MATHS FOUNDED BY SRI SANKARA

SRI    sankara    founded    four    Maths (Monasteries) in the four quarters of India to spread the Advaita philosophy. His four chief disciples were the first heads of these Maths, Suresvaracharya at Sringeri in the south, Hasta-malaka at Dwaraka in the west, Totakacharya at Badri in the north and Padmapada at Puri in the east.

TEACHINGS OF SRI SANKARA 

There are three main schools of Vedantic thought in  Indian philosophy.  Advaita, Visishtadvaita and Dvaita. Sri Sankara, Sri Ramanuja and Sri Madhwa are the chief Acharyas of these schools. Let us try to understand the main principles of Advaita, taught by Sri Sankara.

A real teacher is he who is well versed in the Vedas, sinless, free from desires and is a knower of Brahman.

Worshipping such a teacher with devotion and serving him constantly, the disciple should get self-knowledge.

Childhood is passed lost in play, youth is spent in attachment to the sweet-heart, and old age broods over the past. Alas! None is anxious to attain the Supreme Self.

Give up the desire for amassing wealth. Cultivate good thoughts. Devote your mind to righteousness. Be content with whatever you earn.

Never boast of your wealth, friends and youth. Time may steal away all these in the twinkling of an eye. Giving up attachment to this world which is a pack of illusion, try to realise Brahman soon and merge in it.

When the mind becomes clean like a mirror, knowledge is reflected in it. Care should therefore be taken to purify the mind.

The yogi endowed with complete enlighten­ment sees through the eye of knowledge the entire universe as his own self and regards everything as the Self.

The result of dispassion is knowledge, that of knowledge is withdrawal from sense pleasures.

This leads to the experience of the bliss of the Self and therefrom comes peace. By the right knowledge that one is not different from Brahman, one becomes perfectly free from the bondage of life and death.

The Atman that is absolute Existence, Knowledge and Bliss cannot be realised without constant practice. So one seeking knowledge should meditate long upon Self or Brahman or Atman for gaining the desired goal.

The mind, the sense organs and so on, are illumined by the Atman alone, g.s a jar or a pot is by a lamp. But these objects cannot illumine their own self.

As a lighted lamp does not need another lamp to show its light, so the Atman being consciousness itself, does not need another instrument to illumineit.

Sri Sankara says, “I shall explain through half a sloka what has been described by innumerable

scriptures: Brahman alone is true, the world is an illusion, and the Jiva is Brahman itself, not different

from it.”

END OF THE MISSION

After this crowning triumph of his life, Sankara left for Badrinath in the Himalayas with some of his disciples. He spent some days, teaching the Advaita philosophy to seekers. In this way Sankara, the great incarnation of Siva, reached the thirty-second year of his life.

Next, he went to Kedara, the holy land of Siva, where the cold was so great that his disciples were not able to bear it. Sri Sankara, therefore, meditated on Lord Siva, for relief. In answer to his prayer, out from the foot steps of the Lord, came a spring of hot water.

Now there came Rishis and Devas headed by Brahma, to lead this incarnation of Siva back to Sivaloka. The celestials rained a heavy shower of flowers on him and sang the glory of Siva. Sri Sankara, whose life is a blessing to humanity, returned to his Divine Abode. The divine spark merged in the divine flame.