The greatness of life and work of Sri Adi Shankaracharya in view of sacred places of yatra all over India

The life and work of Sri Adi Shankaracharya चिदानंद रूप: शिवोSहम शिवोSहम

Adi Shankara was an intellectual prodigy who attained a mastery over the scriptures even when he was less than eight years of age. With a remarkable clarity and acuteness of intellect unique to him, he wrote number of commentaries on the “Prasthan Trayi” i.e. tripod of Hindu religion and philosophy and reestablished the religion of Vedas, the Sanatana Dharma with a major theme of Advaita. (Non Duality) His verses have a sweet melody in it, a deep philosophy and a freshness and hope for humanity even today. Ranging from a single verse to a thousand verse long commentary, he had something for every level of mental comprehension and that is why his Nirvan shataka, Pratasmaran, Hymn to Bhavani Devi, and many other stotras are sung even today. Adi Shankara has left an unerasable mark in the thoughts and lives of all Indians. He went all over the land of this vast Punyabhumi Bharat and established Sanatana Dharma with his triumphal digvijaya and he did it not once but many times in his short life on the earth. To upheld the truths of Advaita Vedanta against the onslaughts of materialistic thoughts, of those negating the Vedas and of perverted and degenerated form of both Hinduism and Buddhism with most repugnant practices which even the Tathagat Buddha and Upanishadic Rishis would have condemned. The Indian society had immersed in the sensuous pleasures of life, ignoring the call of the Spirit and that is why Adi Shankara came on stage. The Soul of India wanted this reversal of the swing of pendulum to the ascetic negation of life with lofty renouncing ideal. Such extremes are needed in order to bring back the balance in the society over the ages. Then the corruption in life and worship of matter had for long fouled the clear springs of our pristine religion, and therefore it had resulted in the adoption of ways of worship which were more of a Tantrik nature, at times uncivilized and even immoral. Therefore, the stupendous task of ridding our religion of its unfortunate degeneration. Sri Adi Shankara's towering intellect, arduous spiritual practices and realizations, dialectical skill and irrefutable arguments reestablished the Vedic religion. Shankaracharya formulated the six sect system of worship which brought to the fore the main godheads – Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, Muruga (Kartikeya), Ganesha and Surya. He composed 72 devotional and meditative hymns like Soundarya Lahari, Sivananda Lahari, Nirvana Shatakam, Maneesha Panchakam, and so on. He also wrote 18 commentaries on the major scriptural texts including the Brahma Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita and 12 major Upanishads. He also authored 23 books on the fundamentals of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy which expound the principles of the non-dual Brahman. These include Viveka Chudamani, Atma Bodha, Vaakya Vritti, Upadesa Sahasri, among others. Sri Adi Shankara travelled far and wide mostly on foot and preached the Advaita philosophy of the Vedas. He established in several parts of the country Maths and Pithas..which are constant guardians of his teachings to preserve and propagate it over generations to generations. Even today these places are doing this task and are visited by pilgrims from India and from all over the world. Among them five stand to this day as flag bearers to his name, objective and functions: Kanchi, Sringeri, Puri, Dwaraka and Badri, ..these five are covering the whole of Bharata, the land of spirituality, of Dharma and Shastra. Sri Adi Shankara drew inspiration from the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras, and even the thinking minds of the West have been mesmerized by his works. It is believed that he lived from 788 to 820 A.D., thought there are some alternate small variations about his period. There is also a research which says that Adi Shankara’s time is pulled forward by Western Intellentia deliberately and he actually existed during 5th to 7th BC. Sri Shankara belonged to a Nambudiri Brahmana family of Kerala in Kaladi situated on the banks of the Churna river. His parents Sivaguru and Aryambawas a devout pair and went to worship Lord Siva in the nearby temple at Trichur. They choosed a boon from the pleased deity a son of short life of eight years but phenomenal intellect rather than having many sons of dull minds. After the demise of his farther, Aryamba got the upanayanam ceremony performed for the boy who by bthat time had mastered the Vedas and the Sastras. As the fate had it, at the age of eight he was gripped by a crocodile while taking bath in river. He told his mother : 'Choose 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?' As the story goes, he got the consent and there itself took the path of samnyasi and the crocodile left him safe. Sri Shankara consoled her and promised to be at her bedside in her last moments. Then began the triumphant digvijaya and victory over Purvamimamsaka who believed in the primacy of the Vedic Karmic rituals. Adi Shankara confronted Kumarila Bhatta then his disciple, Mandana Misra living in Mahishmati. There is an interesting episode how he finally defeated in debate Mandana and his wife. Badrinath: Sri Shankara then traveled to Badri in the Himalayas where His guru Govinda and His guru's guru Gaudapada and appealed to them by singing the famous Dakshinamurti Stotra. Having received their blessings he went to Kailas. He revealed Soundaryalahari, a century of hymns in praise of the Divine Mother. The five lingas given by Siva were known as Mokshalinga, Varalinga, Bhogalinga, Muktilinga and Yogalinga. Kedarnath: Sri Shankara then returned to Kedara and installed the Muktilinga and one of his pontificates, was established in the nearby Badri, which is thereafter called the Jyotish Pitha. Proceeding thence to Nepal, he installed the Varalinga at Nilakanta Kshethra in Nepal. Dwaraka : Then he went to Dwaraka in the West and established the Kalika Pitha there. Then travelling eastward, he came to Puri where he founded the Vimala Pitha after worshipping Lord Jagannatha. Then he went to Srishailam in the Andhra Pradesh where he composed the famous hymn Sivanandalahari and installed a Srichakra in front of the shrine of the devi Sri Bhramarambika. Traversing thence to the Western Ghats, Sri Shankara worshipped Sri Mukambika. There he discovered the dumb prodigy who, on being cured of his defect, became his disciple and was given a name Hastamalaka. Another of the disciples was Totakacharya. Sri Shankara went to Karnataka and reached Sringagiri (Sringeri). Shringeri: He erected a shrine to Sri Sarada, established the Sarada Pitha and installed there the Bhogalinga. Shankara reached to his mother’s death bed as promised. He was a rebel and knew that while preserving essential part of Dharma, its non essential must be rejected. Thus though as a sannyasin he should not have engaged in death rituals of his mother and got opposed by everyone orthodox there, still he came ahead and himself performed his mother's cremation. Sri Shankara carried the dead body to the backyard of his house unaided by anybody and lighted the funeral pyre by invoking his spiritual prowess. Sri Shankara then went to Tirupati and established the Dhanakarshana Yantra and then reaching Jambukeswaram in modern Tiruchirapalli, he tempered the ferocity of Akhilandeswari, by installing a shrine to Sri Vighneswara in front of Her, also putting there a mystically designed Srichakra in a pattern. Rameshwaram: He then went to Rameswaram to worship Lord Ramanatha in the Linga and sung praises of Him in his Dvadasalingstotra. Thereafter he visited Chidambaram and put there the Mokshalinga, another of those he got in Kailas. Kanchipuram Sri Shankara ultimately reached Kancheepuram near Madras. Kanchi is the waistline of the earth and its central spot. Here he established the Sarvajna Pitha. 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. He asked the reigning king to re design the plan of the city Kanchi. He established there the Kamakoti Pitha there. It is said that of the five Lingas which he got from Kailas, he reserved the Yogalinga for worship by himself here in the Kamakoti Pitha. Each of these maths was assigned the task of maintaining and preserving for posterity, one of the four Vedas (the main scriptures of Hinduism). They are: 1. Sharada Math - Sama Veda 2. Shringeri Math - Yajur Veda 3. Jyotir Math - Atharva Veda 4. Govardhan Math - Rig Veda Adi Shankara holds a pre-eminent position even today among the Master Minds that have shaped the thoughts and actions of humanity. He has left a deep impact on the daily lives of common Indians even today. His life mission was reestablishing Advaita Vedanta that he expounded as the one and only philosophy that will effectively make for personal liberation. Located in the four directions of India, the char dhams complete a circuit -- to the north is Badrinath, to the west is Dwarka, to the south is Rameshwaram and to the east is Puri. Each of the four dhams is a site of old temples and religious monuments. In his short life span of 32 years, his accomplishments seem a marvel even today. (Summarised and articulated from the publication by Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Wikipedia, biography ) ***