{"id":15051,"date":"2023-09-22T07:38:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T02:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=15051"},"modified":"2025-04-03T08:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T02:46:25","slug":"adi-shankaracharya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/adi-shankaracharya\/","title":{"rendered":"Who was Adi Shankaracharya?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Adi Shankaracharya<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Adi Shankaracharya, or\u00a0<strong>Shankara as he was known,<\/strong> was an\u00a0<strong>ancient Indian philosopher and theologian<\/strong> who lived in the\u00a0<strong>early 8th century CE.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Birth<\/strong>: He was\u00a0<strong>born in Kalady<\/strong>, a village in\u00a0<strong>present-day Kerala.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Philosophical Contributions:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>He is best known for his role in the development and\u00a0<strong>propagation of Advaita Vedanta,<\/strong> a non-dualistic school of Hindu philosophy.<\/li>\n<li>He\u00a0<strong>amalgamated the ideologies of \u2018Advaita Vedanta\u2019<\/strong> and also\u00a0<strong>explained the basic ideas of Upanishads.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>His most important work<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>is his efforts to synthesize the six sub-sects, known as \u2018Shanmata.<\/strong>\u2019 \u2018Shanmata\u2019,\u00a0<strong>which literally translates to \u2018six religions<\/strong>,\u2019 is the\u00a0<strong>worship of six supreme deities.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Shankaracharya\u00a0<strong>explained the existence of one Supreme Being (Brahman<\/strong>) and that\u00a0<strong>the six supreme deities are part of one divine power<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>He also\u00a0<strong>founded \u2018Dashanami Sampradaya<\/strong>,\u2019 which\u00a0<strong>talks about leading a monastic life.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>While Shankaracharya was a firm believer in ancient Hinduism,\u00a0<strong>he condemned the \u2018Mimamsa school of Hinduism\u2019, which was purely based on ritual\u00a0<\/strong>practices.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Four Mathas:<\/strong> He\u00a0<strong>established four prominent monastic centers in India<\/strong>, each associated with one of the cardinal directions:\u00a0<strong>Sringeri in the south<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Dwarka in the west,<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Puri in the east,<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Badrinath in the north.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Commentaries and Writings:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>He\u00a0<strong>wrote 18 commentaries<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>on<\/strong> major religious scriptures like the\u00a0<strong>Bhagavad Gita, Brahmasutras, and 12 major Upanishad<\/strong>s.<\/li>\n<li>His\u00a0<strong>review of \u2018Brahma Sutra\u2019 is known as \u2018Brahmasutrabhasya\u2019<\/strong>, and it is the oldest surviving commentary on \u2018Brahma Sutra\u2019.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>He\u00a0<strong>wrote 23 books on the principles contained in the Advaita Vedanta<\/strong> philosophy,\u00a0<strong>including Viveka Chudamani, AtmaBodha<\/strong>, Vakya Vritti, Upadesa Sahasri, etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>72 devotional hymns<\/strong> and meditational hymns\u00a0<strong>like Soundarya Lahari, Nirvana Shatakam, Maneesha Panchakam.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Death:\u00a0<\/strong>Adi Shankaracharya is\u00a0<strong>believed to have attained Samadhi<\/strong> (a state of deep meditation or realization)\u00a0<strong>at the young age of 32 in Kedarnath in the Himalayas<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Key Facts about Advaita Vedanta:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>It refers to the\u00a0<strong>non-dualistic school of Hindu philosophy<\/strong>. It is a\u00a0<strong>subschool of Vedanta<\/strong>, which itself is one of six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0<strong>derived mostly from the Upanishads\u00a0<\/strong>and elaborated in detail by eminent scholars like\u00a0<strong>Sri Adi Shankaracharya and Gaudapada.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Dvaita means duality, and\u00a0<strong>Advaita means nonduality<\/strong>. It\u00a0<strong>emphasizes the fundamental oneness or non-duality of all existence.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It\u00a0<strong>posits that the ultimate reality, known as Brahman, is the only true, unchanging, and absolute reality.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Everything else, including the individual self (Atman), the material world (Prakriti), and the gods, is ultimately an illusion (maya<\/strong>) or a\u00a0<strong>temporary manifestation of Brahman.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In other words, there is\u00a0<strong>no fundamental distinction\u00a0<\/strong>or separation\u00a0<strong>between the individual self and the ultimate reality.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Jiva (Individual Soul):<\/strong> In Advaita Vedanta, the individual soul or jiva is\u00a0<strong>seen as an expression of Brahman<\/strong> temporarily bound by the limitations of the physical body and mind.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Moksha (Liberation):<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Liberation (moksha) is achieved\u00a0<strong>when the jiva realizes its essential identity with Brahman.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Moksha is the\u00a0<strong>ultimate goal of Advaita Vedanta.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is the\u00a0<strong>liberation from the cycle of birth and death<\/strong> and the realization of one&#8217;s true nature as Brahman.<\/li>\n<li>Moksha is\u00a0<strong>attained through self-realization (atma-jnana)<\/strong> and the\u00a0<strong>removal of ignorance (avidya).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Advaita Vedanta\u00a0<strong>offers various paths to realization, including Jnana Yoga<\/strong> (the path of knowledge),\u00a0<strong>Bhakti Yoga<\/strong> (the path of devotion), and\u00a0<strong>Karma Yoga<\/strong> (the path of selfless action).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>While Advaita Vedanta teaches that the world is ultimately an illusion,\u00a0<strong>it acknowledges the relative reality of the empirical world<\/strong> and<strong> encourages individuals to fulfill their worldly duties (dharma<\/strong>) while seeking spiritual realization.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are Upanishads?\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>The Upanishads are an assortment of texts central to Hinduism that are recorded from oral traditions. They contain information regarding the philosophical principles and concepts of Hinduism, including karma (right action), brahman (ultimate reality), the atman (true Self or soul), moksha (liberation from the cycle of reincarnation) and Vedic doctrines that explain Self-realization through yoga and meditation practices.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/india-news\/shivraj-chouhan-unveils-adi-shankaracharya-statue-in-madhya-pradesh-4412267\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Shivraj Singh Chouhan Unveils Adi Shankaracharya Statue In Madhya Pradesh<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adi Shankaracharya, or Shankara as he was known, was an ancient Indian philosopher and theologian who lived in the early 8th century CE. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}