Introduction

Śaṅkara blazed a path like none other. He arrived at a time when Sanātana Dharma was at its lowest ebb and was being assailed from all sides. In a short span of thirty-two years, he not only managed to revive, rejuvenate, and reestablish the Dharma, but also left behind a body of work that boggles the mind. Not only that, but he also established Mathas that would continue to expand the work he had set in motion.

The Mādhaviya-Śaṅkara-Digvijayam of Jagadaguru Śri Vidyaranya Mahaswami, 12^th ācārya of Dakshinamnaya Sringeri Sharada Peetam is often considered the most authoritative biography on Śaṅkara. There is another work called the Śaṅkara Charitam which is a collection of talks given by the Paramācārya of Kānchi, Jagadaguru Śri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, the 68^th Jagadguru of the Kānchi Kāmakoti Peetha and embedded in volume-5 of his seven-volume magnum opus, Deivathin Kural or The voice of God.

The following, the first in a planned series of essays on Śaṅkara, his life, and its impact, draws primarily from the two sources cited above. It is neither a translation nor a faithful recording of all that is contained in these two works but rather a recreation of the times and a re-telling of the life of someone who was instrumental in the survival and revival of the Dharma.

In the first chapter of this series, an exploration of the times and the need for an avatāra-puruṣa like Śaṅkara are discussed.

Parameśvara’s dilemma

It was an age of darkness where chaos reigned supreme, and men thought it fit to do as they saw fit. Śāstras were looked down upon, the authority of the Vedas was questioned and even Bhagavān was rejected. Many people wanted to destroy all that was ‘old’ and usher in a new age where anything and everything would be acceptable – there is no need for any god, there is no need to practice any ritual, to progress we will need to reject both Vaidhīkam and Paramātman – of what use are they, anyway? Is there anything other than the material? Therefore, make merry and live in the here and now, for there is nothing beyond – these were some of the sentiments expressed by those who lived during those times – these were not dark clouds but the dark night of Kali itself that had descended upon Bhāratavarṣa and hung like a stubborn mist that wouldn’t let even a ray of sunshine pass through it.

Buddhism and Jainism had made deep inroads into Sanātana Dharma and appeared to have captured the minds and hearts of a large majority of the population. Perhaps, the fact that it was started by royal princes who gave it all up in the quest to find themselves was the source of their attraction or perhaps it was just the novelty, or maybe the desire to break with the old and embrace something new. Whatever it was that motivated people to break with tradition and reject everything that gave them meaning and purpose, the fact is that it was one of the bleakest periods of our civilization, not dissimilar from the state Hindus find themselves in now – the present times reflect the past and we will have our moment of reckoning as did the Hindus of that time.

In short, it was a moment pregnant with import and ripe for the descent of an avatāra who would not only shoulder the burden of turning the precarious situation around but also show the way for the times to come, who would not give only Upadeśa but would also show through his Ācaraṇa that he would walk the talk.

It was also in line with the promise he had given Arjuna, that he would come again and again to reestablish Dharma, when the needle of unrighteousness rises and that of Dharma declines:

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत |

अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ||4-7||^[1]

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata

abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛijāmyaham

 

and then to protect the righteous, destroy the wicked and reestablish the principles of Dharma, he would descend, again and again:

परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् |

धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ||4-8||^[2]

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśhāya cha duṣhkṛitām

dharma-sansthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge

However, there were several differences between the time of Kṛṣṇāvatāra and the time that is being discussed here:

1. In Kṛṣṇā’s times, at least Karmānuṣṭhāna^[3] was being followed by those in pravṛttimārga^[4] whereas even that was being questioned and/or discarded as meaningless, useless, and a waste of one’s time
2. In the Nivṛttimārga^[5] too, the goal of jñāna was no longer the attainment of Mukti but rather Śūnyā – the nothingness and “neither-here-nor-there” state of Triśaṅku was what appeared to be more important^[6]
3. Finally, when Kṛṣṇa spoke of vināśhāya cha duṣhkṛitām, the wicked and the āsuric people were identifiable as specific individuals or groups – this was no longer possible because adharma had so seeped into the psyche of the society and into people’s minds that a clear distinction between those who were Dharmic and those who were Adharmic could no longer be made with certainty. Adharma had become endemic and had spread far and wide and diffused into the very fabric of life.

In a situation such as this, what sort of an avatāra-puruṣa would be best suited to handle the situation? This was Parameśvara’s dilemma.

The Sanyasi as the avatāra-puruṣa

As the supreme Parameśvara pondered over this conundrum, he weighed the many options before him in choosing the mode of intervention that would best suit the context, the people, and the times. Clearly, the situation was such that it could not be a Rāmāvatāra or Kṛṣṇāvatāra. During Rāmāvatāra when the hordes of Rākṣasas descended upon Viśvāmitra’s yagyaśla, he could point out to the rākṣasas and ask a Rāma to destroy them. There was a clearer demarcation between the forces of the dark night and the forces of the light in those times. Now, this demarcation although not yet fully erased had become much less clear. Adharma had permeated into every nook and corner, like the air that enters everywhere, seeping and diffusing into everything and everyone. Take the example of Viśvāmitra and consider this – what if the Rākṣasa was a mind-virus instead of a giant and scary physical being, and this mind-virus had entered his sub-conscious? There, it told him constantly and badgered him to adopt the easier and more sensuous path of adharma – what if it told him that Dharma was like a constantly changing amoeba and therefore could be altered to suit one’s specific needs and made easy by deleting most of it or rejecting it in entirety, Karmānuṣṭhānas were anyway such a waste of time, so why practise it, it is alright to not do it some times and focus on the more important aspect of enjoying life.

Furthermore, a mind-virus spreads much more rapidly and insidiously affecting a larger population than the influence a Rākṣasa can wield through his efforts at instilling fear in the masses. It was in such a milieu that Parameśvara chose to descend as a Sanyāsi who would show the way through Dharma-rakṣaṇa and Dharma-paripālana, whose Digvijayam^[7] would come not from the sharp blade of the sword but through the incisiveness of his jñāna, the felicity of his arguments, the strength of his Dharmaniṣṭha^[8], and the determination of his Sankalpa^[9].

The Mādhaviya-Śaṅkara-Digvijayam written by Jagadaguru Shri Vidyaranya Mahaswami, 12th ācārya of Dakshinamnaya Sringeri Sharada Peetam, is considered as the most authoritative biography on Śaṅkara. Although hagiographical in approach, the work provides a kaleidoscopic view of the times and Śaṅkara’s single-minded determination in getting to his goal of reviving, rejuvenating, and establishing Dharma. Much of what is known about Śaṅkara is derived from this work. The Paramācārya of Kānchi gave a series of lectures which have been archived under the heading of Śaṅkara Charitam. This Śaṅkara Charitam is embedded within volume 5 of Deivathin Kural, The voice of God. These are the two primary sources from which much of what follows is derived.

As the Paramācārya of Kānchi points out in his Śaṅkara Charitam, Kṛṣṇa speaks of “dharma-sansthāpanārthāya” and not just sthāpanārthāya, not only was there a need to establish Dharma but there was also a need to establish it firmly and clearly; and that was the purpose and goal of Śaṅkara-avatāra.

The Mādhaviya-Śaṅkara-Digvijayam sees the descent of Śaṅkara thus:

अज्ञानान्तर्गहनपतितान् आत्मविद्योपदेशैः

त्रातुम् लोकान् भवदवशिखातापपापच्यमानान् ।

मुक्त्वा मौनं वटविटपिनो मूलतो निष्पतन्ती

शंभोर्मूर्तिः चरति भुवने शंकराचार्यरूपा ॥^[10]

ajñānāntargahanapatitān ātmavidyopadeśaiḥ

trātum lokān bhavadavaśikhātāpapāpacyamānān ;

muktvā maunaṃ vaṭaviṭapino mūlato niṣpatantī

śaṃbhormūrtiḥ carati bhuvane śaṃkarācāryarūpā .

Dakṣiṇāmūrti, he who remains in eternal mounam, under the banyan tree and teaches all through his silence, renounced his meditation and decided to descend and take birth on earth as Śaṅkarācārya to teach the eternal truth of ātmavidya and drag those who are caught in the dense forest of ignorance and materialism out of their misery. It is Śiva himself, who walked the earth as Śaṅkarācārya^[11]

And so it was that Mahādeva himself decided to come down to earth as the son of a pious couple in Kerala. The importance of the advent of Śaṅkara can be gauged from the fact that Dakṣiṇāmūrti himself decided to not only break his meditation but also his vow of silence.

We end chapter-1 with the following quote from Sri Aurobindo on avatāra-puruṣas as it captures the essence of Śaṅkara-avatāra and the magnitude of its achievement.

“I repeat, the Divine when he takes on the burden of terrestrial nature, takes it fully, sincerely, and without any conjuring tricks or pretense. If he has something behind him which emerges always out of the coverings, it is the same thing in essence, even if greater in degree, that there is behind others—and it is to awaken that that he is there.”^[12]

To be continued…

 

References:

[1] Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter-4, verse-7

[2] Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter-4, verse-8

[3] Karmānuṣṭhāna = The practice and discharge of one’s prescribed duties in accordance with Dharma

[4] pravṛttimārga = The path of worldly life which enjoins the practice of prescribed Karmānuṣṭhānas in accordance with Dharma

[5] Nivṛttimārga = the spiritual path of Sanyāsa

[6] Triśaṅku = a hazy and fuzzy middle ground or a state of uncertainty where one is in limbo between what one aims to achieve versus where one ends up. Read more at: Story of Triśaṅku (wisdomlib.org)

[7] Digvijayam = victory over the four quarters of the earth, a complete undisputed victory over all

[8] Dharmaniṣṭha = devoted to the practice and protection of Dharma

[9] Sankalpa = intent and firm resolve

[10] Available at: Madhaviya Shankara Digvijayam – Sri Sringeri Sharada PeethamSri Sringeri Sharada Peetham

[11] Available at: Our Prayer | Adi Sankara (adisankarafoundation.org) and Madhaviya Shankara Digvijayam – Sri Sringeri Sharada PeethamSri Sringeri Sharada Peetham

[12] Sri Aurobindo, available at: https://auromaa.org/sri-aurobindo-on-rama-the-avatar-hh-225/