Why write a book on Shankara? First, because we, the general public, know so little about him. And second, because this prodigy, this towering personality, this genius renunciant is one of the main reasons Hindu dharma is the way it is today. His contributions to Hindu religious thought and practices are enormous and too many to enumerate. And even though we cannot adequately gauge the impact of his personality on modern Hindu thought as we see it today, it is no reason why we should not know even a little bit about him. Most people have heard some stories about his famed debate with Mandan Mishra, his travels throughout the country and the establishment of the four mathas, or monasteries, across the country. But their knowledge stops at that. Who was this person who has impacted the collective psyche of the nation and its thought process in such an indelible way? Where was he born? Who were his parents? Who was his teacher? Where did he live, teach, die? There are so many questions which are bound to crop up in the mind of any inquisitive reader once he or she gets to know about Shankara. This book is an attempt to answer those questions.
But why another book? Aren't there enough volumes already?
Yes, there are several biographies, commentaries, translations and fictionalized accounts of Shankara's life in the market today. But are they easily accessible for the English-speaking public? Do they present a well-rounded, reliable perspective? Maybe, maybe not. Most available books either cater to academia-making them dense and difficult to read-or are works of pure fiction, rendering them unreliable. This book aims to bridge that gap, striking a balance between scholarly rigor and engaging storytelling. While myths and legends inevitably shape Shankara's story, I have strived to stay as true to the facts as possible, presenting them in a dramatized narrative that today's reader might find compelling.
But I must warn the reader, before the learned reader comes to expect too much from either this book, or its author, which is me. The canvas of Shankara's life is a vast and intricate tapestry, far beyond the grasp of a humble writer, untutored in the Vedaantic tradition. I am afraid I may have taken up a task seemingly beyond my means, and though I fear that I may fail in my endeavor to bring Shankara to you, I will not give up. For our dharmic traditions teach us "charaiveti charaiveti" in the "Shunashepa Upaakhyaana" in Rig Veda's Aitareya Brahmana (7.33). It means "keep walking," and so, I will keep walking, undeterred by the outcome.
Writing Hindi or Sanskrit terms in English is always an uphill task, for they tend to lose not only their meaning, but also their pronunciation when transcribed into English. And thus, I have used numerous footnotes throughout the book to remedy the former problem and have tried to write these terms as phonetically as possible to remedy the latter issue. Thus, the traditional Ram, or Rama, becomes Raama in this book, where the double "a" denotes "आ" and the single "a" denotes "अ." I do hope the learned reader will forgive me for preferring this scheme instead of the traditional spellings or using diacritical marks, of which I am no expert. Some terms like Shankaracharya or Sringeri, however, whose spelling and pronunciation are beyond doubt and well accepted in common parlance, are exceptions to this scheme.
This book, besides being a dramatized biographical account of the life of Aadi Shankaracharya, is also a narration of my personal journey of "finding Shankara"-a journey which I also hope to share with my readers so that, in the end, we may all "find Shankara" together.
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