Sri Adi Sankara's Birthday is on Friday 9th May

May 8, 2008

Sri Adi Sankara birthday falls on this Friday that is the 9th of May, 2008.

Guru charanam, bhaja charanam,Satguru charanam, bhava haranam. Maanasa bhajare, guru charanam, Dustara bhava saagara taranamGuru maharaja guru jaya jaya, Para brahma satguru jaya jaya

As regards to Sri Adi Sankara's Birthday, there is an unending debate and controversy even today!

Swami said wonderfully it was Panchami, a Sunday in the month of Vaishaki of the year Nandana in the early hours of the morning during 'Brahmamuhurtha' Sankara was born in Kaladi village near Cochin in Kerala.

RELIGION IS realisation; it is not mere learning-this is the divine message which stands deeply in the minds of every Hindu. This is not a mere fancy. This is not a mental conception. This is not a stretch of imagination, It is not a coinage of the brain. Nor is it a decision arrived at by vehement vituperation and incongruent argumentation promulgated by an ordinary intellectual prodigy.

This is the assertion of Shankara, India's greatest philosopher-saint, the incarnation of Lord Shiva, reverently known as Srimath Adi Shankaracharya.

What can a take him for except the Lord Himself who proclaims authoritatively and undauntedly: "I am the Self of all; I am the all; I am transcendent; I am one without a second; I am the Absolute; I am the infinite Consciousness; I am homogeneous bliss".

It was only Shankara who gave the unshakeable concrete form to Hinduism and established the unity and purity of enlightened Hindu thought and culture. Superstitions and corrupt practices melted away in no time.

Above all, the philosophy of Shankara is not restricted to the highly intellectual It is within the easy reach of even the layman. With his profound knowledge, all-comprehensive learning, keen intuitive insight and convincing explanations, he has erected the strong edifice of Vedanta, equally accessible to the scholar and the layman. How effectively he prescribed "Bhaja Govindam" to the scholar who was racking his brains in committing various scriptures to memory!

At the background of all these, his devotion to his Guru is supermost. Mark what he says: "Any person who realises 'I am That Brahman' through the unparalleled mercy and glance of the Sadguru, loses all feelings of doubt and, with his mind free from illusion, attains liberation even while living in the body". How much efficacy and glory he in devotion to the Guru!

Shankara Jayanthi falls on the 5th day of the bright half of Vaisakh (May-June).

If anybody wants to know more about Sri Adi Shankara , please click the link below

http://www.shankaracharya.org/