The Great Adhi Sankaracharya.

Hinduism was the most predominant religion in India and inspite of the Jains, Buddhist and other religions, Hinduism was followed by the largest number. To give new life to the Vedic religion the work of Sri Adhi Sankaracharya whose achievements remain unsurpassed. It is impossible to describe in words his contribution to philosophy, religion, literature and culture.

Pandits are not capable of telling about the date of Adhi Sankaracharyas birth.Researchers however say his birth was during the Seventh and Eighth centuries. But all scholars agree that Sankaracharya lived for 32 years.

Born in {Kaladi} Kerala in south India Sankaracharya completed his Vedic studies at early age. He adopted the sanyasa and toured all over India preaching various scholars to accept his philosophy of Advaita Vedanta.He defeated all the scholars who encountered him in debate and earned the epithets Sarvajna and Jagadguru. He explored the Himalaya mountains and discovered the Shrines of Shri Kedarnath and Shri Badrikeshvara and installed his disciples there.

Sri Adhi Sankara was a great scholar,philosopher,yogi and also a devotee. He preached the love of God and composed many devotional prayers. He reformed the method of worshipping and initiated a pleasant and elevating systems of puja{Worship} of the six deities Shiva,Shakti, Surya, Vishnu, Ganapathy and Shanmugha. Therefore he is called Shanmatasthapanacharya i.e., founder of the six paths.

Shri Ahi Sankaracharya established four Maths in four corners of India. Shringeri in South, at Puri in east, at Dwaraka in west and at Badri in the North. These four Maths represents the four Vedas. Shri Sankaracharya wanted to encourage the concept of a culturally united India. He also established mathas one of which is at Kanchipuram in South India. The Mathas have been serving Indian society in the fields of education,culture,religion and social service.

Shri Adhi Sankaracharya gave an impetus to the study of philosophy and brought about a great renaissance. He is justly acclaimed as the Father of Vedanta school of thought’s. Adhi Sankara was the author of numerous works, both in verse and prose on a variety of philosophical and theological subjects.

Indian Literature.

Indian Vedic literature belongs to a period from century 3500 to 600 B.C. As per the ancient literature, there are four Vedas in India ie. Rig-Veda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Athatrvanaveda.Out of the Vedas Rig-Veda is the earliest and contain a description of the life of the people during those days. The fourth Veda contains information of various topics. These are the beginning sources for the history of the early period in India, known as the “Vedic” period.

The vedangas are the complimentary sciences of the Vedas. There are are six in number viz Phonetics, ritual, grammer, etymology, metrics and astronomy. The great Epics Ramayana and Mahabharata are a Rich source of valuable material for history. The puranas are stories of ancient dynastic in India. There are eighteen puranas and eighteen upa-puranas. They deal with ancient dynastic of India such as the purus, kurus, Nandas, Mauriyas,shungas,kanvas,Andhras,Guptas. Some puranas deal with social History of India in those days.

The Buddhist sacred literature is known as “Tripitaka”.The teaching of Gautama Buddha is arranged in three groups. He treated the rich and the poor alike. He preached the control of desire can be achieved by the eight fold path-the practice of right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation. The Vedic language is very difficult to read and understand.

The “Arthashastra” of Kautilya { friend of kingChandragupta Maurya and a great scholar } gives an idea of the high standard of political thought and organisation.The teaching of Buddha were spread to foreign lands by the efforts of Indian King Ashoka. The Chinese accepted Buddhism in large numbers and several Chinese devotees visited India on a pilgrimage. Yuan-Chwang{Hiuen-Tsang} came to India and lived here for fifteen years had close relations with King Harshavardhana and Nalanda University and visited many parts of India. In India valuable material concerning prehistoric and historic civilizations has been discovered by excavation.

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INDIA AND INDIAN CULTURE
Over 2000years before Christ, the vast expanse from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari has been known as “Baratha Varsha” {Baratha Bhoomi}.The river Sindhu {Indus} with its several tributaries, which water the Punjab, the land of five rivers. This fertile plain was centre of a great civilization. Over several thousands of years before other religions spread into India. The land between Ganga and the Jamuna River’s known as “Aryavarta”. The River Ganga turns east and flows to the sea in Bengal. There it forms a large delta and is joined with Brahmaputra another great river.

The Vindhya Mountain together with two rivers Tapi and Narmada and a thick forest formed a formidable region which perhaps delayed the spread of the Vedic culture of North India into the south for a long time. The land from river Krishna to the ocean in the extreme south of kanyakumari is known as the South India in which peoples are living with several languages as mother tongue.

India was a cheerful land, whose people are having a higher level of kindliness in their mutual relationship than any other nation.Eventhough the people are having different languages, India grow prosperous and its wealth attracted foreigners from many lands. The invasion of foreigners and the rivalries of local kingdoms resulted in a series of wars. Because of those reasons India was torn by internal wars, which were destructive, slavery and inequality of social status were the results.

Political thinkers, sages and poets in India have only preached the sense of unity. India has been a cultural unit on account of all-embracing religions. People of India have developed a peculiar type of culture and civilization, totally from any other type in the world. That civilization is called Hinduism.

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Great men are born in this world only in a period of some centuries.. In the present century “Mahatma Gandhi” the father of Barathabhoomi guided the Nation for its Independence.Like that Mahaswamy of Kanchi,Sri Ramana Rishi of TiruvannamalaiAnd Sri Aurobindo were all prophets of the Life Divine. The Divine was unleashing a Three-pronged spiritual force to fight the darkness,ignorance and death-wish of Baratham.

The Great Acharya of Kanchi, besides having been a prophet ,had the stupendous task of administrating a great monastic institution to which lakhs of devotees owed allegiance. . Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swami was initiated into the ascetic order and he became the 68th Acharya of the ancient Math founded at Kanchi by Adhi Sankara before several centuries.

The Guru was helping us in wiping out of our karma {actions}. Even when our karma keeps yielding in fruits, he protects us by giving to the armour of ‘Jana’,i.e., true knowledge.Mahaswamy of Kanchi was one who lived upto his teaching’s as Jagadguru.Sri.Chandrasekarendra Sarawathi had traveled through a considerable part of Baratham,propogating the Veda-Dharma. People like all sampradayas likr Dvaitins,Vishishtadvaitins,as also other religion people flock to him as to none else, and seek enlightment and peace.

With the blessings of Sri Adhisankara and Sri Kanchi Parama charya and with the well wishes of Hindu Munnani leader Sri Rama Gopalan and 'Tharasu' Tamil Magazine Editor Sri Shyam, a small magazine by name "Engal Baratham" was started from the Indian independence day of (August 15th) 2001
The teachings of Kanchi paramacharya, Vivekananda and Ramana Maharishi, Vallalar and other great saints of Barathabhoomi are being published in our Magazine and circulated to member’s.

You can contact barathabhoomi at email. engalbaratham@hotmail.com