Shankaracharya
Adi Shankara was a Shaivite saint, who has implemented the philosophies of Advaita Vedanta, and in that, he has mentioned, that out of our sincere devotion on Lord Shiva, we could be even merged with him.He is also considered to be an aspect of Lord Shiva, and through the grace of Shiva, he has popularly spread the Advaita principles amongst the masses.
Shankara was born in Kaladi Village in Kerala during the 8th century AD, in a pious Brahmin family, and his parents were staunch devotees of Lord Shiva. Even after becoming a holy saint, at the time of his mother’s death, he has visited his hometown, and performed last rituals for her, and also sent her soul to the abode of Lord Shiva, the Holy Kailash. During his lifetime, he has written lot of divine works, sang songs in praise of the deities, and also helped the people to cross the ocean of life through his spiritual advices.
Some of his golden quotes are as follows:-
1. Do not showtoo much interest on earning wealth as well as don’t show too much love on your friends and relatives, since nothing will come with you during the time of your death, and hence try to realise the significance of Lord Shiva, worship him regularly and pay your great respects to him.
2. The world, contains full of illusions, and hence, concentrate your attention on spiritual matters, in order to come out from the illusions.
3. Only through self-study, we could get a better understanding about the holy subjects, and just by the way of merely listening to the spiritual lectures given by a scholar would not help us fully to grasp the holy subjects.
4. Treat everybody as alike, and consider everybody as your friends.
5. Treat your body, similar to a temple, since god dwells in our souls also, and realise the inner self through constant prayers on the god.
6. Control your senses in order to live a disciplined life.
7. Remove the garbage from your mind, and invoke the “SHIVA BHAKTI” on your mind.
8. Always talk softly and gently, and don’t talk louder, since doing such bad things would be a hindrance towards attaining liberation.
9. In order to get full of happiness in your soul, remove the bad things from your mind like ego, lust, greed, anger, jealousy and enmity.
10. Remember that Bhakti is the only treasure for us, and it is a permanent one.
11. Remember that one day, your body would be burnt into ashes, and hence, before that,try to acquire lot of spiritual Knowledge and wisdom.
12. Each living being is beautifully created by the god, and we cannot find any fault with his creations.
13. We can get good knowledge by reading the holy Bhagavad-gita, since it contains the essential teachings of Lord Krishna, which also acts as a Holy Spiritual Guide for the people.
14. God can be realised by you, only if you pay your sincere attention on him.
“OM”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR