Adi Shankaracharya & Advaita

All 4 shankaracharyas will not attend Ram temple inauguration in 2024.

• Birth – Kalady village on the bank of the River Periyar in Kerala.
• Period – Between 788 and 820 AD.
• Guru – Govinda Bhagavatpada.
• Works – Visiting spiritual centres, challenging prevalent philosophical traditions, and establishing mathas, organising monastic orders and a proponent of Advaita Vedanta.
• Spiritual visits – From Kanchi in Tamil Nadu to Kamrup in Assam, from Kashmir, Kedar & Badri dhams in the Himalayas to Kashi on the bank of the Ganga and Puri on the Bay of Bengal.
• Contributions – He is also popularly identified as the author of 116 works, including celebrated commentaries (or bhashyas) on 10 Upanishads, the Brahmasutra, and the Bhagavad Gita.
• Shankara’s legacy – His mathas are seen as keepers of Hindu faith and traditions and imagined of Hindu India transcending the political boundaries of his time.

Advaita Vedanta

• A school of Hindu philosophy and spiritual discipline.
• Proponent – Adi Shankara
• Principles – Radical nondualism, it posits that all that we perceive is ultimately illusory (maya), and that the principle of brahman is the only true reality of all things, transcending empirical plurality.
• Fundamental thrust – It lies in the unity of atman or individual consciousness, and brahman or the ultimate reality.
• Spread – Through systematised theories of metaphysics, language, and epistemology.