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Adi Shankara

c. 700–750 · conventionally dated 788–820

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

Only one reality, Brahman, truly exists; the world of many separate things is appearance (maya), not ultimately real, and your true self is identical with that one reality.

Placement

South Asian & Tibetan Philosophy · South Asia · Metaphysics, Religion

Advaita Vedanta: only Brahman is real; the multiplicity of the world is Maya.

Key ideas

  • Advaita (non-duality)
  • Maya
  • Brahman

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Influence

Influenced by 1

  • Yajnavalkya

    influenced by

    Shankara’s longest Upanishad commentary is on the Brihadaranyaka, where he read Yajnavalkya’s ‘not this, not this’ (neti neti) as pointing to the attributeless Brahman. Shankara, Brihadaranyakopanishad-bhashya, tr. Swami Madhavananda (1934); Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, tr. P. Olivelle, Upanisads (1996)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Yajnavalkya › traditionally c. 800–720 BCE

Influenced 3

  • Swami Vivekananda

    influenced

    Vivekananda placed Shankara’s Advaita at the summit of Hinduism and turned it into a ‘practical Vedanta’ of service to others (lectures in London, 1896). Swami Vivekananda, Practical Vedanta (lectures, London 1896); A. Rambachan, The Limits of Scripture (1994)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Swami Vivekananda › 1863–1902

  • K. C. Bhattacharya

    influenced

    K. C. Bhattacharya’s first book, Studies in Vedantism (1909), interpreted Shankara’s Advaita, with its doctrine of maya, in modern philosophical terms. K. C. Bhattacharya, Studies in Vedantism (1909); N. Bhushan & J. L. Garfield (eds.), Indian Philosophy in English (2011)

    Evidence: AI draft

    K. C. Bhattacharya › 1875–1949

  • Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

    influenced

    Radhakrishnan saw Shankara’s Advaita as the high point of Indian thought but read maya as the world’s dependence on Brahman rather than illusion (Indian Philosophy II, 1927). S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy II (1927); IEP “Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan › 1888–1975

Criticism

Criticized by 3

  • Ramanuja

    criticised by

    Ramanuja raised seven objections against Shankara’s doctrine of ignorance (avidya), holding that Brahman has real qualities and the world is its body (Shribhashya I.1.1). Rāmānuja, Śrībhāṣya I.1.1; J. B. Carman, The Theology of Rāmānuja, 1974

    Evidence: AI draft

    Ramanuja › c. 1077–1157 · traditionally 1017–1137

  • Madhvacharya

    criticised by

    Madhva rejected Shankara’s non-dualism, holding the difference between God, selves and matter to be real and eternal (Mayavadakhandana; Vishnutattvavinirnaya). Madhva, Māyāvādakhaṇḍana; Viṣṇutattvavinirṇaya; B. N. K. Sharma, History of the Dvaita School of Vedānta, 1960

    Evidence: AI draft

    Madhvacharya › c. 1238–1317

  • Sri Aurobindo

    criticised by

    Aurobindo rejected Shankara’s doctrine of maya: the world is not an illusion to be left behind but a real manifestation of the Divine (The Life Divine, 1939–40). Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine (1939–40), I.3 ‘The Refusal of the Ascetic’, II.6 ‘Reality and the Cosmic Illusion’

    Evidence: AI draft

    Sri Aurobindo › 1872–1950

Criticizes 4

  • Kapila

    criticised

    Shankara argued that the Samkhya ‘nature’ (pradhana), being unconscious, cannot produce an ordered world without an intelligent cause (Brahmasutrabhashya II.2.1–10). Śaṅkara, Brahmasūtrabhāṣya I.1.5–11, II.2.1–10

    Evidence: AI draft

    Kapila › legendary figure

  • Brihaspati (Carvaka)

    criticised

    Shankara rejected the Lokayata (Carvaka) view that consciousness is a property of the body: what is aware of the body cannot itself be the body. Śaṅkara, Brahmasūtrabhāṣya III.3.53–54

    Evidence: AI draft

    Brihaspati (Carvaka) › legendary figure

  • Nagarjuna

    criticised

    Shankara dismissed the Madhyamaka doctrine that everything is empty as contradicted by every means of knowledge and not worth detailed refutation (Brahmasutrabhashya II.2.31). Śaṅkara, Brahmasūtrabhāṣya II.2.31

    Evidence: AI draft

    Nagarjuna › c. 150–250

  • Vasubandhu

    criticised

    Shankara rejected the idealism of Vasubandhu’s Yogacara school: external objects exist, since we perceive them as distinct from our awareness (Brahmasutrabhashya II.2.28–32). Śaṅkara, Brahmasūtrabhāṣya II.2.28–32

    Evidence: AI draft

    Vasubandhu › c. 350–430

Works

Position

Shankara is the classic teacher of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dualist interpretation of the Upanishads. Only brahman – pure, undifferentiated consciousness – is ultimately real, and the innermost self (atman) is identical with it. The world of many things and separate selves is not simply nothing but the work of maya, a beginningless ignorance that projects distinctions onto the one reality, as a rope is mistaken for a snake in dim light. Liberation (moksha) is reached not by ritual or action but by the knowledge that dispels this ignorance. His commentaries made Advaita the best-known school of Vedanta – in modern times often taken to speak for Hindu philosophy as a whole.

Life & context

Adi Shankara is said to have been born in Kaladi in Kerala and, by the conventional dating (788–820 CE, proposed by K. B. Pathak in 1882), lived around 800 CE; many modern scholars place him earlier, in the first half of the eighth century. The hagiographies tell of an early renunciation of the world, journeys across India, debates with rival schools and the founding of monasteries (mathas). He is said to have died young, at about thirty-two.

Further main works

  • Commentaries on the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita (8th century CE)
  • A Thousand Teachings (Upadeśasāhasrī, 8th century CE)

Appears in

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

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