Adi Shankara was a shining spiritual light who illuminated the land of Bharat with teachings that are still as impactful as ever. Sadhguru narrates some spiritually significant stories from his celebrated life.Adi Shankara was an intellectual giant, a genius of linguistics, and above all, a spiritual light and the pride of India. The level of wisdom and knowledge he showed at a very early age made him a shining light for humanity.
He was a prodigal child and an extraordinary scholar with almost superhuman capabilities. At the age of two, he could fluently speak and write Sanskrit. At the age of four, he could recite all the Vedas, and at the age of twelve, he took sanyas and left his home. Even at such a young age, he gathered disciples and started walking throughout the country to re-establish the spiritual sciences. By the age of thirty-two, he left his body, but in those twenty years from the age of twelve to thirty-two, he crisscrossed India a few times, north to south, east to west, from Kerala right up to Badrinath and back, travelling everywhere in all directions. The man must have been a really brisk walker to do so much walking in a short span of life, and in between he produced thousands of pages of literature.
The Extraordinary Guru of Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara’s guidance came from Gowdapada. Under his guidance, Shankara went about doing all this incredible work. Gowdapada is very much a part of our tradition also. He was an extraordinary guru, but his teachings were never written down. He made sure it was not written down. He must have taught thousands of people but he produced fifteen to twenty good people who re-established the spiritual science in the country very quietly, without any noise, without starting a new religion or anything. In many ways, that has been the intention of Isha’s work also – not to establish a new religion or a new scripture, but to establish the spiritual sciences just as a way of life, as an inculcation within a human being.
Once, while walking briskly with a bunch of his disciples trotting behind him, he came to a village. Outside the village, he saw a few people drinking, most likely the country homebrew liquor, which is arrack or toddy. In those days in India, and even up to about twenty-five, thirty years ago, drink shops were only ever outside the village. They were never brought into the village. Nowadays, alcohol is sold in the village, next to your house and in front of your child’s school. Those days, it was always outside the town.
Adi Shankara looked at these few people in their inebriated condition. You know, drunkards always think they are having the best time of their life and everyone else is missing it. So they made some comments at him. Without a word, Adi Shankara walked into the shop, took a pitcher, drank it and walked on.
Behind him, his disciples were trotting and among themselves they started discussing, “When our guru can drink, why can’t we?” Adi Shankara was aware of what was happening. When he came to the next village, there was a blacksmith working there. Adi Shankara went inside, picked up the pot of molten iron, drank it and walked on. Now you are not going to imitate him!
Adi Shankara’s Death
Towards the end of his life, Adi Shankara was so established in his culture, his Brahminic way of life and his Vedic knowledge, that he did not see fundamentals properly. One day, he was entering a temple and another person was walking out of the temple. That person happened to be of the low caste, but Adi Shankara was a Brahmin, the purest of the pure. When he was walking into the temple and he saw the person of low caste, he saw it as a bad omen. When he was going to worship his God, this low caste person came in the way. He said, “Move away.” That man just stood there and said, “What should move away, me or my body?” That is all he asked. This struck Adi Shankara so hard, and that was the last day he spoke. He never gave any other teaching. He just walked straight to Himalayas. No one ever saw him again.