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advaita vedanta school
- Thread starter alishan
- Start date
kaisersose
Active Member
- Nārāyaṇa
- Padmabhuva (Brahmā)
- Vaśiṣṭha
- Śakti
- Parāśara
- Vyāsa
- Śuka
- Gauḍapāda
- Govinda bhagavatpāda
- Śankara bhagavatpāda
- Padmapāda, Hastāmalaka, Toṭaka, Vārtikakāra (Sureśvara) and others.
i see this chain of masters , where is master shankara in this lineage?
is there a master alive belonging to this lineage?
thanks
Breathe
Hostis humani generis
K.Venugopal
Immobile Wanderer
Advaita is a teaching which says that because we live in a world of plurality, transience and violence, our mind tends to become fragmented and we thereby live a miserable life. The solution, it says, is to make the fragmented mind wholesome by knowing the truth that we are not part of the objective world but are the subject which is cosmic, eternal and joyous. The teaching is contained in the philosophical portion of the Vedas and hence it is called Advaita Vedanta. There are other similar schools in Vedanta, differing only to take into account the different propensities of seekers but the goal is the same - freedom from problems.
K.Venugopal
Immobile Wanderer
Master Shankara [Śankara bhagavatpāda] is right there on your list, just below his guru Govinda bhagavatpāda. A vast number of Gurus today subscribe to the vision of Advaita (or non-duality).
kaisersose
Active Member
As far as I know, Ravi Shankar does not come in the line of Shankara.
The current head of the Sringeri Advaita Mutt (established by Shankara imself) is Bharathi Tirtha and he is part of an unbroken line of Gurus going all the way back to Shankara. The Sringeri Mutt has the most reliable history while the other three Mutts established by Shankara have had breaks in between. The Kanchi Mutt record is unreliable.
Here is the official list of Gurus - all the way from Shankara to Bharathi Tirtha -
Jagadgurus | Sringeri Sharada Peetham
K.Venugopal
Immobile Wanderer
Actually Sri Sri Ravi [Ravi Shankar] is only one of the many current proponents of Advaita or non-dualism, each teaching it in their own unique way.
Śankara bhagavatpāda, known as Adi Shankaracharya, lived many millenniums ago. Neither he nor his lineage originated Advaita, they only wrote commentaries on the teaching which is found in the Vedas. His lineage has come down through history known by the generic name of Shankaracharya. He had set up 4 schools (some say 5) of disciples and therefore today there are living 4 Shankaracharyas (or 5 by some reckoning). The Shankaracharyas are highly venerated by Hindu society.
K.Venugopal
Immobile Wanderer
Hinduism is full of spiritual lineages that are traced back to antiquity. All gurus would have their own lineage.
kaisersose
Active Member
All the Advaita Parampara Gurus are Sanyasins from a very young age as in "never married".
That is the prerequisite for one to accepted as a formal disciple. He should be a Brahmana and he should be a sanyasin.
K.Venugopal
Immobile Wanderer
Apart from Sanyasi lineages who have necessarily to be celibates, there has been a class of highly acclaimed individuals who are probably the acme of achievers in Hindu tradition and they are called Rishis. Many of the Rishis were married.
K.Venugopal
Immobile Wanderer
kaisersose
Active Member
Rishis are part of Hindu mythology - from a time when the concept of Sanyasa was not yet in vogue. All Brahmanas descend from a predefined set of Rishis and hence, we can safely assume they were all married.
Angirasa, Atri, Gautama, Kashyapa, Bhrigu, Vasishtha, Kutsa, Bharadwaja & Vishwamitra are the most prominent.