Lets know about Shiva's incarnation on Shankaracharya Jayanti

Lucknow: As May 11 is celebrated as philosophers day on the occasion of Shankaracharya Jayanti. Let us know who was Shankaracharya. We celebrate Adi Shankaracharya's birthday to pay our salutations, gratitude, and respect to him and the purity of the Knowledge.

Sri Adi Shankaracharya is appraised as an incarnation of Shiva and the world's greatest Guru (Jagathguru). He instituted the worship of divinity as worshipping different forms of the one God.

Adi Shankaracharya was born to the Nambudri Brahmin couple, Shivaguru and Aryamba, in a little village, called Kaladi, in Kerala. His parents remained childless for long time and prayed for a child.Shiva is said to have appeared to the couple in a dream and promised them a choice of one son who would be short-lived, but the most brilliant philosopher and the couple opted for a brilliant and short lived Shankara.

• Shankara travelled in search of worthy Guru who would inititate him taking his vow of sanyasam (monk).

• He found the Ashram of Govinda Bhagavathpada who he recalled was Patanjali in a previous birth.
• Govinda was also the disciple of Goudapada (one of the early and most reputed philosophers of the Vedanta school of thought).
• Govinda taught various Vedas to Shankara as well as advaita, the principle that everyone in this world is the manifestation of God and that God and Atma are one and the same.
• Lord Vishnu appeared at Badrinath before Shankara and told him that his sculpture in the Alakananda River should be taken out and a temple should be built for it.
• This temple is called Badrinarayan Temple and is one of the important religious places for devotees.
• At the age of 12, Shankara wrote his most profound commentary on the Vedanta Sutras of Vyasa. He wrote commentaries on the Gita, Upanishads and Brahma Sutras, which are the authorities on the Vedanta Shastras.
• Shankara's commentaries were put to severe test not only by the teachers of various schools of thought, but also by the sage Vyasa himself.
• Vyasa encouraged Shankara to continue to debate and defeat hostile schools of thought and granted him a boon that significantly extended his life.
• Shankara assigned each of his primary disciples to each center. He assigned Sureshwara to Sringeri in the South, Padmapada to Dwaraka in the West, Hastamalaka to Puri in the East, and Totaka to Badrinath in the North.
• Sri Shankara assigned a Veda for each center, making sure each would sustain and propagate that particular Veda. Puri had Rig Veda, Sringeri had Yajur Veda, Dwaraka had Sama Veda, and Badrinath had Atharvana Veda. Each of these centers functions to this day.
• He composed hymns on Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesha, Subrahmanya, Sharada, Saraswathi, Lakshmi, Narasimha, etc. His compositions and writings on all the deities contain poetic excellence that thrill the common man, touch the emotions and carry the student forward in his evolution step by step.
• Sri Shankara is considered the highest intellectual the world has ever known. He remained a teacher until he was 32 years old.