Shankara,
Ramanuja and Madhwa are three pre eminent philosophers who shaped Hindu
Philosophy. Smartha Brahmins are followers of Adi Shankaracharya and have priests of this
Order as family priests. Shankara is the Kula Guru of the Gadasalli family.
Shankara
propounded Advaita philosophy (Monism).
According to him “ The difference between God and man is one of degree.
Ultimately they are one and the same. That which is within the man is called ‘Atman’
and that which embraces the universe is known as ‘Brahman’. ‘ The Brahman
alone exists; all the rest is Maya (illusion). The individual soul (Jeevatma) is
Brahman alone and nothing else.”
Born
in a Namboodari family at Kaladi in Kerala, Shankara
also known as Adi Shankara and Shankara Bhagavatpada, wrote commentaries on the
Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita, Brahma sutras, and Vishnu Sahasranama. He wrote
several manuals
of which, “Vivekachudamani” and ‘Upadeshasahasri’
are renowned.Besides, he produced
over thirty devotional songs (Stotras), in praise of Ganesha, Shiva, Parvati,
Rama, Krishna and Hanuman. Of these the ‘Bhaja Govinda Stotra’ on Krishna
and ‘Soundarya Lahari’ (containing one hundred stanzas) on goddess Parvati,
are very captivating. He established four ‘Mathas’ one each at Sringeri in
the South, Badrinath in the Himalayas,Dwaraka
on the West coast at Puri on the East coast.
“
The life of Shankara makes a strong impression of contraries. He is a
philosopher and a poet, a savant and a saint, a mystic and a religious reformer.
Such diverse gifts did he possess that different images present themselves,
if we try to recall his personality. One sees him in youth, on fire with
intellectual ambition, a stiff and intrepid debater another regards him as a
shrewd political genius, attempting to impress on the people a sense of unity;
for a third he is a calm philosopher engaged in the single effort to expose the
contradictions of life and thought, with an unmatched incisiveness; for a
fourth, he is the mystic who declares that we are all greater than we know.
There have been few minds more universal than his”. Late Dr S.Radhakrishnan.
Philosopher and President of India.
Ramanujacharya1017
– 1137 AD
Chief
exponent of the Vishistadwaita(combination
of monism and dualism) philosophy, and a great social reformer, he preached the
oneness of mankind.
Vishishtadwaita teaches that god himself is the highest reality as well as
supremevalue.
God themerciful can be realized
through the Bhakti marga (devotion). He is the teacher, the friend,
the father, the mother, the child and even the beloved.
Madhwacharya
1238
-1317 AD
The
saint who propounded the‘Dwaitha
philosophy’ (Dualism), and installed the idol of Sri Krishnaat Udupi, in Karnataka. His followers regard him, as the incarnation of
Vayu, who manifested in previous lives as‘Hanuman’
and‘Bhima’.
Dwaitha philosophy, unlike Shankara’s Advaita, makes a distinction
between, ‘Atman’ and ‘Brahman’ (Dualism) and rejects all notions to
reduce the world of souls and nature to illusion (Maya). The individual soul is
dependent on God, since it is unable to exist without the energizing support of
the universal spirit.
