Shankaracharyas

In the early nineties I came into contact with Tattvaloka, the journal of Sringeri Shankaracharya Math, through its editor T.R. Ramachandran, who took me on a special visit to Sringeri.

Sringeri is a hill station in Karnataka. It took several hours by car from the airport at Mangalore where we flew in. I was surprised to find the main center that the great Shankaracharya founded located in such a remote region. Clearly Shankara was more concerned with tapas than with gaining public acclaim. He was not creating a new religion that needed to convert the masses but a way of meditation in which we must work on ourselves. This is the Vedantic spirit, which one can still feel strongly at Sringeri. Self-development is the key to the Vedic spiritual path, not proselytizing.