Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-4. Part - 25.

Chapter-4. Swami Sri  Adi  Sankaracharya - The Genius ( Sankara Jayanti ) :
 Part-25.

With this introductory remark on the inadequacies of all the earlier systems of thought, Sri Sankara came forward as a genius of philosophic thought, as a Master who could solve with one stroke all the problems of life with his mighty system of psychology, wondrous system of metaphysics, his master technique of Yogic meditation and his soul-enrapturing ideal of the realisation of Brahman as the goal of life.

Such was the significance, chronological as well as logical, of the great mission and work of Acharya Sankara in Bharatavarsha, which has done mighty good not only to the citizens of this country but also to all seeking souls throughout the world.


The goal of human life depends upon the relation of the human individual to the world.

Unless this relation is understood, the goal also cannot be properly specified.

We are very much connected with the world outside; we know it very well.

And unless we know what sort of connection it is that we are supposed to have with the world outside, we cannot properly ascertain the nature of the goal of human life.

Religious teachers and prophets came to specify the goal of human life, the ultimate purpose behind all the activities of mankind.

And they differed from one another in their concept of the relation of the individual to the cosmos.


So we have schools of thought – Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta, known as the orthodox schools of philosophy; the Charvakas, the Jainas, the Vaibhasikas, the Sautrantikas, the Vaijnanikas and the Sunyavadins among the heterodox ones.

Even in the Vedanta, we have various sections – the Advaita, the Visishtadvaita, the Dvaita, the Shuddhadvaita, the Dvaitadvaita, Achintyabhedabheda, Saiva Siddhanta, the Sakta school, and so many other schools.

The schools are so many that we do not know where we stand, finally.

This was the condition of the human mind in its philosophical level when Sankara's advent took place on this earth.

Hundreds of cults and dogmas prevailed.

Pasupatas, Saivas, Bhairavas, Kapalikas were all rampant during his time.

He came to give to mankind a gospel of healthy living.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ....