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Updated: June 6, 2025
When mysticism is the staple crop of a religion and not a rare wild flower, the percentage of imperfect specimens is bound to be high. The Buddha, Śankara and a host of less well-known teachers were as strenuous and influential as Francis of Assisi or Ignatius Loyola. Neither in Europe nor in Asia has mysticism contributed much directly to political and social reform.
The Hindu commentators do not regard it so. It implies the lord of the senses i.e., One who has his sense under complete control. Or, it may mean One who sways the sense of others, i.e., causes them to exercise their functions. Sankara proposes another meaning, viz.
To which the Buddha replies that his language is a concession to those who cannot stomach the doctrine of the negation of reality in all its austerity. Some of the best known verses of Gauḍapâda compare the world of appearance to the apparent circle of fire produced by whirling a lighted torch. A real affinity unites the doctrine of Śankara to the teaching of Gotama himself.
For the performance of the task of the gods thou hast obtained the sight of Sankara. Do thou now receive weapons from us seated around. Thereupon, O lord, having bowed down unto those foremost of the celestials with regard, I duly accepted those mighty weapons. And then they recognised me as one of their own. Afterwards the gods repaired to the quarter from whence they had come.
Is the soul limited in size, and capable, therefore, of occupying but a restricted space? Or is it, on the contrary, omnipresent? Sankara maintains that the Sutra in question teaches the latter; the soul is everywhere. Ramanuga makes the same Sutra teach the very contrary.
O sire it is Sankara who created all the creatures in the universe, mobile and immobile. There is no being that is higher, O monarch, than Mahadeva. Verily, he is the highest of all beings in the three worlds. There is no one who is capable of standing before that high-souled Being. Indeed, there is no Being in the three worlds that can be regarded as his equal.
The deity having the bull for his emblem answered, saying, 'My penances have been well-practised. Of inconceivable soul, possessed of great intelligence, and ever devoted to the religion of truth, Sankara saw that Usanas within his stomach had become greater in consequence of those penances of his.
The chief of the immortals, thy father that god of a hundred sacrifices hath commanded me, saying, 'Bring the son of Kunti hither. Let the gods behold him. And Sankara himself, surrounded by the celestials and Rishis and Gandharvas and Apsaras, waiteth to behold thee. At the command of the chastiser of Paka, therefore, ascend thou with me from this to the region of the celestials.
Having in days of yore performed ascetic penances for a million of years, Tvashtri, then, ye gods, created Vritra, obtaining permission from Maheswara. That mighty foe of yours hath succeeded in smiting you through the grace of that god of gods. Without going to the place where Sankara stayeth, ye cannot see the divine Hara. Having seen that god, ye will be able to vanquish Vritra.
Kama which I have rendered desire is explained by Sreedhara as the wish for an unattained object; and raga as the longing or thirst for more. The second Kama is explained as desires of the class of love or lust. Daivi is explained by Sankara as divine; by Sreedhara as marvellous.
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