MOTHER SARADA OF SRINGERI

SANKARACHARYA'S ADVENT AND ITS IMPACT

There are many versions regarding the birth of this great acharya and succeed in laying stress on the religious renaissance, in the later part of eighth century. Some narrate that the parent of Sankara, Sivaguru and Ambika were assured by Vadakkunathan of Trichur temple that he would be born as their son; and others mention that Lord Siva himself descended incarnating as Sankara to rejuvenate the sinking glory of Hinduism. Whatever may be cause, if judged in terms of impact, Sankara's birth opened a new glittering chapter in the religious history of India. Sankara lost his father while quite young, but mother Ambika brought him up instilling into his mind the essentials of Hinduism by entrusing him to the great gurus of the day. Sankara, to the amazement of all drank in all the best that the scriptures embodied before crossing his eighth year and managed to taking sanyasa before departing to the north for enriching his scholarship, but incidentally it enriched the very source itself-the feeder was fed miraculously. His discipleship first under Govinda Yati equipped him with such vast scholarship that it raised the banner of Advaita philosophy, at the fluttering of which the dubious claims of superiority of other religions went into hiding.

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