Sri Sankara Vijayam — Highlights

Prasad Chitta
darSana, SAstra, vijnAna
10 min readAug 27, 2021

The victory of Sankara is the reestablishment of Sanatana vaidika dharma at a time where several misinterpretations of dharma are rampant. The study of inspiring life as a background story and going through his teachings through the events of life allows an ordinary (non-scholar) individual to gain the wisdom of the Self.

Sri vidyaranya swami, having condensed past Sankara vijayas, created a kAvya named Srimad-Sankara-digvijayam with 16 sargas and an abridged authentic summary is available at: https://sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya

The intent of writing this post is to record my notes in the form of highlights on few aspects of studying guru charitra as a kAvya; narration of a wise preceptor’s life either as an autobiography or as a biography written by a great Kavi and listening to it from a great scholar Sri sAmavedam Shanmukha Sarma Garu.

The supreme lord appears in the manifested world for the sake of achieving a mission, a special purpose no human can perform. There are several avataras that re-established dharma in this world in various ways. But there are 4 jnana avataras; one in each yuga — 1. Hayagriva in Satya yuga, 2. Dattatreya in treta yuga, 3. veda vyasa in dvapara yuga, and 4. Sri Sankaracharya in kali yuga. The mission of these jnana avataras is to restore eternal Vedic wisdom firmly and protecting it from misinterpretation and neglect.

Eternal knowledge is known as Veda and the only purpose of Veda is to reveal the eternal knowledge. This Sanatana Dharma is governed by the supreme lord and when it is neglected or misinterpreted, it is his duty to fix the situation with the suitable measure in the world. Unfailing faith in this eternal principle is known as Asthikyam. Aryamba shows determination in such Asthikyam and with her husband Sivaguru, become the eligible couple bringing the supreme Sankara to the earthly world as Sri Sankaracharya.

There are two types of spiritual masters, one silently gives wisdom to those who approach them, and the other goes out and establishes wisdom by the means of philosophical debate. It is important to establish a culture of wisdom that is eternal in the traditional method. That is exactly the mission of Sankara to bring back the glory of the spiritual portion of Upanishads while the lifestyle is established in adherence to the ritual portion of Vedas in yajna, dAna, and tapas.

Having studied all the Vedas and sAstras traditionally, Sankara showed his natural compassion in the form of a stotra pleasing goddess of wealth for the sake of bestowing wealth for a poor lady. Nature also worked in a way to fulfill the wish of Sankara when he wanted the river pUrNa to come near his backyard for the sake of his aging mother. These two incidents are not miracles, but proof that divine and natural forces can be directed positively by the selfless (egoless) love, compassion, and willpower of an individual.

As all the avatars of supreme are guided by the sages, Sankara’s life span is split into the 8+8+16=32 equation. By the age of 8, Sankara completed all the traditional education and his fame has reached the king as well. Kerala’s king rAjasekhara visited Sankara and offered several gifts and read out three plays he authored to boy Sankara. Sapta rishis arrive at the home of Sankara and sage Agasthya spoke about his short life-span to his mother and directed Sankara to progress to the next phase of creating detailed reconciling bhashyas revealing the right meaning of conclusions of Vedas. With this guidance, Sankara took permission from his mother, promising her wishes to take care of her during her last moments as a son, took emergency-sannyasa, and set off on the path to meet his guru Sri gOvinda bhagavatpAda on the banks of Narmada.

Having answered the question “who are you?” in a highly spiritual way to the guru, accepted by him as his disciple, Sankara took sannyasa in a traditional manner (sampradAya paripAlana) into the lineage of gurus starting in supreme nArAyaNa, creator Brahma, sage vasishTha, Sakti Maharshi, paraSara Maharshi, Veda Vyasa Maharshi who authored the Vedanta sutras, Suka Maharshi, gaudapAda acharya, whose disciple is Sri gOvindapAda acharya. Having taught and sufficiently testing the attainment of tapas by the means of collecting a flood of Narmada into his kamandalam, Sri gOvindpAdAcharya instructed Sankara to continue his mission by going to kASi and propagate the Atma-vidya i.e., to establish the method of self-realization through the jnana mArga as per the Upanishadic tradition.

Having reached kASI, taking a bath in Ganga, Sankara taught the vidya to several scholars. At the age of 12, mahA dEva appears as a chandala and tests Sankara’s wisdom, and directs him to go to Badari Kshetra for developing bhashyas to prasthAna-traya i.e., the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita.

So, all the exceptional work Sankara did, was done as humble service to guru parampara and not as a demonstration of individual excellence! Another key question is why go to Badari? In the badarI kshetra, there are several tapasvis who are well versed in different aspects of Vedanta. Sankara met each of the tapasvis, collected and collated their experience, and reconciled all of their views into his bhashyas, and not just wrote what he felt (his opinions of) about vEdAna sutras.

Sankara returns to kASi after completing all his literary work of bhAshyas and prakaraNas and continues teaching. He also initiates one primary disciple sanandana who later came to be known as padmapAda-Acharya. At the age of 16, sage vyAsa comes to kASI as an old person and starts a debate on an intricate sutra from third pAda of Brahma Sutras known as “tadantara” sutra. The debate goes on for long without a conclusion and padmapAda, using his yOga sakti, identifies the old man as sage vyAsa himself! Sankara then seeks approval of his works from his paramaeshTi guru in the linage. Sankara says: “I have now completed my work. There is no further need of carrying this body, I shall give it up now!”

Sage vyAsa adding another 16 years of lifespan to Sankara, instructs to have the “jaya” i.e., victory or triumph of Sanatana dharma in its real meaning and implementation across the dharma kshetra of Bharata. That is where the digvijaya of Sankara starts.

To fulfill vyAsa’s wish, as a next step, Sankara wanted the best of the mImAmsa scholars kumArila bhatta to further explain the vedanta sastra bhashya in a vartika. As Sankara reached prayAga, he found that kumArila bhatta is giving up his body as a purificatory rite for two of the defects he committed in his life. 1. learning opponent’s scripture just for the sake of condemning them 2. tolerating the abuse of Veda whilst in opponent’s school. Having heard the request from Sankara, kumArila suggests the name of his disciple, manDana mishra as a suitable person to achieve the task. Sankara then goes to mAhishmati, invites manDana to a debate and establishes the authority of upanishads, the importance of contemplation on Upanishadic teaching, realizing the true nature based on those revelations as the final step of moksha. He reconciled that the actions, when performed as sacrifice as directed by the vedas, they give necessary purity to the consciousness to grasp the transcendental revelations of upanishads and hence all the directives of vedas are valid in the layer of actions and enjoyment of the fruits thereof. Having accepted the conclusion thus, manDana mishra agrees to be a disciple of Sankara.

ubhaya bhArati, an incarnation of Saraswati, goddess of knowledge also debates with Sankara and asks about the relation between the kAma-kalas (phases of desire) in relationship with moon phases in both the genders of men and women. Sankara takes a period of 30 days for answering this question and uses is yOga Shakti to find a king’s body whose life forces are leaving it and animates that body with the subtle life force to observe all that is needed to answer the question. Ubhaya bhArati accepts that Sankara as the knower of all sAstras and upon request of Sankara, remains in Sringeri as the bestower of knowledge to the devotees even today.

Sankara then reaches Sri Saila where a kApAlika requests for his head in bail for the attainment of his goal and Sankara accepts the request and cautions him to perform his ritual without the knowledge of his sishyas. But, unfortunately, padmapAda intuitively gets to know the plan of kApAlika and invokes Narasimha to protect Sankara, who is in deep samAdhi. Having been protected by Narasimha, Sankara stayed there correcting misconceptions of all the different modes of worship considering their form and name of God as supreme, their method is supreme etc., by debating and showing the defects in their theories. In the process, Sankara builds beautiful stotras in praise of each form of supreme in male and female aspects and names for the facilitation of worship.

Sankara then reaches mUkAmbika kshetra where reestablishes a softer form of Sakti worship. He then goes to an agrahara known as SrI bali. There he meets hastAmalaka — more on this link. Then Sankara reaches Sringagiri i.e., Sringeri, and establishes a maTha there. He graces one of his obedient sishyas known as Anandagiri with all wisdom of all vidyas spontaneously without going through the instruction and learning process. This shows the ability of a realized guru to impart wisdom without any effort from the disciple in special cases! As Giri expounded vedanta in verses in tOTaka vRttam, he came to be known as tOTakAcharya later.

Sankara gets intuition about his mother’s health and using his yOga Sakti appears in front of her. He serves her with the greatest wisdom and a vision of supreme lord in the form of Vishnu to her thereby she reaches supreme abode. He also performs her last rites as per the word given to her before taking emergency-sannyasa. This proves the importance of all individuals performing their duties (karmas) as enjoined by Vedas.

Sri Sankara vijaym is the vijayam of sanatana dharma, it is a vijayam for vedanta darSana. It is a vijayam of supreme reality i.e., satyam revealed in vedas. Sankara then established 4 Amnya peethas in 4 directions covering 4 vedas and mahA vakyas and appointed 4 of his main sishyas as the first head of each of the 4 peethas. This is to preserve and protect the ancient tradition throughout the future to come. We are all very fortunate to live in a period where the traditional unbroken lineage of guru parampara continuously radiating eternal wisdom!

There are several ideologies (72 to be precise) mentioned in the Sankara vijayam showing different names and forms of God as supreme and only that name and form along with the method of bearing specific marks of that worship will lead to supreme good or liberation were condemned by Sankara by establishing the fact that all the softer modes of worship will lead to purification of individual’s consciousness. That intern rises the ability to inquire into true nature. The supreme reality is not limited by names/forms or time/space restrictions. All the Vedic forms and names are consolidated into six primary schools of upAsana — Saiva, Vaishnava, SAkteya, Saura, gANapatya, kaumAra matas. Anyone who is wishing to worship any form can do so using the respective images arranged in a form of five — the primary in the center and four remaining around in four corners. The lamp lit in front of this arrangement is the jnana Sakti representing kumAra i.e., skanda. This will make any worship complete without reducing the importance of any name or form of God in the worship. This method is known as panchAyatana pUja, which is eternally proven in the sAstras and has been reestablished by bhagavan Sankara.

There are debates trying to disprove the final conclusion of non-duality of consciousness while trying to hide their own defects by the opponents during the vijaya yatra of Sankara. Some important discussions are with scholars known as nIlakanTha pandita and bhatta bhaskara. In theses discussions, Sankara clearly establishes: the differentiation is only in the mind and not in the consciousness i.e., Atma or Self. All distinctions exist only in the gross and subtle layers controlled by body/senses and mind. There are two layers of experience known as waking and dreaming representing these two layers. All actions happen only in these two layers. There is no philosophical contradiction in this. For example in deep sleep there is no distinction is observed between the individual mind and universal and there is no transaction as well. The nonduality of the supreme causal layer is not contradicted by showing any examples from dualistic gross and subtle layers.

So, Sankara has firmly established the philosophical basis in advaita vedanta, established panchayatana puja for individual upAsana, provided essential truth for everyone while eulogizing various forms of Gods and Goddesses in the stotras, provided simple and direct instructions using prakaraNa granthas, and for the scholars, provided detailed explanations of prasthana traya in the bhAshyas. This holistic tradition is established in the amnaya peethas by the age of 32 by Sankara. His mission is complete by reestablishing TRUTH in all possible ways as revealed by sanatana dharma. The vijaya or the victory is of the ultimate and eternal TRUTH. satyam Eva jayatE!

Having completed his mission of removing neglect and misinterpretation of supreme reality from the society, Sankara ascended the Sarvajna peetham in kAshmir by opening the southern door and merged back into supreme Sankara, his original source.

Earlier Post: Sri Sankara Jayanti

Some final notes:

  1. Sri Sankara Vijayam is a kAvya, that gives an account of supreme wisdom through a sequence of narratives. It is not trying to record merely the “history” of individuals, it is revealing a method of studying and understanding the teaching of Advaita Vedanta through the narration of the life of Adi Sankara bhagavatpAda.
  2. A sincere study of this kAvya has the potency of removing all the defects of an individual mind and gives the supreme wisdom, thereby can grant the highest goal of mOksha.
  3. Studying any narration of a realized sage has the same potency. In my case, my guru’s autobiography serves the same purpose.
  4. As with any Indian scripture, it is self-encrypted. If someone approaches it with an intention of finding faults, they will only find faults with it and will not be able to gain the essential message of it.
  5. Anyone who studies this kAvya with an open mind is sure to be cleaned of all the blemishes of the kali i.e., the conflict-driven time, and achieve the highest goal of mOksha.

SrI plava nAma samvatsara, SrAvaNa bahula panchami, bhRguvAra marks the day I record this post here on Medium. If someone somewhere gets inspired to study the life and teachings of Sankara by reading this, it would have served its purpose!

om tat sat

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