Shankara and Advaita Vedanta
A young philosopher from Kerala teaches that the self and ultimate reality are one, and founds monasteries that still shape Hindu orthodoxy.
- Shankara — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Tradition says that Shankara was born at Kaladi in Kerala, became a renunciant as a boy, wrote great commentaries on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras, walked the length of India debating Buddhists and ritualists, founded monasteries at Sringeri, Dwarka, Puri and Jyotirmath, and died at just 32 in the Himalaya. Scholars accept the commentaries as his but place him in the eighth century with few firm details.
- Shankara — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
His Advaita (“non-dual”) Vedanta teaches that only brahman is ultimately real; the world of separate things is like a mistaken perception, and liberation comes from knowing that one’s self is brahman. Other Vedanta teachers, such as Ramanuja and Madhva, later argued for a loving, personal God distinct from the soul.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Shankara — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why it matters today
Advaita, through Shankara and later through Vivekananda, became the most famous Hindu philosophy at home and abroad. The Shankaracharyas who head his monasteries are still respected voices of orthodox Hinduism.