Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

RELIGIONS

In 627, a force of 10,000 Makkans led by Abu Sufyan laid siege to Madina but failed to dislodge Muhammad whose position was now considerably strengthened. In January 630, Muhammad who had left Makkah as a persecuted Prophet re-entered it in triumph. Many Makkans became Muslims. He died at Madina in June 632. SHANKARACHARYA (8th century A.D.) Shankara who propounded the doctrine of Advaita, or Monism, was bom in a Namboodiri Brahmin family at Kalady, a village situated on the banks of the river Purna in Kerala. It is said that once while mother and son were bathing in the river one morning a crocodile caught hold of Shankara's foot. Shankara cried out to his mother asking for permission to become a monk. He said that if he became a monk the destiny threatening him with death in the mouth of the crocodile might be averted and he might live. From that moment he became a wandering monk. He declined even to accompany his mother back home and said that hence forth his God was his mother as well as father and the whole world was his home. However, he as- sured his mother that he would be with her in his last days. She had only to think of him and he would be with her. Proceeding northward in search of a guru, Shankara reached the banks of the Narmada where he met Govinda Bhagavatpada who initiated him into Sanyasa. Shankara thereupon received instruc- tion in Vedanta from Govinda Bhagavatpada. After a time Govinda Bhagavatpada commanded Shankara to go forth to Banaras, the heart of Bharat Varsha, and expound there the scriptures. One morning in Banaras when he was going to the temple of Viswanath accompanied by his disciples, after a bath in the Ganges, an out- caste carrying a pot of liquor on his head and followed by dogs, came close to him and Shankara asked him to keep away. The man retorted, "Whom do you mean to keep away, the soul or the body?" Shankara realised that the outcaste was none other than Lord Viswanath who had assumed that form in order to teach Shankara a profound spiritual truth. Shankara refers to this episode in his Maneesha Panchakam, where the refrain of the song is : "Salutation to him who comes as the Guru in the shape of the outcaste as well as of the twice-born." From Banaras he went to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Kashmir and Mount Kailas. During his wanderings Shankara had a premonition that his mother's end was near. Remembering his promise to her he hurried to her bedside. He became her Guru and enabled her to meet her death peacefully and with unshakeable faith in God. The Namboodiris of Kalady objected to Shankara, a Sannyasin, cremat- ing his mother's body as being contrary to orthodox practice. Shank- ara cremated the corpse in the backyard of the house. A samadhi built in 1910 marks the place. Shankara cursed the people of the village for their hard-heartedness and declared them unfit to study the Vedas or entertain Sannyasins. The descendants of these families do not enjoy these privileges even today. Shankara resumed his travels. He visited Srirangam, Tirupati and other places in the south. He established maths at Kedarnath, Dwaraka, Sringeri, Puri and Kashmir. The sannyasins of the order which he es- tablished are called Dasananis, because they are recognised by the ten

(Benaras) where he preached his first sermon. A few days later a band of sixty young ascetics became his followers and he sent them out in all directions to preach the Buddhist Dharma. For over forty years his reputation grew and the Buddhist Order increased in influence. The end came at the age of eighty at Kusinagara, modem Kasia, in the Gorakhpur District of Uttar Pradesh. His last words were: "Decay is inherent in all composite things. Work out your salvation with diligence." VARDHAMANA MAHAVIRA (599 B.C. - 527 B.C.) Mahavira renounced his wife and daughter and became an ascetic at the age of thirty when his parents were dead. At first he wore a single

garment which he never changed but after thirteen months even this fell down and spent the rest of his life in complete nudity. For twelve years he remained in Meditation, wan- dered from place to place begging his food and subjecting his body to severe austerities. In the thirteenth year of his asceticism, Mahavira found full enlightenment and be- came a Jina, a conqueror of pas-

sions. His followers became known as Jainas, followers of the Jina. Mahavira attained Nirvana through self-meditation at the age of sev- enty-two at Pava in south Bihar. The central tenet of Jainism is ahimsa or non-violence to all living beings including insects and anekant (many sided vision). PROPHET MUHAMMAD (570 A.D.-632 A.D.) Prophet Muhammad was born in Makkah in 570 A.D. At six he lost his mother, Aminah, and at eight his grandfather. Muhammad came under the care of his uncle, Abu Talib, and accompanied him on trading journeys to Syria. In 595 he married an affluent widow Khadijah. The Prophet was of a contemplative turn of mind and was in the habit of occasionally spending nights in a hill cave near Makkah about 610, he had a vision of a majestic being (later identified with the angel Gabriel) and heard a voice saying to him, “You are the Messenger of God,” Until his death in 632 he received, at frequent intervals, verbal messages that came directly from God. The Qman is the collection of these divine revelations, which were memorised and written down by his companions. Muhammad the Apostle or messenger of God (Rasul Allah) began preaching the masses publicity in 613 A.D. He preached Islam meaning “Surrender to the will of God” and its adherents are called Muslims meaning “those who have surrendered.” The Islam he preached was strict monotheistic religion. The three fundamentals he preached were Unity and Oneness of God, Prophethood and The Day of Resurrection. These three units constitute the essence of his message to the humanity. In 622 to escape persecution to which he and his followers were being subjected to in Makkah, he left for Madina following an invitation from some of his followers who-had established themselves there as Muslims. This is the hijrah (Hagira) which means emigration. The Islamic Era beings on the first day of the Arabic years in which the hijrah took place on July 16, 622. Muhammad reached Madina on September 24,622.