Adi Shankaracharya

The teaching

Brahman alone is real (sat); the world is mithya (apparent, not unreal); the individual self (jiva) is non-different from Brahman. Liberation comes through knowledge (jnana), not action; the obstacle is avidya (ignorance), the cure is the realisation of "Aham Brahmasmi". His method is uncompromising: every appearance, however dear, is investigated until only awareness remains.

Major works

• Brahma Sutra Bhashya - commentary on Badarayana's Brahma Sutras (the foundational Vedanta text)
• Bhashyas on the ten principal Upanishads
• Bhagavad Gita Bhashya - line-by-line commentary
• Vivekachudamani - "Crest-jewel of discrimination", standalone primer
• Atma Bodha, Tattva Bodha, Aparoksha Anubhuti - short prakarana texts
• Soundarya Lahari and Bhaja Govindam - devotional hymns (showing he honoured bhakti as preparation for jnana)

What he changed

• Established the four mathas (monastic seats) at Sringeri, Dwarka, Puri, and Jyotirmath, each with a designated principal Veda and mahavakya
• Codified Panchayatana Pooja - worship of five deities (Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Surya, Ganesha) on a single altar - to harmonise sectarian rivalries
• Revived Sanatana Dharma during a period of Buddhist and Jain dominance, defeating leading scholars of those schools in dialectical debate (most famously Mandana Mishra)
• Defined the Dashanami Sampradaya - the ten orders of monastic renunciants

Living lineage today

The four Shankaracharya pithas (Sringeri, Dwarka, Puri, Jyotirmath/Badrinath) continue today, each headed by a sitting Shankaracharya. The Ramakrishna Order and the Chinmaya Mission stand within his lineage.

Where to read more

• Advaita Ashrama (Mayavati) edition of the Brahma Sutra Bhashya - bilingual
• Swami Madhavananda · "Vivekachudamani" with translation (Advaita Ashrama)
• A.J. Alston · "Shankara on the Absolute" (six volumes, Shanti Sadan)
• Eliot Deutsch · "Advaita Vedanta - A Philosophical Reconstruction" (Hawaii UP)