OBSERVATIONS

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> Sri Adi Shankara (My Guru) does wear Vibhuti at several places of his body
> and wears plenty of Rudraksha malas.  On top everything he is shown as
> sitting on a Tiger skin.
>

Although ahimsa is highly valued, it has been standard, centuries-old
Hindu tradition for sannyAsins to sit on tiger skins. Just as it is
standard for students and householders to sit on deer skins. A piece of
deer skin is tied into the sacred thread of a newly initiated boy. The
reason Ramana Maharishi never sat on tiger skins is because he never
officially became a sannyAsin. Buddhist monks also use a number of animal
products. It is only the Jains who stick to an extreme principle of
ahimsa. The Hindu view of ahimsa is moderated by the fact that it is
impossible to subsist on this earth without causing some minimal harm.
Sankaracarya points out that by the very act of begging for his alms, even
a sannyAsin causes some pain to others. Therefore, depending upon the
stage in one's life, different levels of convenience are allowed in the
tradition.

That apart, portraits of Sankaracarya have been drawn within the last
hundred years or so. No one knows what he really looked like, or what he
wore or didn't wear. However, you must note that there are occasions when
the contemporary Sankaracaryas do not wear vibhuti and rudrakshas. It
is not necessary for sannyAsins to wear them at all times. They do so only
when receiving visitors in public. I have seen pictures of Swami
Candrasekhara Bharati without any such external marks. And in the north,
the Sankaracaryas of Jyotirmatha do not wear vibhuti. They wear horizontal
lines of sandal paste.

Vidyasankar