The spiritual teacher par excellence

“A mediocre teacher tells; an ordinary teacher teaches; a good teacher explains; and a great teacher inspires.” As he belongs to the last category, Sankara inspires generations. Many leaders of the national movement and renaissance, including Swami Vivekananda, Nehru and Bose drew inspiration from the Sankara to arouse patriotism

It is a good augury that the Government of Kerala has since 2005 been observing Vaisakh Sukla Panchami, (this year, April 23, 2015), the birth anniversary of Sri Sankaracharya, as the ‘Philosophers' Day’ in the State. It is not a public holiday. It pays tributes and expresses homage to the greatest son of the soil and one of the greatest social reformers, religious preachers and philosophers known to the recorded History. Lads are initiated into Brahmacharya on the day without reference to Panchangam and horoscope.

Born in AD 805, in a remote village Kalady in Kerala to a devout couple Sivagaru and Aryamba, this wonder boy lived just for 32 years. Sankara lost his father in a tender age. There is a popular tale that a crocodile caught him and it left him only when Aryamba, responding to the Divine call, conceded to allow her only son to take to Sanyasa. Since then, Sankara did not look back. With his matured intellect and vigorous studies, he influenced all aspects of the contemporary life: social, political, religious, literacy, cultural, Dharmic, etc. Influenced by a Dalit, Sankara strode like a colossus of the Adavitha Siddantha.

No great man has ever said that he was the originator of any principle. Sankara, through his powerful oratory and rare debating abilities, vowed to restore the glory of the “Sanathana Dharma. He went on preaching and writing the greatness of the ancient Scriptures: Vedas, Vedanthas, Upanishads, Puranas in simple lucid Sanskrit. Ceaseless learning, writings and deep thinking of the highest order were his forte. He encountered enlightened Pandits in the country, including the invincible Mandan Misra Couple, who reverentially submitted to his scholarship.

They affirmed their acceptance of Sankara’s philosophy of Advaitha: the indivisible relationship between the Atma (self) and the Paramathma (Reality); Orthodox and the fundamentalists alike, “who came to scoff, remained to pray.” The most outstanding achievement of Sankara was establishing four Maths or monasteries, in four corners of the country – Puri, Dwaraka, Haridwar and Sringeri – to preach, propagate and preserve for eternity the tenets of the Sanatana Dharma. Of them Sringeri, in Chikmagalur Dist. of Karnataka on the right bank of the holy Tunga river is more famous than the other three.

In an age in which transportation and communication were primitive, his tour through the breadth, width, nook, and corner of the country gained significance. It also speaks volumes of his patience and perseverance, strength and stamina, vigour and vitality and sagacity and social commitment. This contribution is possible only by a person whose pursuit of excellence has rare equals. Sankara is an outstanding example. At the very young age of 32 (837 A.D) Sankara walked into the the mighty abode of the spiritual life of India, the Himalayas, at Badrinath.

He attained Nirvana there and is supposed to be permanently spreading his preachings from his heavenly abode and inspiring his followers and the detractors alike.“A mediocre teacher tells; an ordinary teacher teaches; a good teacher explains; and a great teacher inspires.” As he belongs to the last category, Sankara inspires generations. Many leaders of the national movement and renaissance, including Swamy Vivekananda, Nehru and Bose drew inspiration from the Sankara to arouse patriotism.

Perhaps Sankara has influenced Nehru more than KarlMarx. Like Sankara, Gandhiji Preached ony that which he could practise. In Discovery of India, Nehru writes: “Sankara was a man of amazing energy and vast activity. He was no escapist retiring into his shell or into a corner of the forest, seeking his own individual perfection and oblivious of what happened to others”. Dr S Radhakrishan admitted that but for Sankara, he would not have been, what he was.

Principles of democracy are ‘One man, one vote’. Centuries before French political philosophers, Russian Bolsheviks, American propagators of fraternity, equality and liberty, Sankara declared ‘Aham Brahmasmi.’ “Everyone is as great as the other.” Sankara is reverentially addressed: ‘Adi Sankaracharya’. ‘Sankara Bhagvathpada’. 'Jagadguru Sankaracharya’, etc. Truly, Lord Krishna predicted “Dharma Samsthapanarthaya Sambavami Yuge Yuge”. (A great man is born repeatedly in the appropriate times to re-establish the Dharma).

It is unbelievable in that distant age, that a Sanyasi possessing no material wealth, with just two pairs of saffron cloths on his body in a short span of 16 years could achieve such a great spiritual height for his motherland. Perhaps such achievements of the spiritual leaders of our country tempted Prof Arnold Toynbee to conclude, “Out of the twenty-one civilizations the world has witnessed, nineteen perished and two, Indian and Chinese still survive and will flourish forever.”

Sankara was able to outweigh all other contemporary philosophies, because he neither denounced nor expressly rejected any 'isms' or 'philosophy'. His ruthlessness was against irrationality and superstition. He acknowledged the greatness of the lineage of Gurus from Vyasa to his own, Govindabhagavatpada.

(The author is President of Gadicharla Foundation, Kurnool and can be reached at [email protected])

By K C Kalkura