Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti 2022: about his life and Inspirational Quotes

Bhagavan Adi Shankaracharya is considered to be the ideal saint (Sannyasi). It is commonly accepted that he lived about 1200 years ago though there are some historical sources indicating that he lived in an earlier period.

Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti is observed on Panchami Tithi during Shukla Paksha of Vaishakha month. The Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti comes during April or May month. This year, the birth anniversary will be celebrated on May 6th. and this will be the 1234th birth anniversary of Adi Shankaracharya.

Bhagavan Adi Shankaracharya was born in Kalady, Kerala, and lived for only a short life span of 32 years, his accomplishments seem a marvel even today, with our modern conveyances and other facilities. At the tender age of 8, burning with the desire for Liberation, he left home in search of his Guru.

He established 4 ashrams in four corners of India and entrusted his 4 disciples to teach and propagate Advaita through them.

Adi Shankara, along with Madhava and Ramanuja, was instrumental in the revival of Hinduism. These three teachers formed the doctrines that are followed by their respective sects even today.

Quotes by Adi Shankaracharya

“When your last breath arrives, Grammar can do nothing.”

“Curb your senses and your mind and see the Lord within your heart.”

“Reality can be experienced only with the eye of understanding, not just by a scholar”

“The treasure I have found cannot be described in words, the mind cannot conceive of it.”

“The world, like a dream full of attachments and aversions seems real until the awakening.”

“What is an inquiry into the Truth? It is the firm conviction that the Self is real, and all, other than That, is unreal.”

“There is sorrow infinitude. The Self is beyond time, space and objects. It is infinite and hence of the nature of absolute happiness.”

“Like the appearance of silver in mother of pearl, the world seems real until the Self, the underlying reality, is realized.”

“But the jiva [living being] is endowed with ego and his knowledge is limited, whereas Ishwar is without ego and is omniscient.”

“Space seems broken and diverse because of the many forms in it. Remove the forms and pure space remains. So, too with the Omnipresent Self.”

“Thus one should know oneself to be of the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss[Sat-Chit-Ananda].”

“The witness of the three states of consciousness [waking, dream and deep sleep] and of the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss is the Self”

“Loud speech, a profusion of words, and possessing skillfulness in expounding scriptures are merely for the enjoyment of the learned. They do not lead to liberation.”

“Knowing that I am different from the body, I need not neglect the body. It is a vehicle that I use to transact with the world. It is the temple which houses the Pure Self within.”

“Do not be proud of wealth, people, relations, and friends, or youth. All these are snatched by time in the blink of an eye. Giving up this illusory world, know and attain the Supreme.”

“Each thing tends to move towards its own nature. I always desire happiness which is my true nature. My nature is never a burden to me. Happiness is never a burden to me, whilst sorrow is.”

“From a clear knowledge of the Bhagavad-gita, all the goals of human existence become fulfilled. Bhagavad-gita is the manifest quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedic scriptures.”

“You never identify yourself with the shadows cast by your body, or with its reflection, or with the body you see in a dream or in your imagination. Therefore you should not identify yourself with this living body either.”

“Do not look at anybody in terms of friend or foe, brother or cousin; do not fritter away your mental energies in thoughts of friendship or enmity. Seeking the Self everywhere, be amiable and equal-minded towards all, treating all alike.”

“As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment, and purity through meditation and attains Reality.”

“Give up identification with this mass of flesh as well as with what thinks it a mass. Both are intellectual imaginations. Recognize your true self as undifferentiated awareness, unaffected by time, past, present or future, and enter Peace.”

“All the manifested world of things and beings are projected by imagination upon the substratum which is the Eternal All-pervading Vishnu, whose nature is Existence-Intelligence; just as the different ornaments are all made out of the same gold.”

“Even after the Truth has been realized, there remains that strong, obstinate impression that one is still an ego – the agent and experiencer. This has to be carefully removed by living in a state of constant identification with the supreme non-dual Self. Full Awakening is the eventual ceasing of all the mental impressions of being an ego.”

“To be free from bondage the wise person must practice discrimination between One-Self and the ego-self. By that alone you will become full of joy, recognizing Self as Pure Being, Consciousness and Bliss.”

“Just as a stone, a tree, a straw, grain, a mat, a cloth, a pot, and so on, when burned, are reduced to earth (from which they came), so the body and its sense organs, on being burned in the fire of Knowledge, become Knowledge and are absorbed in Brahman, like darkness in the light of the sun.”