Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Adi Shankaracharya (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

Ādi Śaṅkara (788–820,) also Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, was an Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of the Advaita (nondual) school of Vedānta philosophy. Among the most creative intellects in Indian history, he is credited with unifying and establishing one of the principal streams of Hindu philosophy.

Born to devout Śaivite parents in Kaladi, Kerala, Śaṅkarācārya learnt a wide range of religious and philosophical materials. He led a peripatetic life and systematized the teachings of the Upaniṣads, stressing the indivisibility of the Brahman and the atman. He believed that the world is the manifestation of an all-encompassing unity—the Brahman—the definitive and impersonal principle of the universe, from which all being stems, and to which it returns.

Śaṅkarācārya was determined to reinstate Brahmanism on a sound intellectual and institutional footing. He founded four mutts (monastic centers) in the four corners of India: Badrinath in the Himālayas (north,) Shringeri in Karnataka (south,) Puri in Orissa (east,) and Dvārakā in Gujarat (west,) as well as a additional monastery at Kānchipuram in Tamiḻ Nādu. The religious ascetics (Dashanāmī Sanyasis) who belong to this order are organized into ten divisions that are headed by Śaṅkaracaryas.

Śaṅkarācārya regularly traveled his monastic communities, preaching and defending the tenets of his Advaitic (nondualistic) philosophy against challengers from a variety of Hindu and Buddhist schools, especially given that the Buddhist influence in India was still strong during his short life.

Śaṅkarācārya’s lasting standing was fully established by the time of his death. His doctrine became the most influential of all Hindu philosophies, providing the basis for Hindu theological reform and spiritual integration.

In addition to his philosophical innovations, Śaṅkarācārya wrote a number of treatises, notably Brahmasūtrābhāṣya, a commentary on the 4th-century BCE Brahmā-sūtra (“power aphorisms.”) He also wrote commentaries on the Bhagavad Gītā (Bhagavadgītābhāṣya, part of his Prasthana Trayi Bhāṣya,) and the Vedas and the Upaniṣads. Śaṅkarācārya’s many devotional poems and prayers reflect the immense range of his religious sensibilities.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Adi Shankaracharya

As long as there dwells breath in the body, so long they enquire of your welfare at home. Once the breath leaves, the body decays, even the wife fears that very same body.
Adi Shankaracharya

The desire for more and more wealth is dangerous. Cultivate the good sense to give up your desires. Wealth is the result of past deeds. Therefore be content with what you have.
Adi Shankaracharya

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

Strive not, waste not your energy to fight against or to make friends with your enemy, friend, son or relative. Seeking the Self everywhere, lift the sense-of-difference born out of ‘ignorance’.
Adi Shankaracharya

Very readily one indulges in carnal pleasures; later on, alas, come diseases of the body. Even though in the world the ultimate end is death, even then man leaves not his sinful behavior.
Adi Shankaracharya

What is a true gift? One for which nothing is expected in return.
Adi Shankaracharya
Topics: Buddhism

So long as one is in one’s boyhood, one is attached to play, so long as one is in youth, one is attached to one’s own young woman; so long as one is in old age, one is attached to anxiety, yet no one, alas to the Supreme Brahman, is ever seen attached.
Adi Shankaracharya

Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.
Adi Shankaracharya

Seeing the full bosom of young maidens and their navel, do not fall a prey to maddening delusion. This is but a modification of flesh and fat. Think well thus in your mind again and again.
Adi Shankaracharya

‘Wealth is calamitous’, thus reflect constantly: the truth is that there is no happiness at all to be got from it. To the rich, there is fear even from his own son. This is the way with wealth everywhere.
Adi Shankaracharya

The spirit is smothered, as it were, by ignorance, but so soon as ignorance is destroyed, spirit shine forth, like the sun when released from clouds.
Adi Shankaracharya

As long as there is the ability to earn and save, so long are all your dependants attached to you. Later on, when you come to live with an old, infirm body, no one at home cares to speak even a word with you.
Adi Shankaracharya

Who is a (true) spiritual teacher? He who, having grasped the essence of things, ever seeks to be of use to other beings.
Adi Shankaracharya
Topics: Buddhism

When youthfulness has passed, where is lust and its play? When water is evaporated, where is the lake? When the wealth is reduced, where is the retinue? When the Truth is realised, where is the bonding with the outside world?
Adi Shankaracharya

Through the company of the good, there arises non-attachment; through non-attachment there arises freedom from delusion; when there is freedom from delusion, there is the Immutable Reality; on experiencing the Immutable Reality, there comes the state of ‘liberated-in-life’.
Adi Shankaracharya

O Mother! Let all my speech be your prayer; let all my crafts and technology be your worship and be the mystic gestures of my hand, adorning you. May all my movements become your devotional circumambulations. May everything I eat or drink be oblations to you. Let my lying down in rest and sleep be prostrations to you. Mother! Whatever I do, may all that become a sacramental service and worship for you.
Adi Shankaracharya

Take no pride in your possession, in the people at your command, in the youthfulness that you have. Time loots away all these in a moment. Leaving aside all these, after knowing their illusory nature, realise the state of Brahman and enter into it.
Adi Shankaracharya

Silence is the first door to spiritual eminence.
Adi Shankaracharya

Just as a piece of rope is imagined to be a snake in the darkness so is Atman (soul) determined to be the body by an ignorant person.
Adi Shankaracharya

Thy wealth is no assurance of heaven: Therefore be not vain of thy wealth, or of thy family, or of thy Oath. All are fleeting, all must change. Know this and be free. Enter the joy of the Lord. Seek neither peace nor strife.
Adi Shankaracharya

The water drop playing on a lotus petal has an extremely uncertain existence; so also is life ever unstable. Understand, the very world is consumed by disease and conceit, and is riddled with pangs.
Adi Shankaracharya

O Fool! Give up the thirst to possess wealth. Create in your mind, devoid of passions, thoughts of the Reality. With whatever you get, entertain your mind, be content.
Adi Shankaracharya

Day and night, dawn and dusk, winter and spring, come and depart again and again. Time sports and life ebbs away. And yet, one leaves not the gusts of desires.
Adi Shankaracharya

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One response to “Inspirational Quotes by Adi Shankaracharya (Indian Hindu Philosopher)”

  1. […] Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Popular translations and commentaries include the writings of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya (Bhagavadgītābhāṣya,) Rāmānuja, Madhvācārya, Eknath Easwaran, Annie […]

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