Sage Sri, Sankara taught a path Brahman, or the one Self, it is important topoint out the major differences between so-called paths of “experience,” and the path of “Knowledge,” or Gnana.

Sage Sri, Sankara

Sage Sri, Sankara, is one of the greatest thinkers of all times. One of the greatest philosophers of India, Sage Sri, Sankara founded the Advaita Vedanta, which is one of the sub-schools of Vedanta. Sage Sri, Sankara whole-heartedly believed in the concept of the Vedas but at the same time advocated against the rituals and religious practices that were over exaggerated.

Sage Sri, Sankara as a rationalist philosopher, in contrast to the more traditional image of him as a theologian: (Sage Sri, Sankara’s system of Advaita) is not even a philosopher dish cooked to suit exclusively the palate of the Hindu. It is like the air and the water, the commonfood of the whole humankind.

 It is ... an attempt ... at constructing a "Science of Truth," nay, in fact, it is the only attempt yet made at such a science. If rightly interpreted Sage Sankara’s teaching as food for all humankind, the universal teaching par excellence; it is not just a religion, but the religion; nota philosophy, but the philosophy; not a science, but the Science of Truth; not a soteriology, but the path to spiritual liberation par excellence, wide and deep as the ocean which contains virtually all the water of the world and in which all particular forms ultimately dissolve.

On a closer introspection of the life history of Sage Sri, Sankara we find that he also started the monastic order known as Dashanami and the Shanmata convention of worship. Given here isSage Sri, Sankara biography, which will give you valuable insight into the life of this great poet and philosopher. 

The question of the date of Sage Sri, Sankara may be taken most correctly as that of the 9th century. Some claims are made that he lived two thousand five hundred years ago, but there is absolutely no proof for this claim. As one peeps into the annals of the religious history they do not go back farther than the 8th century A.D. and that all so-called evidences for Sage Sri, Sankara having lived two and half  centuries before Christ are either were conjectures or   orthodox fabrication.

Sage Sri, Sankara varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he was amongst. He never advised them to give up their particular religion or beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst features of abuse: at the same time he showed just one step forward towards the truth.  Sri, Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words. 

Sage Sri, Sankara' gave religious, ritual or dogmatic instruction to the mass but pure philosophy only to the few who could rise to it. Hence the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd. 

Sage Sri, Sankara believed in the philosophy of "non-dualism". He believed in the fact that, every individual has a divine existence, which can be identified with the Supreme cosmic power. Though the bodies are diverse, the soul is one. The moment someone believes that the concept of life is finite; they are discarding an entirely higher and different dimension of life and knowledge. Self-realization is the key to attain Moksha and connect with the ultimatereality or Brahman. Though he died young, he left an invaluable treasure of spiritual knowledge for future generations.

Sage Sri, Sankara did not invent Advaita but  Great Sage Sri, Guadapada taught Advaitic non-dualism long before Sage Sri, Sankara. What the great Sage Sri, Sankara did was to put the Sage Sri, Guadapada  Advaitism into a language of reality that was compatible with ultimate realization. This was one of Sage Sri, Sankara major  gifts to the humanity  . In the short span of thirty-two years Sage Sri, Sankara accomplished more than seemed humanly possible. It would certainly be impossible for one concerned solely with his own realization, akin to a Solitary Realizer in Buddhism, something that Advaita does not propose. In Advaitic realization, the soul,  the innermost self, somehow mysteriously obscured by illusion, awakens to Itself, and is known as already, always realized or awake. The so-called individual in truth does not awaken or get enlightened, but the soul, the innermost self, which is present in the form of consciousness itself paradoxically awakens. But even this is to speak dualistically, as the soul, the innermost self is always awake, and the individual is only apparent, an illusory modification appearing in consciousness. The consciousness is ultimate truth or  Brahman. Because Sage Sri,  Sankara taught a path  Brahman, or the one Self, it is important topoint out the major differences between so-called paths of “experience,” and the path of “Knowledge,” or Gnana.