Shankara

One of the Sages represented in this book is Shankara (ca. 800 CE), who systematized the teachings of the Upanishads into what became the Advaitic, or "non dual", tradition of Vedanta.

Shankara is highly praised by Adi Da Samraj as the individual in the Great Tradition who most fully acknowledged and insisted upon the entire range of preliminary practices for anyone who aspires to the non dual Truth:

Shankara's teachings embrace the totality of the tradition of Hinduism, which was the tradition within which he was active.

He covers modes of discipline and approach that correspond to what I call the stages of life. He accounts for devotional practice (Bhakti Yoga), Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga, Kundalini Yoga and so on, as well as Jnana Yoga as the ultimate mode of practice.

He also accounts for sannyas as being the mode of life discipline associated with Ultimate Realization. He was not teaching in any mode that was dissociated from the Yogic traditions (such as the Kundalini tradition). He simply understood those traditions as preliminary to the ultimate process.

So do I. I have My own language relative to all that. The particularities and details of My own Teaching are unique. But nevertheless, they coincide with Shankara's tradition of understanding.

— April 21, 2005

However, both historically and in the present day, there are those who claim that such preparation is not necessary, and that all one needs to do to become a Jnani (a "knower" of Truth) is to enquire into the root of "I", or ponder the great non dual statements of the Upanishads, or engage some such philosophical or contemplative practice.

But, as Adi Da Samraj repeatedly emphasizes in Is — in unison with the genuine tradition of the Sages — such efforts are fruitless and deluded:

There are modes or schools or tendencies in the Indian tradition which attribute a kind of exclusiveness to Jnana — seeming to indicate that nothing but Jnana is the Truth, or acceptable, and (thus) discounting the necessity for preliminary sadhana. But that is a misplaced doctrine. And such a statement is not there in Shankara's writings.

— October 22, 2005

A relatively recent expression of the traditional wisdom that preliminary practice is necessary is found in an exchange between Swami Vivekananda and a householder devotee, Haripada Mitra:

"Swamiji, will you kindly chalk out the path that I should follow?"

Swamiji replied, "First, try to bring the mind under control, no matter what the process is. Everything else will follow as a matter of course. And knowledge — the non dualistic realization — is very hard to attain.

Know that to be the highest human goal. But before one reaches there, one has to make a long preparation and a prolonged effort.

The company of holy men and dispassion are the means to it. There is no other way."

(Translated from Swamijir Katha in Bengali,
included in Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda
[Almora, India: Advaita Ashrama, 1961], 51)

Next: Discriminating Between Dualism and Non Dualism