Adi Shankara

Che cos'è l'Assoluto? Dio esiste?

Only attributeless Brahman is real; Ishvara is its relative aspect

Un Assoluto impersonaleLo dice espressamente

Adi Shankara, the great systematiser of Advaita Vedanta, distinguishes two levels of truth. On the absolute plane (paramarthika) there is only attributeless Brahman (nirguna), pure existence and consciousness, without parts or relations. On the plane of ordinary experience (vyavaharika), that same Brahman, associated with the limiting conditions of maya, appears as Ishvara, the Lord with attributes (saguna), cause of the world, object of worship and dispenser of the fruits of action. In his commentary on the Brahma Sutras he defines Brahman as that from which the world proceeds, in which it subsists and into which it is reabsorbed, and he explains the error of superimposing what is not the Self onto the Self. Worship of Ishvara is legitimate and purifying, but the ultimate is not a person: it is consciousness without a second.

Chi sono io? Esiste un vero sé?

Atman is Brahman; the error is superimposing the non-Self on the Self

Il Sé è l'AssolutoLo dice espressamente

Adi Shankara opens his commentary on the Brahma Sutras with an analysis of superimposition (adhyasa): through ignorance we attribute to the Self, which is pure consciousness, the properties of body, senses and mind, and vice versa, like someone who sees a snake where there is a rope. From this confusion arises the sense of being an agent and a subject who enjoys and suffers. The true Self (atman) neither acts nor suffers: it is the unchanging witness of all states, and it is identical with Brahman, as the great Upanishadic sayings affirm, «that thou art» or «I am Brahman». In the Upadesa Sahasri he develops this discernment as a dialogue between teacher and disciple. The individual (jiva) is Brahman apparently limited by conditions; once ignorance dissolves, no one remains distinct from the Absolute.

Perché soffriamo?

Ignorance superimposes body and mind on the Self: hence suffering

L'ignoranza di ciò che siamoLo dice espressamente

Adi Shankara locates the root of suffering in ignorance (avidya), and defines it at the start of his commentary on the Brahma Sutras as superimposition: we attribute to the Self, which is pure consciousness, the qualities of body, senses and mind, and say «I am fat», «I am blind», «I suffer». From this confusion arise the sense of being an agent who acts and a subject who enjoys and suffers, desire, action and the cycle of births (samsara). The Self does not suffer: it is the unchanging witness of the states in which suffering appears. Liberation is therefore not attained by acts, not even by meritorious rites, which only produce new fruits within the cycle, but by the knowledge that dissolves ignorance, as light dispels the confusion between rope and snake.

Che cosa accade dopo la morte?

The Atman is neither born nor dies; the one who knows it does not transmigrate

Ciò che sono non nasce e non muoreLo dice espressamente

For Adi Shankara the question has two answers depending on the plane. On the empirical plane, subject to ignorance (avidyā), the individual soul transmigrates: with its subtle body and its karma it passes from one body to another, along the paths described in the Upanishads, until knowledge frees it. On the ultimate plane, the Self (Ātman) is identical with Brahman and is neither born nor dies; birth, death and transmigration belong to what is superimposed, not to what is real. Commenting on the Bhagavad Gita (2.20), he insists that the Self is not slain when the body is slain. And in the commentary on the Brahma Sutras he holds that the vital breaths of the knower of Brahman do not go forth anywhere at death: they dissolve right there, because there is nowhere to go. Liberation does not happen after death; it is the recognition of what was never born.

Come si raggiunge la liberazione o la salvezza?

Only knowledge of the identity of atman and Brahman liberates; works only purify

Con la conoscenza direttaLo dice espressamente

For Adi Shankara bondage is not a real state to be undone but a superimposition (adhyasa) due to ignorance: the Self is confused with the body, the senses and the mind. Since the cause is ignorance, the only remedy is knowledge, just as only light dispels the confusion of mistaking a rope for a snake. In his commentary on the Brahma Sutras he holds that liberation is not the product of any action, since whatever is produced would be perishable: it is the eternal nature of the Self, revealed by the teachings of the Upanishads. Ritual works and devotion purify the mind and prepare it, but do not liberate; knowledge is received by hearing the teacher, reflecting and meditating on scripture.

Serve un maestro?

Knowledge of Brahman is received from a teacher versed in scripture

IndispensabileLo dice espressamente

For Adi Shankara, liberating knowledge comes from revealed scripture, the Upanishads, and is received through a teacher. Commenting on the Mundaka Upanishad (1.2.12), which enjoins approaching, fuel in hand, a teacher versed in the texts and established in Brahman, he stresses that even someone who knows the scriptures should not seek that knowledge on his own. The prose part of the Upadesa Sahasri opens by describing how the teacher should instruct a disciple who approaches him duly prepared, and how to answer his doubts. The teacher is not a mediator of grace but the one who makes the great Upanishadic sayings intelligible, and in that role he is indispensable.

Il mondo è reale?

The world is real for experience, superimposed on Brahman, the only reality

Apparenza sull'unica realtàLo dice espressamente

Adi Shankara distinguishes levels of reality. From the ultimate point of view, only Brahman is real; the world of names and forms is a superimposition due to ignorance, like the snake seen in a rope, and its status is indefinable: neither real nor unreal. But from the empirical point of view the world is fully valid: actions have consequences, the scriptures govern and objects exist outside the mind. In his commentary on the Brahma Sutras (2.2.28 ff.) he refutes the Buddhist idealists who reduced the world to ideas, insisting that external objects are perceived as such. The world is not a subjective dream but an objective appearance upon Brahman.

Che cos'è l'amore?

All is loved for the sake of the Self; supreme devotion is inquiry into it

Ciò che appare quando l'io cessaSi deduce dalla sua dottrina

Adi Shankara does not treat love as a theme of its own, but his work allows a position to be reconstructed. Commenting on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, where Yajnavalkya teaches Maitreyi that husband, wife or children are not dear for their own sake but for the sake of the Self, Shankara explains that all affection is ultimately directed to the Ātman, which is bliss; love for objects is a deflected reflection of that bliss, superimposed through ignorance. When the empirical self, with its sense of agency and ownership, is recognised as superimposition, what remains is Brahman, which is being, consciousness and fullness. The Vivekachudamani, which tradition attributes to him, defines devotion as inquiry into one's own true nature. Shankara is also credited by tradition with devotional hymns, but he subordinates devotion to knowledge.

Siamo liberi o è tutto determinato?

The Self does not act: agency is a superimposition

Non c'è un agenteLo dice espressamente

Shankara deals with the question in his commentary on the *Brahma Sutras* (2.3.33-40). There he grants that the individual soul is an agent, since otherwise the injunctions and prohibitions of scripture would be meaningless; but he clarifies that this agency does not belong to it by nature. It is a condition superimposed by the limiting adjuncts (*upādhi*) of body and mind, like the carpenter who works when he takes up his tools and rests when he lays them down (2.3.40). On the empirical level, therefore, there is action, karma and responsibility; on the ultimate level, the Ātman identical with Brahman has never done anything. Liberation does not consist in choosing better, but in knowing that one was never the doer.

Perché meditare o pregare?

Neither action nor meditation liberates, but knowing one is Brahman

Tornare alla sorgente dell'ioLo dice espressamente

Shankara rigorously distinguishes action from knowledge. Liberation is not an effect produced by a ritual or a meditation, for then it would be something new and perishable; it is the recognition of what one already is, the Ātman identical with Brahman (commentary on the *Brahma Sutras*, 1.1.4). The way is to hear the Upaniṣads from a teacher (*śravaṇa*), reflect on them (*manana*) and assimilate them through sustained contemplation (*nididhyāsana*). Devotional meditations (*upāsana*) and rites purify the mind and prepare, but do not liberate. In the *Upadeśasāhasrī* he teaches the disciple to discern the Self, the unchanging witness, from everything that can be known as an object.

Può la ragione conoscere l'ultimo?

Brahman is known only through Scripture; reason serves it, does not replace it

Scrittura e ragionamentoLo dice espressamente

Shankara is the reference for this key. In his commentary on the *Brahma Sutras* he holds that Brahman cannot be known by perception or inference, for it is not an object, and that its only valid means of knowledge (*pramāṇa*) is the revelation of the Upaniṣads (1.1.3-4). Commenting on sutra 2.1.11 he argues that independent reasoning lacks firm foundation: what one thinker proves today, a cleverer one refutes tomorrow. Yet reason has an indispensable role: interpreting scripture correctly, refuting rival doctrines —Sāṃkhya, Buddhist, Nyāya— and reflecting (*manana*) until doubts are removed. The knowledge that liberates is born of scripture understood, not of argument alone.

Ritirarsi dal mondo o trasformarlo?

Only knowledge liberates; renunciation belongs to the knower

Ritirarsi per trovareLo dice espressamente

Adi Shankara holds that liberation is not the fruit of any action, because it is the recognition of what one already is; ritual or moral action only purifies the mind and prepares it for knowledge. Against those who proposed combining knowledge and action, he argues in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita that they are incompatible in the same subject: action presupposes an agent and a fruit, which knowledge dissolves. Hence he assigns to the mature seeker renunciation (saṃnyāsa), the wandering, propertyless life of the monk, and the teaching of the Upadeśasāhasrī is addressed to a renunciant disciple. According to tradition, he himself organised Advaita monasticism and founded monasteries (maṭhas) in different parts of India. Action in the world is legitimate for one who does not yet know, as a purifying duty; for the knower it ceases.

Sringeri, distrito de Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka · India

Sringeri Sharada Peetham

Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri

Sringeri, on the banks of the Tunga river in the Western Ghats, is home to the first of the four monasteries tradition attributes to Adi Shankara, the Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetham, guardian of the south. Since then it has been led by an unbroken line of jagadgurus, the teachers who safeguard the Advaita teaching. The site brings together the temple of the goddess Sharada and the Vidyashankara temple, and the monastery remains a centre for the study of the Vedas and Vedanta. It offers pilgrim accommodation through its portal and publishes temple timings and the history of its lineage on its website.

Saylorsburg, Pensilvania · Estados Unidos

Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Pennsylvania

Arsha Vidya Gurukulam

Arsha Vidya Gurukulam was founded in 1986 by Swami Dayananda Saraswati in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania to teach Advaita Vedanta by the traditional method, that is, through the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras read with Shankara's commentaries. It is run by resident teachers and offers Vedanta courses on campus, weekend classes, retreats and online studies, such as one on the Brahma Sutras. According to its website, Vedanta classes carry no fee: they are funded by donations and gurudakshina, with only nominal registration and lodging charges.

Veliyanad, Ernakulam, Kerala · India

Chinmaya International Foundation, Adi Sankara Nilayam

Chinmaya International Foundation (Chinmaya Mission)

Chinmaya International Foundation is the academic centre of the Chinmaya Mission devoted to preserving and disseminating India's knowledge traditions. It is based at Adi Sankara Nilayam in Veliyanad, Kerala, the ancestral home of Adi Shankara's mother's family, which Swami Chinmayananda acquired and restored. It offers courses in Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads and in Sanskrit, online and by post, as well as short residential retreats devoted to texts attributed to the teacher and longer immersion camps.