/lit/ - Literature

>>14990269
"He was born in the eighth century at Kaladi in Kerala in a Nambudri Brahmana family and left his body in Kedaranatha in the Himalaya, at the young age of 32 years. During this short span of life he wrote his commentaries on the eleven principle Upanisads, on Gita, and his epoch-making monumental work, the Shankara-Bhasya on Brahma-sutra as well as a rich soul-inspiring stotra-literature. He travelled widely and established four famous Pithas, at Badarinatha (Joshi-matha) in the north, at Shriigeri in the south, at Puri in the east and at Dvaraka in the west. His contribution to Indian philosophy and to Vedic religion and culture is unparalleled and almost super-human. He is treated as an incarnation of Lord Shiva. This uncompromising and staunch champion of knowledge dedicated his life to self-less service and devotion to God. His life itself is an ample proof that self-less service (niskama karma) and devotion (bhakti) may go well with spiritual Enlightenment (Jnana). The credit of establishing Advaita Vedanta as a sound philosophical system goes to Shankaracharya—the disciple of Govindapadacharya and the grand-disciple of Gaudapadacharya. “His philosophy”, says Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, “stands forth complete, needing neither a before nor an after... whether we agree or differ, the penetrating light of his mind never leaves us where we were.”

Advaita Vedanta, associated with the name of the great Shankaracharya is rightly regarded as logically the most consistent and spiritually the most advanced philosophy of India. All schools of Vedanta claim to be based on the Upanisads, but the claim is fully justified only in the case of Advaita Vedanta. Though the Upanisads are not logico-philosophical treatises in the strict sense of the term, yet undoubtedly they have been acclaimed as predominantly philosophical and as such they do have a central philosophy of their own. Shankara has very clearly and logically proved that this central philosophy is Advaita. The teachers of other schools of Vedanta, mainly theistic, have fathered their respective views on the Upanisads to claim the sanction of the Revealed Text. One may or may not agree with Advaita; one may freely choose any other school of Vedanta or any other system of philosophy as more satisfactory; but one cannot logically deny that Shankara’s interpretation is the correct interpretation and that Advaita is the central teaching of the Upanisadic philosophy."

>Meditate on yourself as motionless awareness, free from any dualism, giving up the mistaken idea that you are just a derivative consciousness or anything external or internal. 1.13

>You have long been trapped in the snare of identification with the body. Sever it with the knife of knowledge that “I am awareness,” and be happy, my son. 1.14

>You are really unbound and actionless, self-illuminating and spotless already. The cause of your bondage is that you are still resorting to stilling the mind. 1.15

>All of this is really filled by you and strung out in you, for what you consist of is pure awareness — so don’t be small-minded. 1.16

>You are unconditioned and changeless, formless and immovable, unfathomable awareness, unperturbable: so hold to nothing but consciousness. 1.17

>Recognise that the apparent is unreal, while the unmanifest is abiding. Through this initiation into truth you will escape falling into unreality again. 1.18

>Just as a mirror exists everywhere both within and apart from its reflected images, so the Supreme Lord exists everywhere within and apart from this body. 1.19

>Just as one and the same all-pervading space exists within and without a jar, so the eternal, everlasting God exists in the totality of things. 1.20