoke goddess Lakshmi with Kanakadhara statram for the sake of an old, poor lady.  He changed the path of river Poorna for her mother.  He walked all through India defeated many scholars, philosophists with his authoritative knowledge and made them accept his advaita school of philosophy.  By this he unified India which was sectorially divided by so many beliefs.

 

Every man, whatever is his stage of development has his level of teaching from Adi Shankara through his bhakti, dhyana and jnana paths.  Spiritual anarchy is the soul of India where all religions unite in future.  Many spiritual organizations came up to awaken the soul of the beings. Advaita Vedanta is  based on knowledge and pure spirituality.

 

In Kali yuga, the asuric forces and obstacles are internal in each of the human as the seeds of adharma. To remove this, knowledge and self purification are the weapons which were prophecised by Sankara.

 

This period is also called as the age of enlightenment, for many acharyas, gurus and their parampara are seen flooding the country with their philosophy. Religion is important; on the top of it self realization is more important for the progress. It is wonderful to say that Shankara is categorized to belong to the age of enlightenment, though the society was at the conventional age according to Sri Aurobindo,

 

Swami Sarvapriyananda says that India’s gift to the world is like a gentle dew which is touching the leaves and is unseen and untouched. Non-dualism of Sankaracharya says even the prakriti is the Brahma swaroopam.  So there is no second one. Everything is Brahman.The subject and the object are to be studied together for better knowledge which is called Anyonya Abhyasa. In this way the physical entity and the inner conscious ness of the entity grow simultaneously which have to bloom and cherish for a Holistic, Harmonious growth of India.