This biography presents a coherent and cogent account of the life and achievements of Adi Sankara, closely following Madhava Vidyaranya’s Sankara-digvijaya. Describing his birth and early life, it discusses at length his journey to spiritualism, with special focus on his search of a Guru, his visit to Varanasi, his penance in the Himalayas, and his engagement with exegesis.
Understanding the need of the aspirants to reach out to the Unknown through the known, Adi Sankara inaugurated the vast area of stotra literature and interpreted crucial scriptures like the Brahma-sutra, the Upanishads and the Gita in the light of Advaita Vedanta. The individual writings are discussed to show how he was the father of the commentatorial tradition for which India is famous.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR R Balasubramanian
R. Balasubramanian (Ph.D and D. Litt., Madras University), a specialist in Advaita, Phenomenology and Existentialism, started his career in 1950. He taught in Besant in Basant Theosophical College, Vivekananda College, and Annamalai University before joining the faculty of Radhakrishnan Institute for Advanced Study in Philosophy, University off Madras, of which he was the Director for a number of years. He started Sri Aurobindo School of Eastern and Western Thought at Pondicherry University and was its first Chairman for five years. He spent a year at Stanford University as a Fulbright & Smith-Muudt scholar for his post-doctoral Philosophical Research for a term. He is at present Visiting Professor, Sri Aurobindo School of Eastern and Western Thought and President, Afro-Asian Philosophy Association. His publications include: Personallistic Existentialism of Berdyaev (1970); The Taittirtyopanisad-bhasya-vedanta (1976); The Naiskarmya-siddhi (1988); T.M.P. Mahadevan (1998).
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