Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/448

 43 2 The Sa1ikara School of Vedanta [CH. had been left out or slightly touched by Sankara were discussed fully by his followers. But it should always be remembered that philosophical reasonings and criticisms are always to be taken as but aids for convincing our intellect and strengthening our faith in the truth revealed in the U pani!?ads. The true work of logic is to adapt the mind to accept them. Logic used for upset- ting the instructions of the Upani!?ads is logic gone astray. Many lives ofSankaracarya were written in Sanskrit such asthe Sankara- dig'vijaya, Sankara-vijaya-viliisa, Stl1ikara-jaya, etc. I t is regarded as almost certain that he was born between 700 and 800 A.D. in the Malabar country in the Deccan. His father Sivaguru was a Yajurvedi Brahmin of the Taittiriya branch. Many miracles are related of Sankara, and he is believed to have been the incarnation of Siva. He turned ascetic in his eighth year and became the disciple of Govinda, a renowned sage then residing in a mountain cell on the banks of the Narbuda. He then came over to Benares and thence went to Badarikasrama. It is said that he wrote his illustrious bha!?ya on the Bra/zma-sfttra in his twelfth year. Later on he also wrote his commentaries on ten Upani!?ads. He returned to Benares, and from this time forth he decided to travel all over India in order to defeat the adherents of other schools of thought in open debate. I t is said that he first went to meet Kumarila, but Kumarila was then at the point of death, and he advised him to meet Kumarila's disciple. He defeated MaI)9ana and converted him into an ascetic follower of his own. He then travelled in various places, and defeating his opponents everywhere he established his Vedanta philosophy, which from that time forth acquired a dominant influence in moulding the religious life of India. Sankara carried on the work of his teacher Gauc;1apada and by writing commentaries on the ten Upaniads and the Bra/l1na- siUras tried to prove, that the absolutist creed was the one which was intended to be preached in the Upaniads and the Bra/l1na- siUras 1 . Throughout his commentary on the Bra/zma-sittras, there is ample evidence that he was contending against some other rival interpretations of a dualistic tendency which held that the Upaniads partly favoured the Sarpkhya cosmology 1 The main works of Sankara are his commentaries (bhya) on the ten U paniads (lsa, Kena, Ka!ha, Prasna, MUl)c.1aka, Mal")liikya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Brhadaral")- yaka, and Chandogya), and on the Brahllla-siitl'a.