Sri Gurubyo namaha
Sri
Vidyaranya Mahaswami
Words cannot adequately express
our indebtedness to Acharyas who guide us to atma gnanam (Self-realization) which is the ultimate purpose of
life and the destination of every spiritual aspirant. In this article, we will
remember and pay our homage to His Holiness Sri Vidyaranya Mahaswami who was the twelfth Jagadguru of
Sringeri Sharada Peetham from 1377 to 1386
A.D. His name shines as
a jewel among the Acharyas who have adorned this revered Muth. His contributions to the Muth, as well as to the society at large, are
enormous and led to revolutionary changes at the political, religious and
social levels. Below is a brief summary of this great Jagadguru’s life and
accomplishments.
Sri Vidyaranya was born around 1300
A.D. and soon blossomed into a scholar of the highest calibre. Before assuming
the pontificate, he acted as the counsel for Harihara and Bukkaraya and helped
them repel the Muslim invasion of Southern India by providing valuable tactical
advice to them. He was the chief architect of the Vijayanagara kingdom and
acted as the Asthana Guru for the
rulers of this kingdom over several decades. He strengthened the Sringeri Sharada Peetham
by expanding its authority and procuring land and property donations. He also
built temples at Sringeri and Hampi and established Muths to spread the message
of Adi Sankara. He was arguably the greatest exponent of the advaita philosophy of Adi Sankara. Based
on his profound erudition and mastery over the scriptures, he unified the
disparate philosophical systems in Hinduism.
Sri Vidyaranya wrote a large number
of excellent treatises which number over thirty and cover an entire spectrum of
topics, ranging from medicine (vaidya
sastra), astrology (jyotisha sastra),
logic (vyakarana sastra) and Vedanta.
Following Adi Sankara, he wrote detailed commentaries (bhashyam) to all the four Vedas. His work called sarva darsana sangraham is noted for its in-depth analysis of each
of the sixteen systems of philosophies, such as Carvaka, Buddhism, Jainism,
Shaivism, Samkhya, Yoga and Advaita Vedanta. By logical arguments, he
established the supremacy of Sankara’s advaita philosophy over all the others.
This is particularly significant since, at that time, much confusion prevailed among
scholars as well as the public regarding the relative merits of these disparate
philosophical concepts. Sarva darsana
sangraham brought clarity to this muddled vision and established, once and
for all, the supremacy of Sankara’s advaita
philosophy. Some of the other works of Sri Vidyaranya are: madava vruti which is based on Panini’s sutras relating to Sanskrit
grammar; anubhuti prakasam, which,
through short stories, brings out the essence of the Upanishads; jivanmukti
vivekam and drukdrisya vivekam which deal with the means to realize the Brahmam through jnana; jaiminiya nyayamala vistaram, which is based on Sage
Jaimini’s sutra; Sri Sankara digvijayam, an account of Sankara Bhagavadpada’s
history and glory; and, Upanishad dipika,
a commentary on many Upanishads. We learn that Sri Vidyaranya arranged to make
many palm leaf copies of his works and got them distributed to various Muths;
he also hid them in mountain caves and underground so as to preserve them
against any onslaught by enemies. It is said that some of these were dug out
during the time of British rule in India.
Among the works of Sri Vidyaranya, ‘Panchadasi’
deserves a special mention. It is an authoritative and exhaustive treatise par excellence on Advaita philosophy. (This
work is said to be a combined effort of Sri Vidyaranya and Sri Bharathi
Thirtha, who was his brother in his purvasrama
and was also his predecessor in Sringeri Sharada Peetham.) It is an expansive elaboration of the earlier,
relatively shorter works of Adi Sankara, namely, Tatvabodha, Atmabodha and Vivekachudamani, all of which address the
topic of Self-realization and the required qualifications of a mumukshu, i.e. one who is seeking
liberation from the cycle of life and death. Panchadasi, as the name implies, contains
fifteen prakarana-s or topics, containing
a total of 1571 slokas. The first five topics are termed viveka panchakam, the next five deepa
panchakam and the last five, ananda
panchakam. These terms are symbolic of the three characteristics of brahmam (Supreme Consciousness or
Awareness), namely, sat, chit and Ananda. Briefly, Panchadasi deals with concept of Brahmam as Absolute Awareness or Truth and
the Jagat and Jivas as manifestations of this Awareness. It also describes the means to get liberated
from the bondage of karma and the
resulting birth-death cycle. Like Sankara’s
bhashyam to Vedavyasa’s Brahmasutram, Panchadasi presents
arguments for and against each of the advaitic
tenets, before deriving conclusions in support of Advaita. It is difficult to find such an open-minded approach in
some of the other religious and philosophical schools of thought. Reading and
understanding Panchadasi is an
important requirement for any serious practitioner (sadaka) of Self-realization. Detailed commentaries (bhashyams) on Panchadasi have been written by Achuta Swami, Sadananda and
Ramakrishna Pandit. A commentary in Tamil by Kuppuswami Raju is also available
(reproduced as a Sri Gnanananda Niketan Publication, 2007.)
I would like to conclude with a quote cited in the web page of Sringeri Sharada
Peetham (http://www.sringeri.net/jagadgurus/sri-vidyaranya), where additional
information on this great Acharya and saint may be found:
अविद्यारण्यकान्तारे भ्रमतां प्राणिनां सदा ।
विद्यामार्गोपदेष्टारं विद्यारण्यगुरुं श्रये ॥
विद्यामार्गोपदेष्टारं विद्यारण्यगुरुं श्रये ॥
To souls that wander in utter dismay in the dense woods of
mental ignorance, He shows the path of true wisdom; Homage to the great Saint
Vidyaranya!
-- V.S. Ananthanarayanan
