Adi Sankara the Renaissance man of Advaita

At the other end of the spectrum from the Caravaka school is the philosophy of Adi Sankara i.e. Advaita. Should we call him a renaiassance man, or perhaps the renaissance superman. By the time of his death at age 32 he had not only written epic commentaries on 10 upanishads, bhagavadgita and vedantasutra but also walked on foot from Kerala to Kashmir, Nepal, Assam, Andhra, Tamil nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Odisha and trounced all the renowned scholars in Buddhism and Jainism and other schools of thought in debate and established Advaita vedanta as the dominant school of thought. What a guy!
Advaita put quite simply says that the ultimate reality ( Brahman) is pure consciousness which is formless and without attributes and all categories of intellect ( nirguna), that Atman the individual soul is but a part ( not separate, not two but one) of Brahman just like the space in a jar is part of space at large, that it is only ignorance that limits Jiva from Brahman and that knowledge is the only path to liberation. Notice he does not talk about following any ritual or leader. While the works of Sankara are vast and brilliant one set of 31 verses; Bhaja Govindam pretty much summarizes Advaita.

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