Review: Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism's Greatest Thinker

Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism's Greatest Thinker by Pavan K. Varma
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While exact details of the period Adi Shankaracharya lived are not entirely known, the impact of his philosophy and commentary is immense. He was certainly one of the greatest philosophers the world has seen. Joseph Campbell wrote many years later on how we need to see beyond the literal in religious traditions, myths and ancient texts. Adi Shankaracharya did just that – writing impactful commentaries and establishing traditions based on his deep knowledge, analysis and understanding of the Vedas, Upanishads and other ancient texts.

The most striking aspect of this was his unambiguous assertion that all is one – Brahman is the all-pervading connection between everything in the universe. He points out that if this is true, there is no basis for any discrimination (by caste / gender / other life forms or any other basis) which must have been a well-entrenched practice at that time.

Pavan Varma’s book has a very good flow. It starts with some context on what we known of Adi Shankaracharya’s life and work. It then follows with three broad sections:
- His travel to the places where Adi Shankara stayed or visited and current knowledge and practices of the local residents
- Impact of Adi Shankara’s philosophy and relevance in modern times, including alignment with scientific knowledge
- Excerpts from some of Adi Shankara’s work

As it turns out, Adi Shankaracharya’s commentary on Advaita Vedanta has stood the test of time including scientific scrutiny. While the section on latest scientific advances is a little too long, the point is made that this is a philosophy which is practical, fair and very meaningful. While he died very young in his early thirties, his achievements were staggering – traversing a large country largely by foot, engaging in debates, and establishing four mathas to preserve tradition and serve as source of knowledge to explain the philosophy. Just maybe, if he had lived longer, he could have turned around a lot of the discriminatory practices which caused pain to so many.

The book is backed by research and has good narration of the personal experiences of the author’s visit to many places across the country. As he points out, a far better job needs to be done to maintain many of the places and sites which are of great historical importance. The section on the advances in science, could have been compressed a little though.

This is a great book to read if the subject is of interest.


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