ADI SHANKARACHARYA
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Context
- PM Modi will unveil idol of Adi Shankaracharya at Kedarnath Dham': Amit Shah in Uttarakhand
Shankaracharya (788 - 820 AD)
- Shankaracharya consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. He is credited with unifying and establishing the main currents of thought in Hinduism.
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Advaita Vedanta refers to the non-dualistic school of Hindu philosophy, which is derived mostly from the Upanishads. Dvaita means duality, and Advaita means nonduality. Advaita school believes that Brahman is the one and only reality and everything else is a mere appearance, projection, formation or illusion. |
- His works in Sanskrit discuss the unity of the Ātman and Nirguna Brahman "brahman without attributes".
- His works elaborate on ideas found in the Upanishads. Shankara's publications criticised the ritually-oriented Mīmāṃsā school of Hinduism.
- He also explained the key difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, stating that Hinduism asserts "Ātman (Soul, Self) exists", while Buddhism asserts that there is "no Soul, no Self".
- Shankara travelled across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy through discourses and debates with other thinkers.
- He established the importance of monastic life as sanctioned in the Upanishads and Brahma Sutra, in a time when the Mīmāṃsā school established strict ritualism and ridiculed monasticism.
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