Jagadguru Adi Shankara — Timeless Steel of Hindu Dharma
Sri Gurubyo Namaha
śruti smṛti purāṇānām ālayama karuṇālayam |
namāmi bhagavatpādama śaṁkaraṁ loka śaṁkaram
Adi Shankara Bhagavatpada can be regarded as an unparalleled philosopher of all times across the world/universe he can be rightly regarded as the “Architect of Sanathana Dharma ‘’ of the present day. The contributions made by him in the spiritual spectrum is astounding with the number of refinements done in a short span of his ascetic life.
Beyond his ascetic life and the massive transformations he brought into the spiritual/religious ecosystem in the subcontinent he must be seen with a different perspective apart from the normalised form of view which emanates from his spiritual standpoint or from the influence he has on the religion as a whole.
Acharya should be studied/researched on how he strengthened the religious ecosystem in the Indian Subcontinent. During the time of acharya was when Buddhism and Jainism was flourishing and had major influence in the courts of various kingdoms with ascetics and monks of those darshanas taking their philosophies door to door across Bharatham. Their influence can be highly seen right from Sangam literature in Tamil and how deep rooted their ideology perpetuated into the social fabric of the society.
Whereas the construct of Hinduism and it’s base was majorly weakened as majorly people who follow Sanathana Dharma Darshanas(Asthikas) were highly disoriented and split into different schools of thoughts. These different schools of thoughts though were highly equipped and deeply philosophical couldn’t stand or fight the then by in the large ecosystem produced by Jainas and Bauddhas. Acharya Shankara not only refuted this ideology of Jainas and Bauddhas but also re-unified factions of darshanas which were operating separately into five unified folds of worship (Panchayatana form of Worship). It is said Acharya condemned 72 different darshanas in the subcontinent. The five fold worship embodied the ultimate wisdom of smrithis and shrutis which made things easier for all the 72 darshanas to get into five fold form of worship. This is the one which flourished and turned into the base for modern day Hinduism (Sanathana Dharma) which in itself started refining itself. This unification brought in a large number of people into one belt propelled/guided by dashanami sanyasis; this should be used as an ecosystem or as a basement for people to debate and position the core tenets of Hinduism. Though even after the times of acharya there were existence of separate darshanas like shaivism and vaishnavism over a period of time these darshanas and forms of worship engrossed themselves into six forms of deity worship which democratised into sanathana form of worship.
To know why this was highly important was during the time of Incursions and Islamic invasions which shook the entire Bharatam not only physically but also culturally. The Dashanami Sampradaya and Shankara mutts and their Acharyas played a vast role as spiritual leaders in maintaining the sanctity of core principles from getting diluted even during the major onslaught of invasions. Without Acharya’s such massive formation of religious base, Bharat-am couldn’t have withstood Invasions and later day mass conversions of European colonialists. This face of Acharya must be much celebrated as he not only saved sanathana dharma during its tough times but also made a strong infrastructure, a fervent religious ecosystem and a philosophical school of thought with tall superstructures which saved the Dharma during all its tough times providing shelter to people at all its raining days which was highly complemented by later day Acharyas.
Acharya is the principle reason both socially and spiritually we can still hear the vedic chants in Indian Subcontinent. Modern hindu society, spiritual leaders and free thinkers are highly indebted to Acharya for his foresightedness in creating an unparalleled ecosystem for us to thrive, also not only for building our spiritual acumen but also to verily exist with core tents of sanathana dharma principles.
On this auspicious day of Shanakara Jayanti, Let’s all grace the glory of acharya in being “Timeless Steel for Hindu Dharma”.
