Çaìkaräcärya

Çaìkaräcärya - a celebrated teacher of Vedänta philosophy and the reviver of Brähmaëism. He is understood to have been an incarnation of Lord Çiva. He was born in 788 and he died in 820 at the age of thirty-two. According to some accounts of his life, he was born approximately 200 BC. He was born into a Naàbüdarépäda brähmaëa family in the village of Kälapé or Käñala in the province of Kerala.

His father’s name was Çivaguru and his mother was Subhadrä. The couple worshiped Lord Çiva for a long time to obtain a son, and thus when their son was finally born, he received the name Çaìkara.

His father passed away when Çaìkara was only three years old. By the time he was six, Çaìkara was a learned scholar, and he accepted the renounced order at the age of eight. He travelled all over India to suppress the Buddhist doctrine and revive the authority of Vedic dharma.

Çaìkaräcärya wrote a famous commentary on Vedänta-sütra known as Çäréraka-bhäñya, Inquiry into the Nature of the Embodied Spirit. Although he made an invaluable contribution by re-establishing Brähmaëism and the Vedic authority, which laid some groundwork for the teachings of Çré Caitanya, the precepts he established are at odds with the Vedic conclusion and the Vaiñëava äcäryas. He declared the Supreme brahma to be devoid of form, characteristics, potencies, and qualities. He states that although brahma is full of knowledge, it is not a conscious all-knowing being. Although brahma is of the nature of transcendental bliss, it is not a subjective experiencer of that bliss. brahma is not the creator of the world. When that featureless brahma comes in contact with mäyä, it assumes material qualities. These ideas have been strongly refuted by all the Vaiñëava äcäryas.