Sankara's portrait

[nanda chandran]

N Ganesan writes :

>Rajasimha who built the Kailasanatha talks of his mission to bolster Shaiva
>Siddhantam. It is significant no mention of Sankara in Tamilnadu or Kerala
>for several centuries after his death. In the 1000s of inscriptions prior
>to 10th century no study of vedanta or advaita is ever mentioned!

What many people don't seem to notice is that Advaitam is quite
different from the rest of the schools of Indian philosophy -
both nAstika and Astika - in terms of teaching and following.

Buddhism and Jainism had little problem admitting people from
any walk of life into their ranks though if they were unable
to stand the rigors of the schools ascetic practices they were
either punished or expelled.

For the SAmkhya/Yoga too, the teacher need not be a brAhmana,
but only a realized soul. So I would assume that if the
candidate were worthy enough, caste would not be a bar.

NyAya/Vaiseshika with their theistic tendencies deriving their
followers from the Saiva/ShAkta/Pashupatha sects too might not
have been too caste conscious.

The bhakti schools too are a popular movement.

And the philosophy of only a few schools (ascetic Buddhism/
Jainism/Yoga) may be said to be incompatible with normal life.
So 'exclusivity' is not their creed.

But Advaitam is *the* orthodox school which derives its teaching
from the shruti or the Veda. It teaches the crown
jewel of all wisdom, traditionally considered as "secret teaching"
- taught only to the worthy few. It is not mere logic of the
NaiyAyikas or the breathing/concentration exercises of Yoga or
the asceticism of the Bauddha or JainA schools or
the metaphysical speculation of the SAmkhya or the theism of the
bhakti schools - which anybody can learn without their normal
lives being greatly affected by it. Advaita is "brahma vidhya"
or knowledge of reality backed with scriptural authority, which can have a
profound effect on the life of one who learns it and might adversely affect
those unprepared for it. As the empirical world is
dismissed as mithyam or unreal, Advaita practice becomes
incompatible with normal life and samnyAsam or renunciation
thus is a necessity.

Though all worthy dvijas seem to have been eligible for the
study of VedAnta in the ancient past, after Shankara, the circle
seems to have been increasingly restricted to brAhmanas.
Even amongst the brAhmanas only a very small percent - see
Shankara's criterion for eligibility to study VedAnta - could
aspire to learn Advaitam.

Considering this fundamental distinction, we should not be
surprised if Advaita is not as *popular* as other schools.
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