When Kerala has missed the bus yet again

Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi: In course of a conversation with a close acquaintance, when we veered around the topic on great Adi Shankara, the exponent of non-dualism philosophy and whose legendary, yet unprecedented, works to unite the entire geographical entity of Jamboo Dwipa, currently known as Bharat Varsha. My surprise knew no bounds when he just mumbled, ‘ Who was he?’. Crestfallen for a while, in a state of an inevitable shock, i stared at him with a sense of disbelief, without uttering anything, i inwardly mused, ‘ How come we call our nation, especially the larger majority of Hindus, a section of today’s fake Rashtra Bhaktas, many of whom, I am sure, if questioned, will display a state of enigmatic blankness, the like of which that acquaintance of mine had countenanced on that day when he questioned who Adi Shankaracharya was?

Incidentally, when I had gone to Arrah, in Bihari, couple of years back, to portray Swami Nischalanand Saraswati Maharaj, Puri Shankaracharya, few people had asked me about him. Ironically, when I sought to probe them deeper about their understanding about Adi Shankaracharya, they all drew blank. No wonder the degree and magnitude of my own misery and pain accentuated manifold, when the realisation dawned upon me that how ignorant our masses are–the lack of understanding about the man who was their saviour-betrayed the highest level of insensitivity to their own pedigree. I enormously rued over the fact that how the lopsided educational pyramid has contributed to this flawed evolution of our generation that evince no interest in knowing, far less an intimacy, with our past glory. Suddenly, i turned a searchlight inside to delve out some crucial facts that tumbled out of my mental cupboard: how Nani A Palkhivala, one of the greatest constitutional jurists, had portrayed the only man, Adi Shankaracharya as the most successful figure to have charted out the future trajectory of the Punya Bhoomie of Bharat Varsha, and that too, in such shortest possible time-Adi Shankafacharya had left for his heavenly abode at the young age of 32. Surprisingly, within the inconceivable age of just thirty two years, what Adi Shankara did, was simply unprecedented-neither anyone in the past did it, nor anyone in the future ever will. India, during the time of Adi Shankara, was dominated by Jainism and Buddhism. Regrettably, Vedas and Upanishads were relegated to the back burner.

The Jain and Buddhist monks had turned into tyrants who had unleashed persecution upon the idolators, Hindus. In such times when atheism was ruling the roost, Adi Shankara as the Yug Purush had reestablished Vedas and Upanishads, by defeating Buddhist and Jainist scholars. It was, during that time, Shankara had visited Mithila, the citadel of scholars, to contest a scholarly battle against Mandan Mishra, the scholar of Mimansa Philosophy. A non-dualist, whose doctrinaire belief was premised on the belief that the entire universe is pervaded by the solitary soul which is the underlying existential cause behind coming into the existence of the universe. In Century of Verses, Adi Shankara had shed light on the single universal soul that permeats the universe. His conceptualisation of Brahman, the Consciousness, being the cause behind the manifestation of the universe, found its endorsement from Swami Vivekananda, who too, had dubbed non-dualism as the finest philosophy hithdrto lain bared before the mankind. Further, to preserve the eternity of Sanatan Dharma, its latest version, Hinduism, Shankara had established four temples at the four different corners of this country–from Badrinath to Kanchipuram, and from Dwarka to Puri–he established the sacred institution of Shankacharyas for securing the boundary of Bharat Varsha and insulating the sanctity of this great territorial boundary. Ironically, India, in the wake of independence, failed to give Shankara his dues. The history of independent India, which unfortunately, was written by Communists, condescendingly relegated the pioneering role of great Adi Shankara in securing India from all sides. Paradoxically, Indian history, which was written by the Marxist historians, inordinately conceited Hindu icons and consequently vanished them from the pages of history.

Worse still, when Buddha is deeply revered and widely known across India, Adi Shankara’s role was given a deliberate miss. However, in the wake of 2014, when Hindu nationalist Prime Minister took over, it was highly expected that the Hindu icons will get their dues, especially that of icon of  icons, great Adi Shankaracharha, yet nothing concrete was done. Especially when the matter of such huge national importance could have been suitably done at the level of CEO of Niti Ayog, he too, while designating Kerala as the God’s own country, had inadvertently failed to highlight Kerala as the birth place of great monist, who was dubbed by the Western philosophers as the greatest mind ever born in a mortal body.

Hence in this backdrop, i sincerely urge Mr Amitabh Kant, the chief of Niti Ayog, that even if he had failed to highlight Kerala, his own birthplace, as the place of great Adi Shankara, he should take cognizance of this crucial fact and devise such schemes so that a special attempt is made to cultivate a greater understanding of the masses about the great Adi Shankaracharya. It is the high time nation should be educated about the role of the great unifier of the nation. Besides, I also call upon the Hon’ble Prime Minister and his government to undertake the mission on a fire fighting mode to restore India her priceless legacy, and insulate the nation from memorising the names of Mughal rulers and Gandhi-Nehru family. This humongous anomalies must be set right on a fire fighting mode.