0:02 / 14:57
Life, Teachings and Legacy: The Adi Shankara Story (full documentary)
Piff Pressure
5.26K subscribers
Subscribe
465
Share
Download
Clip
32,831 views Jan 9, 2021 #advaita #hinduism #adishankara
A portrait of Adi Shankaracharya, a revered philosopher and theologian, who aimed to provide a coherent, single reading of Hindu scriptures.
This is a documentary with audio taken from the BBC Radio 4 series, 'Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, Shankaracharya: A God Without Qualities'. Narrated and written by Professor Sunil Khilnani. I make no money off this documentary, this is for educational purposes only.
=====
AU
Skip navigation
Search
Avatar image
13:12 / 14:57
Life, Teachings and Legacy: The Adi Shankara Story (full documentary)
Piff Pressure
5.26K subscribers
Subscribe
465
Share
Download
Clip
32,831 views Jan 9, 2021 #advaita #hinduism #adishankara
A portrait of Adi Shankaracharya, a revered philosopher and theologian, who aimed to provide a coherent, single reading of Hindu scriptures.
This is a documentary with audio taken from the BBC Radio 4 series, 'Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, Shankaracharya: A God Without Qualities'. Narrated and written by Professor Sunil Khilnani. I make no money off this documentary, this is for educational purposes only.
#adishankara #hinduism #advaita
Music
1 songs
Bhaja Govindam
M. S. Subhalakshmi
Bhaja Govindam And Vishnu Sahasranamam
Music
Transcript
Follow along using the transcript.
Show transcript
Piff Pressure
5.26K subscribers
Videos
About
32 Comments
Sejin Lifeforce 生命
Add a comment...
@shaunbird8051
@shaunbird8051
5 months ago
Thank you very much for the excellent analysis. It really gives us many insights into the life of this Great Saint.
Piff Pressure
Reply
@shashinaththakur
@shashinaththakur
2 years ago
Too much good work thanks from India 🔺🙏
5
Reply
Piff Pressure
·
2 replies
@kalkiji6723
@kalkiji6723
1 year ago
He debated! He transformed the consciousness of entire land and people with his word. You cannot change the world by force for you will be always met with resistance. People can be crippled by fear but love can transformed within their hearts and minds.
8
Piff Pressure
Reply
1 reply
@rajendranpk4883
@rajendranpk4883
2 years ago
Thank your 🙏🙏
3
Reply
@bhuvaneswariganesh7161
@bhuvaneswariganesh7161
2 years ago
Jaya Jaya Shankara Hara Hara Shankara.
🌿🌷🌿🙏🙏🌿🌷🌿
3
Reply
@samadhi5281
@samadhi5281
2 years ago
Thank you ❤
2
Reply
@batman9833
@batman9833
2 years ago
Shameful how Wendy Doniger a controversial Indologist who is both a non practitioner and known for her affiliation with the church is used as an expert on something she repeatedly tries to interpret. Also interesting how she attributes items to British whose rule was nothing more than a drop in the 11,000 year cultural ocean of India. If you want to learn about Christianity — read the bible. Same goes for Vedanta and Shankara - read his teachings, practice meditation and other aspects like vegetarianism. You will find what you are looking for.
16
Reply
@atmanand5802
@atmanand5802
2 years ago
💖eternally🌏grateful🙏
🌠Aham🌅Brahmasmi🌴
🌌Tat🌕Tvam🌈Asi🌀
2
Reply
@mukularya9849
@mukularya9849
2 years ago
Came as a avatar form before 2500 years ago,
3
Reply
@PurpleSoma
@PurpleSoma
1 year ago (edited)
14:44 could I please know his name? He appeared in my dreams
4
Reply
1 reply
@Trending_statuz
@Trending_statuz
3 years ago
🙏🙏🙏
1
Reply
@anjalianangamanjari
@anjalianangamanjari
2 years ago
Bhaja Govinda, Bhaja Govinda, Bhaja Govinda🙏🌈
1
Reply
@herozero6123
@herozero6123
2 years ago
with due respect, professor was wrong about few things.
7
Reply
@Mosquito805
@Mosquito805
3 years ago
Wow that was a very well made documentary, did You yourself made it or took from somewhere else?, is it a part of a longer series?
2
Piff Pressure
Reply
Piff Pressure
·
2 replies
@parvathamupendracharya6728
@parvathamupendracharya6728
2 years ago
The name "Jagadguru" teacher of the world, the teacher of the world is a distinction to which the people of Vishvakarma Caste alone are entitled (Wilson Dictionary). When the world-famous Shankaracharya of Travancore, the founder of the Avaita School of Philosophy ... halted at Masulipatam he styled himself "Jagadguru". The Devakammalars of South India, who were very jealous of their title were incensed at an apparent impostor trying to assume what was their own exclusive propert, questioned his right to the distinction, when the philosopher sang the following lines:
"Acharya Sankaro nama
"Twashta putro nasanyasa,
"Viprakula gurordiksha,
"Visvakarmantu Brahmana"
"My name is Shankaracharya, I am a descendant of Twashtar, I have come here to teach the Vipras the right of wearing the sacred thread, I am a Brahmana of the Vishvakarma Caste." (Shankaracharya Vijaya)
This is irrefutable proof that the people of the Vishvakarma Caste are Brahmans.
Reply
1 reply
@achutha_ks
@achutha_ks
2 years ago
You are trying to provide black and white answers.. The professor from University of Chicago has definitely not dug deeper into the philosophical concepts of not just Shankaracharya, but also Ramanujacharya or Madhwacharya. The problem with your documentary is that it appears to have deeper analysis on the surface, but not really. I would suggest just interview vedantic teachers of different traditions, and you will start to understand nuances. Basically, the Indian thought is you can explore truth about existence through belief systems or unrelenting questioning. These are ends of the spectrum by the way.. And there are many paths in-between. Western tradition of pursuit of truth is very narrow, filled with dogmas and only belief systems. Hence for someone raised in that tradition, it is hard to grapple with nuances. Hope you pursue truth!
9
Reply
1 reply
@sripradevikash9964
@sripradevikash9964
1 year ago
Good work sir...but it's not hinduism..which the invaders named it so .it's sanatanam...a Dharma which teaches how to find out the god in u...and a science to live a life of Dharma... 🙏🙏
3
Reply
@TarunKumar-uo5gn
@TarunKumar-uo5gn
10 months ago
Yet Adi Shankaracharya himself could not overcome the maya of caste system and all Shankaracharya's appointed are brahmins.
1
Reply
@2066cj
@2066cj
1 month ago
Hindu Ashoka converted to Buddhism and made India, China, Sri Lanka Buddhist countries... Adi Shankara, won India back to Brahmanical Hinduism and brought back casteism.. Adi Shankara or his followers didnt go to Sri lanka because of some religious belief that sea is God or something like that & shall not be crossed...So, Srilanka is still a Buddisht country
Reply
@sunfield009
@sunfield009
11 months ago
MANUVADI BRAHMINICAL EGOS
Reply
@nishansitoula4922
@nishansitoula4922
1 year ago
buddha dismantle the foundation of Vedas . Hindu resort to voilence for is revival eg Mihirakula is said to have razed 1600 viharas, stupas and monasteries, and “put to death 900 Kotis, or lay adherents of Buddhism”. Madhava Acharya, in his “Sankara-digvijayam” of the fourteenth century A.D., records that Suddhanvan “issued orders to put to death all the Buddhists from Ramesvaram to the Himalayas”.sankar lead the camping
Reply
2 replies
Transcript
0:03
it's dawn
0:04
in this south indian temple town a brief
0:07
still moment of cool
0:10
walking in the half light sleepy i'm
0:12
startled by something coiled on the
0:14
veranda
0:16
a snake and from the looks of it sleepy
0:19
too
0:21
best wait for it to move off on its own
0:28
as the light rises i look again and i
0:30
laugh
0:31
what snake it's merely a coiled rope
0:34
left behind by a man
0:35
who's been fixing the tiled roof
0:40
this little bit of self-deception
0:42
mistaking a rope for a snake
0:44
isn't just an occasional practical
0:46
occurrence in indian life
0:48
it's among the most well-known okay
0:50
hackneyed
0:52
popular examples in indian philosophical
0:54
thought
0:55
its purpose is to show that while the
0:57
sensory empirical world is real
1:00
our minds are tricksters what we see is
1:03
sometimes not what we think it to be
1:06
conversely the reality we sense
1:09
superimposing a snake
1:10
on a road exists only so far as we
1:13
believe it
1:18
[Music]
1:20
hindu philosophy is pervaded by
1:22
mistakings
1:23
by metaphors of concealment and
1:25
obscuration
1:27
they serve as examples of maya a reality
1:30
that's substantially there
1:32
but whose true nature eludes us because
1:34
of the limitations of our consciousness
1:37
if we can push aside this slippery and
1:39
illusory reality though
1:41
we can find something pure and constant
1:44
the world of universal spirit
1:46
brahman this belief in maya which hides
1:50
brahman
1:51
is at the core of what many today see as
1:53
the philosophy of hinduism
1:56
and we owe that definition of hinduism
1:58
to a philosopher and religious teacher
2:00
who lived in the 8th century adi
2:06
shankaracharya
2:09
[Music]
2:12
all this universe being other than the
2:14
self is unreal
2:17
for the self alone is all inclusive
2:20
and is self self-established and
2:22
self-dependent
2:26
shankaracharya established his first
2:28
hindu monastery or mutt
2:29
at sringari now a pilgrimage town in
2:32
karnataka
2:33
south west india
2:37
to get to sringara you have to take
2:39
narrow hill roads that wind up
2:41
through the hills of northern karnataka
2:44
pass miles and miles of coffee
2:45
plantation
2:47
tall palms and splays of bamboo
2:51
it's a little hilltown the mutton temple
2:54
separated by a river
2:55
set amidst meadows
2:59
shankaracharya or shankara as he was
3:01
also known
3:02
transformed existing hindu beliefs and
3:04
practices
3:05
and in many ways it's he who made the
3:07
faith what it is today
3:09
the third largest religion in the world
3:12
while there's some dispute about dates
3:14
it's generally reckoned that shankara
3:16
was born in the 8th century
3:18
in the malabar region of southern india
3:20
today's kerala state
3:23
in europe this was the era of
3:24
charlemagne pursuing a bloody expansion
3:27
of christendom in his campaigns against
3:29
the saxons
3:30
saracens moors and slavs and gaining for
3:33
himself rome's christian imperium
3:36
shankara's campaign to assert and extend
3:38
hindu beliefs was vastly different
3:41
it was an intellectual struggle
3:43
prosecuted through debates he held
3:45
across the length and breadth of india
3:48
[Music]
3:51
[Applause]
3:57
as we've now come to expect with the
3:58
ancient indians there's much uncertainty
4:00
and dispute about our man's early life
4:03
according to some religious biographies
4:05
written in verse several hundred years
4:07
later
4:08
shankara's long childless parents had
4:10
prayed to shiva
4:12
the hindu deity at a nearby temple
4:15
shiva appearing to them in a dream
4:17
presented a choice
4:19
they could have a son who was a
4:20
brilliant philosopher all-knowing and
4:22
virtuous
4:23
but short-lived or one who would live
4:25
long but without any special virtue
4:28
or greatness they opted for the smart
4:30
kid
4:31
whom they named shankara another name
4:33
for shiva
4:35
as promised he turned out to be a child
4:37
prodigy
4:38
mastering the four vedas the oldest
4:40
hindu scriptures
4:41
by the age of eight and adding his own
4:43
written commentaries by the age of 16
4:47
but his brilliance quickly proved a
4:48
double-edged thing for his mother
4:50
his father had died when he was very
4:52
young and shankara's a good son
4:54
was expected to provide for his mother
4:57
instead
4:58
at the age of five some say while others
5:00
say eight
5:01
he declared his desire to become a
5:03
sannyasi an ascetic
5:05
wandering monk shankaracharya
5:08
shankaracharya's precocious
5:10
choice of sannyas was a scandal he was
5:13
skipping over the usual stages of a
5:15
hindu man's life
5:16
student householder hermit and then
5:20
only finally religious wanderer but he
5:23
prevailed on
5:24
his widowed mother the poor woman seems
5:26
to have been faced with quite a few hard
5:27
choices in life
5:28
and so off he went establishing temples
5:31
and mutts across the length of india
5:34
at the four cardinal geographic points
5:36
of the subcontinent badrinath in the
5:38
north
5:39
puri in the east dwarka in the west and
5:42
here at sringari in the south
5:45
and they continue to exist their head
5:47
priests often in rivalry with one
5:50
another
5:52
his teachings gained many devoted
5:54
followers and have many still
5:56
today like they're all around me coming
5:59
here
5:59
to pilgrimage at the shingari mutt
6:03
and temple the earliest ideas about what
6:07
later came to be known as hinduism
6:09
are found in the vedas and they were
6:11
developed by the upanishads
6:13
dating from 2500 years ago
6:16
these sanskrit writings known as the
6:18
vedant or the end of the vedas
6:21
began to answer some of the eternal
6:23
questions that had been posed in the
6:24
vedas
6:25
where do we come from why are we here
6:29
and where do we go in the upanishads we
6:32
find ideas of reincarnation
6:35
and of how individual action in this
6:37
life can shape our chances in the next
6:39
one
6:40
shankaracharya immersed himself in these
6:42
texts
6:43
drawing them together into an
6:45
intellectual system
6:47
janadan ghaneri is professor of
6:48
philosophy at new york university
6:51
shankara's ambition was to provide
6:55
a unified single reading
6:58
of the great plurality and diversity of
7:02
the hindu scriptures
7:03
so he wrote commentaries on almost all
7:07
of the key
7:08
hindu scriptures that formed the canon
7:12
and attempted to provide them with a
7:15
single
7:16
interpretation which for him was a form
7:20
of
7:20
monism that is to say he thought there
7:23
was just one
7:24
real entity the name of which is brahman
7:28
the fundamental grounding principle
7:31
of the universe and that everything else
7:33
all the apparent
7:34
distinctions and differences in the
7:36
world
7:37
including differences between different
7:40
individual
7:41
selves
7:44
[Music]
7:47
was crucially different from monotheism
7:49
unlike the jealous paternal god of the
7:51
abrahamic faiths
7:53
and unlike to the superhuman personal
7:55
gods of the vedic pantheon
7:57
shankar as brahman was without positive
7:59
attributes
8:00
a god or all-pervading substance without
8:03
qualities
8:07
you cross over a bridge and climb a hill
8:09
to get to the shingeri mat
8:11
the monastery established by
8:12
shankaracharya
8:14
its modern incarnation is somewhat
8:15
different from when it was founded in
8:17
the 8th century
8:18
and so it would seem are some of the
8:20
practices of the present day monks
8:22
who are maybe a little forgetful of
8:24
shankaracharya's original
8:26
views
8:39
believed that there was something more
8:41
valuable in the vedas the ancient
8:43
scriptures
8:44
than mere ritual injunctions for
8:46
instance the recitation of mantras
8:48
word sounds whose repetition was
8:50
supposed to up once karmic investment
8:52
fund
8:53
and so to improve chances of escape from
8:56
the cycle of birth and death
8:58
for shankaracharya that was a
8:59
misunderstanding of the individual's
9:01
spirit's path to liberation
9:04
to him the vedas and especially the
9:07
later upanishads
9:08
contained knowledge jinan which revealed
9:12
the essential unity of man in the cosmos
9:15
survey the hinduism had to be newly
9:17
formulated
9:18
its obsession with rituals must be
9:20
replaced by asceticism
9:22
celibacy and intellectual rigor instead
9:25
of mantras he prescribed therefore
9:27
meditative reflection through which each
9:30
individual could come to recognize the
9:32
identity between his or her own essence
9:35
and brahman universal spirit
9:38
once we grasped that oneness with the
9:40
eternal
9:41
we attain moksha moksha
9:45
released from the cycle of birth and
9:47
death
9:48
shankaracharya's doctrine came to be
9:50
known as advaita vedant
9:52
which crystallized existing beliefs into
9:54
a new religious philosophy
9:56
his efforts to capture the oneness of
9:58
the universe
10:00
produced beautiful and sometimes
10:01
enigmatic sentences
10:04
i am neither earth nor water nor fire
10:07
nor air nor sense organ nor the
10:11
aggregate of all these
10:13
for all these are transient i am neither
10:15
above
10:16
nor below neither inside nor outside
10:19
neither middle nor a cross neither the
10:22
east nor west
10:24
for i am indivisible one by nature
10:28
and all pervaded like space
10:33
[Music]
10:42
was also a masterful popularizer of his
10:45
difficult
10:46
teachings composing devotional songs and
10:48
hymns
10:49
that are widely sung even today this is
10:52
bhaja govindam
10:53
in praise of krishna by the celebrated
10:55
carnatic vocalist
10:56
ms subba lakshmi
11:00
[Music]
11:12
[Music]
11:14
the version of hinduism shankara
11:15
propagated gained popularity
11:18
but there are aspects of it not all
11:20
hindus would share or even recognize
11:23
wendy donega professor of the history of
11:25
religions at the university of chicago
11:28
shankar is there everybody knows about
11:30
him some people
11:31
use him as their own guide
11:34
to their own thinking about the meaning
11:36
of life and those people say that's what
11:38
hinduism really is
11:40
but it's really not true it's what some
11:42
of hinduism is
11:44
the trouble is that one branch of
11:46
hinduism which includes the shankara
11:48
tradition
11:50
the philosophical tradition was very
11:53
attractive to the british when they came
11:55
to india and they began the british raj
11:58
they liked that it was a philosophical
12:00
tradition they could come to terms with
12:02
that
12:02
the rest of hinduism which is to say
12:04
most of hinduism
12:06
with the gods with many arms and
12:09
goddesses that drink warm blood
12:11
the british didn't really like that part
12:13
of hinduism so
12:14
the hindus who worked with the british
12:16
which is to say quite a lot of people
12:18
they became ashamed of that part of
12:20
their own religion
12:24
it was hindu revivalists and
12:26
nationalists who at the end of the 19th
12:28
and in the 20th century
12:29
embraced shankar as monism as hinduism's
12:32
muscular response
12:33
to the monotheistic religions of
12:35
christianity and islam
12:38
so proselytizers like vivekananda whom
12:40
we'll hear about later in this series
12:42
invoked shankara's ideas and argued for
12:45
the creation of schools to promote
12:46
advaita vedant
12:48
and to foster national self-pride
12:51
present day shankaracharyas may be the
12:53
nearest thing hinduism has
12:55
to a pope or papacy but hinduism itself
12:58
remains as it was when shankara lived
13:01
multiple in form
13:02
bubbling with internal arguments and
13:04
accepting of different forms of belief
13:07
there's no single defining text or
13:09
interpreter
13:10
what there are are mesmerizing questions
13:13
puzzles
13:14
day break doubts about the nature of our
13:16
perceptions the limits of ourself
13:19
the relationship between that self and
13:21
the unceasing flow
13:22
of time
13:35
[Music]
13:49
[Music]
14:00
foreign
14:02
[Music]
14:09
[Music]
14:14
is
14:27
[Music]
14:36
[Music]
14:42
foreign
14:44
[Music]
