- Adi Shankaracharya united Hindus and established it as the pre-eminent religion on the Indian subcontinent.
- The government has started the project to install a 12-foot statue of Adi Shankaracharya at famous religious philosopher’s samadhi, the final meditation-resting place.
- With the installation of the statue, the greatest saint of Hinduism has finally got his due place in India’s History.
Centuries ago, Adi Shankaracharya united Hindus and established it as the pre-eminent religion on the Indian subcontinent. However, a few centuries after the passing of Adi Guru, India faced attacks from Islamists leaders from the northwest, and the decline of Hinduism started. The decline could not be reversed until a Hindu nationalist BJP government came to power after the 2014 general election.
During the Uttarakhand floods of 2013, the Samadhi of Adi Guru was severely damaged, and at the time Prime Minister Modi (then Gujarat CM) proposed to rebuild it. However, the Congress government in Uttarakhand and UPA government at the centre declined the request.
Now with the BJP in the state as well as at the centre, the government has started the project to install a 12-foot statue of Adi Shankaracharya at famous religious philosopher’s samadhi, the final meditation-resting place.
In PM Modi’s recent visit to Kedarnath, he said, “There was a time when spirituality and religion were believed to be associated only with stereotypes. But, Indian philosophy talks about human welfare, sees life in a holistic manner. Adi Shankaracharya worked to make society aware of this truth.”
The Prime Minister said that India is now confident of its heritage. “A grand temple of Lord Shri Ram is coming up in Ayodhya. Ayodhya is getting its glory back. Just two days ago, the whole world saw the grand celebrations of ‘deepotsav’ in Ayodhya. Today we can imagine how the ancient cultural form of India must have been,” he added.
With the installation of the statue, the greatest saint of Hinduism has finally got his due place in India’s History. Among the many saints and Mahapurushas who adorn the pantheon of our Sanatana Dharma, there is none who could match the stature of Jagatguru Sri Adi Shankaracharya.
Shankaracharya’s stature is not just because of the sheer number of contributions Jagatguru had made in such a short span of his life of 32 years, but the impact he created throughout Bharatavarsha, that he crisscrossed between North and South, and from East to West about three times, almost 1200 years ago.
Much of what we see and know as Sanatana Dharma today, is perhaps due to the great work done by Acharya in integrating many different schools of thoughts that pre-existed, some even disappearing due to the advent of Buddhism, Jainism, and the rampant spread of Nastikavaada like Charvaakas during that time and reviving them. It is considered that the Devas went and pleaded to Bhagavan Shiva who in his Dakshina Moorthy Roopa was imparting wisdom through silence, to save Sanatana Dharma and decided to incarnate as Adi Shankara, who gave us the Advaita Vedanta or the philosophy of Non-duality.
Shankaracharya’s vision for Sanatana Dharma was so far ahead that he instituted four Amnaaya Peethas in four corners of the nation – Joshimath in North, Puri in East, Dwaraka in West and Sringeri in the South and anointed his four chief disciples as the heads of these Peethas with an instruction to them that they should, in turn, keep this lineage unbroken by appointing qualified successors and keep preserving Dharma so that the hard work done by him lasts forever.
The many Acharyas who have succeeded him till date through this unbroken lineage of Gurus, continue to contribute in this direction and over the last 1200 years.
Now that India has started recognising its true heroes, be it, revolutionaries, who won us freedom or people like Adi Guru who saved our civilization, the country is set on a path to glory.
