How many biographies of Adi Shankaracharya are there?

There are at least fourteen different known biographies of Adi Shankara’s life. Many of these are called the Śankara Vijaya, while some are called Guruvijaya, Sankarabhyudaya and Shankaracaryacarita.

What is Shankaracharya’s contribution to Hinduism?

Shankara himself stated that Hinduism asserts ” Ātman (Soul, Self) exists”, whilst Buddhism asserts that there is “no Soul, no Self.” Shankara has an unparallelled status in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta, and also had a strong influence on the Vedanta-tradition in general.

Who were Adi Shankaracharya’s disciples?

Adi Shankara had a number of disciple scholars during his travels, including Padmapada (also called Sanandana, associated with the text Atma-bodha ), Sureshvara, Tothaka, Citsukha, Prthividhara, Cidvilasayati, Bodhendra, Brahmendra, Sadananda and others, who authored their own literature on Shankara and Advaita Vedanta.

What did Shankaracharya say about moksha knowledge?

Shankara considered the purity and steadiness of mind achieved in Yoga as an aid to gaining moksha knowledge, but such yogic state of mind cannot in itself give rise to such knowledge. To Shankara, that knowledge of Brahman springs only from inquiry into the teachings of the Upanishads.

How did Shankaracharya become sannyasin?

A story, found in all hagiographies, describe Shankara at age eight going to a river with his mother, Sivataraka, to bathe, and where he is caught by a crocodile. Shankara called out to his mother to give him permission to become a Sannyasin or else the crocodile will kill him.

What is the one unchanging entity according to Shankaracharya?

According to Shankara, the one unchanging entity (Brahman) alone is real, while changing entities do not have absolute existence. The key source texts for this interpretation, as for all schools of Vedānta, are the Prasthanatrayi –the canonical texts consisting of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras .