Shri Adi Shankaracharya Jayanthi today

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Shri Adi Shankara Jayanthi

Today, May 2nd is Shri Adi Shankaracharya Jayanthi. Let us share his teachings in this auspicious day.

Once, when Shankara giving spiritual lessons to his disciples, a young man demanded to know why all human beings in the world could not be regarded as absolute equals, since after all, the same kind of blood flowed in all of them. Shankara told him that one could adopt the idea of advaita (non-duality) in one’s thoughts and attitudes but it was not always possible to put into practice.

At this, the young man protested that such distinction and differentiation did not seem right. To explain the concept more clearly, Shankara asked the young man whether he had a mother, a wife, a sister and a mother-in-law. “Are you treating all of them equally?” he demanded of the man. “Can you treat your wife as your mother and your mother as wife?” The young man’s doubts were cleared.

Once Shankara posed the question to his disciples: who is the true conqueror of this world?

One disciple said that the true conqueror was the one who had subdued the world and brought it under his control. Another was of the opinion that he who climbed up the summit of the Himalayas was the real hero. A third disciple declared that he who crossed the seven seas was the greatest hero.

Shankara told his disciples not to think of ‘conquest’ only in worldly terms. In such terms, anyone and everyone could be deemed a conqueror. Even animals and birds could fight each other, and establish ‘victory’! A bird could fly over the Himalayas or cross the seven seas. Where was the victory in all this? “Only he who has subdues the mind is a real conqueror,” Shankara asserted. No one can achieve victory without subduing his mind.

Shri Adi Shankara went through an extensive, countrywide campaign of tarka or debates, trying to teach and persuade people to accept the truth. Having accomplished this digvijaya yatra successfully, he reached the holy city of Kashi, where he worshipped Lord Viswanath, the presiding deity, saying: “O lord, I come to Thee for the expiation of my sins.”

How could this be? Within the short span of his life, he had studied all the sacred scriptures, written profound commentaries on them, and taught truths to numerous followers. He had lived a pure, faultless life and was even perceived as an incarnation of Lord Shiva Himself. How then could he have committed any sins?

In a beautiful prayer, he himself explained:

“O Lord! My first sin is that despite knowing and teaching that God is beyond mind and speech, I have still attempted to describe your divine attributes in my hymns and shlokas. This shows lack of conformity between my thoughts and words.

“Next, even though I am convinced of truth that God pervades and permeates all things, all creatures, all places in the manifested Universe, and preaching this truth to all, I have come here to Kashi, to seek holy darshan. This is my second offence.

“Thirdly, having firmly asserted that the One and the Same Self is immanent in all beings, and that there is no difference between the Paramatma and jivatma, I stand before you as if Thou and I are two separate and different entities. This is my third lapse.

“I beg you to absolve me of all three sins, of which I am guilty.”

Bhaja Govindam Bhaja Govindam

Govindam bhaja mudamathe

Samprapthe Sannihite kale

Nahi nahi rakshati dukrung karane.

 

 

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