A short biography by John M Evans. Part 2

Obviously, there would be no world without God, just as there would be no snake without the rope. But the converse is not true, and this leads to an acceptance of the mistaken identity of the world and the omnipresence of Brahman, the Self. Remove that ignorance by enquiry and liberation is secured.

Shankara’s life is shrouded in the fog of history. This is no surprise to Orientalists since Indian religious figures are never well documented at the best of times. Despite the number of biographies about his life and his own enormous literary and physical legacy, much surmise is required to get a grip on the real Shankara. In the manner of most historical sages, he has been well endowed with the miraculous by his followers and later interpreters. So one has tactfully to dismiss the works of wonder, the fatherhood of Siva, and the belief that he completed his mighty oeuvre by the tender age of twelve.

He was born a Brahmin in the state of Kerala, South India. By some accounts he was a brilliant child, foregoing whole stages of his education and development. As a consequence, he left home in his youth to become the chela (disciple) of Govindanatha, a guru of the Advaita persuasion. Later he moved on to Benares and then to a town in the Himalayas, already with a chela of his own. Here he composed some of his most famous works, commentaries on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutra of Badarayana, the founder of Vedanta.

In the aftermath of this immense literary accomplishment, Shankara set off to travel all over India spreading his gospel of “only God is real”. He is credited with a profound interest in education and founded several institutions devoted to Advaita Vedanta and related studies, in addition to religious orders modelled on the Buddhist sangha (community of monks and nuns). His work had that brisk modernity and organization which the Buddhists introduced to India.

His monastic foundations in the North, South, West and East of the country began to radiate teachers and monks to smaller temples which served more local needs. It seems clear that Shankara was an exceptional organizer and manager, as well as philosopher, sage, writer and religious leader.

Swami Chinmayananda, in a commentary on Shankara’a Bhaja Govindam, writes of its author, “An exquisite thinker, a brilliant intellect, a personality scintillating with the vision of Truth, a heart throbbing with industrious faith and ardent desire to serve the nation, sweetly emotional and restlessly logical, in Shankara the Upanishads discovered the fittest Spiritual General.” He was Buddha, Rishi and Gandhi all in one.

He died, we are told, at the early age of thirty-two, though doubt has been cast on this. Given the immensity of his achievement, a longer life would perhaps hold greater credence.

Next : The works of Shankara

In 19th Century America, Ralph Waldo Emerson knew all about the non-dual vision.

“Standing on the bare ground — my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part and parcel of God.”

Perhaps the most accessible of the Upanishads propounding the non-dual vision is the Katha Upanishad. This scripture describes how a youth, Nachiketas, sacrifices himself to Yama, the God of Death, in order to discover the secrets of immortality. The god grants him three boons which Nachiketas uses to extract the innermost secrets of the universe. In the process he rejects all offers of material powers and pleasure, prompting the god to name the ultimate fire sacrifice after Nachiketas himself.

The story is fascinating in that it has some parallels with the early experiences of the youthful Ramana Maharshi of South India who, at the age of sixteen, was confronted with death in the form of an existential seizure. Instead of collapsing in terror, Ramana boldly faced up to it and extracted the inner essence of the life/death experience.

Apart from the Upanishads, the other major work which constitutes the bedrock of Vedanta and, for that matter, all else in Hindu India, is the Bhagavad Gita. This sublime scripture, sometimes regarded as an Upanishad, has a more practical edge than many other texts of this period. For this reason it is often seen as a work of karma yoga (union through action).

In fact, the jnani (a man of vision or knowledge), is given the prominent place in the scripture. “The jnani and I are one,” says Krishna, the embodiment of God in the Gita.

Nevertheless, the bhakti (devotee) finds his consolation in the Bhagavad Gita, and Mahatma Gandhi used it as authority for his particular gospel of action and work in the world. Like many other great scriptural outpourings, the Gita satisfies all manner of persons.

The book, as we now know it, comes down to us as part of the Mahabharata, a vast epic poem of war and conflict, said to be the longest in the world. The Gita, however, stands out from it, almost as the New Testament shines out of the Bible against the darker qualities of the Old, where “an eye for an eye” becomes “turning the other cheek”.

The spirit of the Gita, as with the Upanishads, can be represented by a few short extracts. The non-duality of the work as a whole is expressed perfectly by Krishna’s words to Arjuna.

‘When a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others; then he goes to the highest path.”

Again, in a great declaration, Krishna speaks for the All.

I am the Father of this universe, and even the Source
of the Father. I am the Mother of this universe, and
the Creator of all. I am the highest to be known, the
Path of purification … I am the Way, and the Master who
watches in silence; thy friend and shelter and thy
abode of peace. I am the beginning and the middle and
the end of all things: their seed of Eternity, their
Treasure supreme.

From these deeply spiritual teachings, arose Buddhism, Jainism and later a Hindu/Buddhist synthesis, the Advaita Vedanta of Shankara.