Life of Adi Guru Shankrachayra

Biography of Sri Adi Sankaracharya

Birth

       Sankaracharyacharya was born in a very poor family in the year 788 A.D. in a village named Kaladi, six miles to the east of Alwaye, Kerala. Kaladi is a railway station, on the Kochi-Shoranur rail link. Sankaracharyacharya was a Nambudiri Brahmin. Rajasekhara, a Zamindar (a rich landlord), built a Siva temple in Kaladi and formed an Agrahara for Brahmins who were in the service of the temple. Vidyadhiraja was doing Puja (worship) in the temple. He had only a son named Sivaguru. Sivaguru studied the Shastras and married at the proper age. He had no child. He and his wife Aryamba prayed to Lord Siva to bless them with a son. A son was born to them in the Vasanta Ritu or the spring season at noon, in the auspicious Abhijit Muhurta and under the constellation Ardhra. This son was Sankaracharyacharya. 

       Sivaguru died when Sankaracharya was seven years old. Sankaracharya had none to look after his education. His mother was an extraordinary woman. She took special care to educate her son in all the Shastras. Sankaracharya's Upanayana or thread ceremony was performed in his seventh year, after the death of his father. Sankaracharya exhibited extraordinary intelligence in his boyhood. When he was only sixteen, he became a master of all the philosophies and theologies. He began to write commentaries on the Gita, the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras when he was only sixteen years old. What a great marvel! 

      Sankaracharya's mother was consulting astrologers about horoscopes of suitable girls for her son's marriage. But Sankaracharya had a firm resolve to renounce the world and become a Sannyasin. Sankaracharya's mother was very much grieved that there would be no one to perform her funeral rites after her death. Sankaracharya gave full assurance to his mother that he would always be ready to serve her at the death-bed and perform the usual funeral rites. Even then his mother was not satisfied. 

     One day, Sankaracharya and his mother went to take bath in the river. Sankaracharya plunged into the water and felt that a crocodile was dragging him by the foot. He shouted out to his mother at the top of his voice: "O dear mother! A crocodile is dragging me down. I am lost. Let me die peacefully as a Sannyasin. Let me have the satisfaction of dying as a Sannyasin. Give me your permission now. Let me take Apath-sannyasa”. 

     The mother immediately allowed him to take Sannyasa. Sankaracharya took Apath-sannyasa (the adoption of Sannyasa when death is near) at once. The crocodile let him go unharmed. Sankaracharya came out of the water as a nominal Sannyasin. He again repeated his promise to his mother. He left her under the care of his relatives and gave away his little property to them. He then proceeded to find out a Guru with a view to get himself formally initiated into the sacred order of Sannyasa.

In Search of a Guru 

     Sankaracharya met Swami Govindapada Acharya in a hermitage in Badrikashram (Badrinath) in the Himalayas and he prostrated at the teacher's feet. Govinda asked Sankaracharya who he was. Sankaracharya replied: "O revered Guru! I am neither fire nor air nor earth nor water-none of these, but the Immortal Atma (Self) that is hidden in all names and forms". He also said in the end: "I am the son of Sivaguru, a Brahmin of Kerala. My father died in my childhood. I was brought up by my mother. I have studied the Vedas and the Shastras under a teacher. I took Apath-sannyasa when a crocodile caught my foot while I was taking bath in the river. Kindly initiate me formally into the holy order of Sannyasa". 

     Swami Govinda was very much pleased with the truthful narration given by Sankaracharya. Having initiated him and invested him with the robe of a Sannyasin, Swami Govinda taught him the philosophy of Advaita which he himself had learnt from his Guru-Gaudapada Acharya. Sankaracharya learnt all the philosophical tenets from his Guru Govindapada. Govinda asked Sankaracharya to go to Kashi. Sankaracharya proceeded to Kashi where he wrote all his famous commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, the Upanishads and the Gita and successfully met all the criticisms levelled against them. He then began to propagate his philosophy. Sankaracharya had the greatest esteem for his Guru Govindapada and his Parama Guru or the teacher's teacher, Gaudapada.

(Source: http://www.dlshq.org/saints/sankara.htm)