The Supreme Lord Shri Krishna has a plan and relies on His most surrendered devotees to execute it. Anyone who helps the Lord in this plan becomes most dear to Him; as He Himself says in the Bhagavad Gita: ‘There is no servant in this world dearer to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.’ (18.69) One such dear devotee of the Lord was Shankaracharya.
The birth of a missionary Shankaracharya was born in 788 AD and lived on this planet for only 32 years. In this short time, he accomplished the unimaginable, that which can only be achieved when a person is personally empowered by the Supreme Lord.
He was born in Kalady village in Kerala, south India, on the banks of the river Periyar. His parents, Shivguru and Aryamba, had been childless for a long time and desired a son. They decided to worship Lord Shiva with a pure heart.
Lord Shiva was so pleased with them that He Himself decided to be born to them. His father named him Shankar, since he knew that his child was born due to Lord Shiva’s mercy. The child was so radiant that he illuminated the entire house. All the ritualistic ceremonies were devoutly performed soon after his birth.
Early signs of genius
Even before Shankaracharya turned a year old, he would sit on his father’s lap and listen to him recite verses from the scriptures. He was able to memorise them after listening to them just once. At the age of three, his chooda-karan sanskar (first haircut) was done, and he was taught how to write the alphabet, after the ritual worship of the slate. Soon after, his father passed away. At the age of five, he underwent the sacred thread ceremony and was enrolled in a gurukul for two years. He returned after having memorised all the scriptures.
The divine spark shone through even at this young age. While in the gurukul, he had to live like a bhikshuk (beggar), and beg for alms. Once, he went to a very poor lady’s home, who put some amlas in his begging bowl. Deeply moved by her poverty-stricken condition, he spontaneously composed a prayer called ‘Sri Lakshmi Kanakadhara’, resulting in her house being immediately filled with amlas of gold.
The greatest debate
Shankaracharya’s debate with a renowned scholar named Mandan Mishra from south India was a historic one. Mandan had a very chaste wife, Bharati. When Shankaracharya defeated Mandan Mishra in their debate, his wife intervened. She was believed to be the incarnation of Mother Saraswati, the Goddess of learning. She said, ‘I am his better half, and unless you defeat me, you are not considered a winner.’ Shankaracharya agreed to this.
She first discussed the scriptures and Shankaracharya defeated her. Later, she took on the shringar rasa, the intimate affairs between husband and wife. Being celibate, Shankaracharya had no experience in this regard. He requested her for a six-month period, after which he would answer all her questions.
He then came to the state of Uttarakhand with his disciples. A king named Amrook had just died. Shankaracharya told his disciples, ‘I am going to give up my body and occupy his for six months. Preserve my body in oil. Keep it safe until I return.’
Moh-mudgar, authored by Shankaracharya, professes the temporary nature of this body and the world, bringing a sense of detachment to the reader. He told his disciples, ‘If I get delayed, or attached to kingly affairs, then come and recite the verses from Moh-mudgar. I will then detach myself and come back immediately.’ Then, by his yogasiddhis (mystic powers), he gave up his body, which was preserved by his disciples, and his soul entered the body of the king.
The king (who was now actually Shankaracharya) suddenly got up from his deathbed and everybody, including the queen, was overjoyed to see him alive. He started studying the shringar rasa with the queen, but the queen realised over a period of time that though the body was her husband’s, the soul definitely belonged to some saintly person, someone who was a great tapasvi. She ordered the soldiers to go around the kingdom and look for the body of the saint and burn it immediately.
That way, his soul would be unable to leave her husband’s body, forcing him to stay by her side forever. But Shankaracharya’s disciples had been instructed to keep the body safe. Nobody could find it.
Another version of the story says that Shankaracharya became attached to worldly ways when he was inside the body of the king. When six months had passed, as instructed, his disciples came and recited the verses of Moh-mudgar. Hearing them, Shankaracharya detached from the material world and returned with the disciples.
Post this, he debated again with Mandan Mishra’s wife, and answered all her questions. Mandan Mishra and his wife accepted their defeat and Mandan Mishra became his disciple. Later, he also took sannyas, and was given the name Sureshwaranand.
Excerpted with permission from Icons of Grace: Twenty-one Lives That Defined Indian Spirituality by Nityanand Charan Das, Westland Publications