Canto III—Depicting of Paramahaṃsa

Śaṅkara left the house of Guru at the age of seven. He returned home to pay his respect to his mother.^[1] He assisted her with modesty always making himself available at home. The hurtious nursing of Śaṅkara made his mother very happy. Śaṅkara spent his time at home, engaging himself in service of his mother, chanting the Veda and offering oblations in sacred fire twice a day. He himself did all rituals. Mother felt overjoyed to see her son a combination of rare virtues, power of speech, great intelligence, tendency to do good and great personal attractiveness. Śaṅkara acquired Yogasiddhi and Aṣṭasiddhi. The good deeds done by Śaṅkara enriched the world.

One day Āryāmba became very weak after taking her bath in the river Pūrṇa, which flowed at some distance from her home. Śaṅkara was very anxious about his mother. He managed to get her back home and with the help of the neighours took appropriate remedial measures. After words inorderto make the river Pūrṇa accessible to his mother, he prayed to the deity presiding over it, requesting her to turn her course to the neighbourhood of their home. The river deity was pleased to grant the prayer. Next morning people were all surprised to see that the ocean bound stream had changed its course and was flowing through the neighbourhood of the home like another Gaṅga, refreshing the whole village with cool breeze.

Reputation of Śaṅkara attracts the King

The reputation of Śaṅkara’s miraculous deeds reached the ears of the Kerala king. He sent a minister to fetch the boy to his capital. The minister arrived Śaṅkara’s home and informed ‘because of your great fortune, the king of Kerala has been pleased to sent me here. The king is eager to adopt your holy self and be sanctified by the dust of your feet, please be good enough to sanctify his place by his visit. Śaṅkara replied ‘I am a Brahmacārin, wearing the dress of skin, living by alms, and engaged in the numerous observances that the Vedas have laid down for this stage of life. A Brahmacārin should not avoid his duties, lured by the luxury of riding on an elephant and the chances of being honourned at the kings court. It is, therefore difficult for me to comply with his request. And I am very sorry I have to send you back home, disappointed. Moreover it is the duty of the king to see that men of the four varnās and the four āśramās do their duties properly. Therefore do not come with a request that goes counter to this duty of kings’^[2]. Hearing these words the minister returned and appraised the king about the situation. The king himself came to Śaṅkara’s house and saw Śaṅkara. Who was engaged in various Vedic rites. He wore a pure sacred thread that dangled down his chest, like Gaṅga flowing down a wooded Himalayan slope, like another Bāladeva with bluish cloth and a black buck’s skin, and wearing a gridle of Munja grass of golden hue. In that time Śaṅkara looked like a Kalpaka taru (heavenly tree). Whose beauty is enhanced by a golden creeper encircling it. On seeing Śaṅkara the king fell down before him and prostrated several times. The king recognised Śaṅkara as an embodiment of the Divinity. He prayed to the young saint to bless him with a male issue equal in prowess to himself. After the brahmacharin thereupon blessed ‘O Rajan your prayer will be fulfilled. Please you go home free from all worries. As for all this gold you have presented, I want none of it. You may gift in to the people’. Śaṅkara advised the king to perform the Vedic sacrifice called Putreṣṭi. He then went home joyously, remembering again and again the great qualities of Śaṅkara.

The Arrival of Sages

The four great sages, Upamanyu, Gautama and Agastya came to the house of Śaṅkara to meet him. He gave them respectful reception along with his mother. The sages talked to him on various matters. After a time, the mother intervened in the conversation and said “I feel very much honoured by this visit of your venerable selves. That we could see you even in this evil age of Kali is not an insignificant blessing. My boy Śaṅkara has attained to the highest proficiency in Vedic study even at a very young age. He is also possesed of other great qualities to an unusual extend. So I would like to know the secret of all these extra ordinary features about him. Agastya replied that her husband had performed austerities to propitiate Śiva who asked to choose a long lived but worthless son, and an issue short lived but possessed of transcendent greatness. He selected the second alternative. Accordingly, Śiva Himself has taken birth as this boy, and there is no one equal to him in learning and wisdom in all the worlds’. After the lady expressed to have desire to know how long her son would live. The sages told her. ‘Though your son Śaṅkara is destined to live only for sixteen years, the span of his life will be extended by another sixteen years more owing to various extraneous circumstances.^[3] As the great Ṛṣi thus began his predictions about the future, the other Ṛṣis were to stop him from further disclosing the future, got up to depart with the boy’s permission.

Hearing the words of Ṛṣi shocked the mother. Śaṅkara consoled her saying that he knew about the conditions of life in this world. That is fickle like a silken flag tossed and torn by strong winds. Life in the transmigratory cycle is verily like stay in a caravanserai. How many children have we looked after? How many wives and husbands have we married? in the flow of our repeated births and deaths. Those who will the life of the world will not have an iota of happiness. So my desire is to take to the fourth state of life, that is Saṃnyāsin. This is to renew to liberate myself from the repeating cycle of Saṃsāra.

Hearing these words of Śaṅkara Āryāmba became very sad. The boy should not think or speak in this manner. It is better that he married, became a father, perform various sacrifices and then become a Saṃnyāsin. This is the orthodox way. She cant live alone, after losing her one and only child also to asceticism. If she die out of sorrow from all such bitter experiences who will be perform even her obsequise. She is an old mother how is it that his heart is not moved to pity for her helpless condition.

Crocodile Incident and Departure from Home

Śaṅkara stayed at home with such thoughts of mind. One day he went to the river for bath. At that time mother was in the house. A crocodile caught Śaṅkara’s leg. With insufferable pain he cried aloud to his mother. Seeing this Āryāmba was frightened. At that time Śaṅkara cried out ‘Oh! mother, if you permit me to take to Saṃnyāsa, the crocodile will lossen its hold! it appears that I am destined to live only up to his day. If I take to Saṃnyāsa now that would mean death for me in this life and the beginning of a different life. Perhaps upon my taking to Saṃnyāsa I might continue to exist in this body. Therefore there is a chance for my survival in case you agree to my taking to Saṃnyāsa.’^[4]

In that situation Āryāmba was interested only in her son’s survival from death. She told Śaṅkara that she was whole heartedly permitting his saṃnyāsa. Upon this assurance from Āryāmba the crocodile released Śaṅkara as he repeatedly shouted ‘I have renounced, I have renounced’. After this incident Śaṅkara asked for mother’s permission to go in search of a Guru for his formal initiation into Saṃnyāsa. His mother gave her permission. She told Śaṅkara that he may certainly go in such of a Guru. His father had already told her about his glorious future. This world would hail him as the Jagatguru. She told him her last wish ‘Dear boy this body gave birth to you, you will come to this place just before I shed this mortal body and the with me at the time of my death. You must perform the funeral rites for me. Śaṅkara agreed his mother that he would be with her whenever she desired his presence, if she apprehended death. Śaṅkara also undertook to be by her side well before her death.’^[5]

In this time the river Pūrṇa had formerly made to flow the village for the convenience of his mother. The river began to erode the sides of the Kṛṣṇa temple. During rainy season flood water entered this temple. The river washed away many houses in several villages. In that time idol of Kṛṣṇa approached Śaṅkara and he placed it and the upper banks of the river. Then Śaṅkara composed and recited ‘Acyutāṣṭaka’ in praise of the deity.

Meeting with Govindapāda and Accepting Saṃnyāsa

Then Śaṅkara travelled a long distance with staff in hand and wearing new Kāṣāya dress and arrived at the forest hermitage of sage Govindācārya. After that he approached sage Govinda’s residence, a cave with an entrance only a cubic with width. In the presence of the hermit he went round the cave three times after that falling prostrate at its door, began to chant a hymn in praise of sage Govinda full of the spirit of devotion to the Guru. He said I worship you, you are the incarnation of the great serpent Śeṣa, who is the bed of Mahāviṣṇu, an ornament of Śiva, and the one on whose head the earth with all its mountains and rivers rest.You are the sage Patañjali, who is the manifestation of Ādiśeṣa, whose thousand faces put his disciples to fright and who there upon assumed a gentle form with a single face. You alone, as Patañjali, produced the great work on Yoga, as also the exegesis on the grammatical treatise of Pānīni. You attained the highest spiritual realisation from the instruction of the great Gaudapāda,who is the disciple of Śuka the son of Vyāsa. Praying to you for instruction in the truth of Brahman, I salute you, the repository of all great virtues!

In that time Govindapāda asked Śaṅkara, who are you?^[6] Śaṅkara answered ‘I am neither the earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air, nor sky, nor any of their prosperities. I am not the mind, even I am Śiva, the divisionless essence of consciousness’. Hearing the words, sage replied ‘dear boy through the super sensuous insight which the experience of Samādhi have given me, I see that you are the great Śiva come on earth in human form’. After that Śaṅkara performed the worship of the saint and through the devoted service to him, became the object of his loving affection. Govindapāda was pleased with his service and imparted to him the knowledge of Brahman through the four Mahā Vākyas (great Vedic sentences). ‘Prajñānam Brahma’ (Brahman is pure consciousness): ‘Aham Brahmāsmi’ (Iam Brahman) ‘Tat-Tvam-Asi’ (Thou art that): ‘Ayamātma Brahma’ (This Ātman is Brahman).^[7] He was then taught the Vedanta Sūtras of Vyāsa and through them the inner most essence of Vedanta philosophy. Vyāsa was the son of Parāsara, and Śuka was Vyāsa’s disciple. Śuka had his disciple Gaudapāda. Then Gaudapāda had as his disciple Govindapāda; He says that Śaṅkara has now been instructed in the knowledge of Brahman. Govindapāda was considered an incarnation of Ādiśeṣa, the serpent supporting the worlds, and it was from him that Śaṅkara learned all the Śāstras as a disciple with the undertaking that he would do his best to spread that knowledge among men.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vide Lakṣmaṇa Sūrin, Bhaghavatpādābhyudaya, p.28, The summary of the Section is based on chapter III.

[2]:

Ibid., p.30

[3]:

Ibid., p.32

[4]:

Ibid., pp.35-36

[5]:

Ibid., p.36

[6]:

Ibid., p.37

[7]:

Ibid., p.39.