[Advaita-l] A FB post on Adishankara's statue at Kedarnath

[Mano.Manoharan]

I am conscious that, One needs to be cautious when drawing parallels, in
particular with sensitive topics ..however, there is a saying "no one is a
prophet in their own land". A version of this is mentioned in Christian
literature, in relation to Jesus Christ.

It is not an excuse or explanation but I think it's tragic when something
like this happens. Though on the bright side, a "side-effect" of this is
that Adi Shankara now belongs to the *whole world *not just my beloved
Kerala.

I am confident that in time, maybe not in our lifetime, Shankara's Advaitic
teachings will long outlast any transient political or religious
Ideologies
*Mano K Manoharan*


On Tue, 9 Nov 2021 at 21:25, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/Tambrahmsthinnai/permalink/2284172081724878/
>
>
>
> Namaste 🙏🏽
>
> Yes, PM Modi ji did unveil Adishankaracharya's statue at Kedarnath. It's a
> 12 foot tall statue which weighs 35,000 kg. It's a proud moment for all of
> us. Adishankaracharya was the one who restored the glory of the shrine in
> the 8th century A.D.
> As keralites, me and my family were extremely happy, proud and embarassed
> at the same time.
> Why embarrassed ? Here's the reason.
> Any consious Bharatiya Sanatani from Kerala will be. The land of Kerala was
> blessed to be the birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya. He was born in Kalady.
> This is Sri Adi Sankara Keerthi Sthamba Mandapam is an eight-story memorial
> in Kalady, the birth place of Sri Adi Shankaracharya. Kanchi Kamakodi Math,
> Tamil Nadu, had to build it as Cong-Commie govts in Kerala don’t want
> people to cherish the legacy of the great Hindu renaissance leader. A
> university is named after Shri Adishankaracharya. (My congressi aunt
> (young) studies in a college named after Adi Shankaracharya, but she
> doesn't know who he is. That's the case with most students too.) This is
> the only thing we have.
> We couldn't even make a one foot tall statue of Adishankaracharya in Kerala
> due to the opposition from radical Islamists (high on number in Kerala) who
> has the support from the communist/congressi govts.
> The respect and gratitude which Shankaracharya should be getting from his
> birthplace is being denied and is getting it from the place in which he
> went to Samadhi. Modi ji is making people remember about the great
> Adishankaracharya. This step is absolutely necessary and if this is how the
> condition goes, one day might come in which we Hindus don't even know who
> Adishankaracharya is, like in Kerala.
> If you've noticed, I always take pride in saying that I belong to the birth
> state of Shri Adishankaracharya. I do not want my state to be called as
> “the land of communists" ! This feels like, we Malayalis are selling off
> our true identity and are running behind something else.
> Most people don't know about Shri Adishankaracharya. In my school, I had to
> conduct a small scale survey in which I asked my school mates to recognise
> these people from their pictures. One was Adishankaracharya and the other
> was Che-Guevera. 99% of them didn't recognise Adishankaracharya but all of
> them(honestly…all of them) recognised Che. Some people didn't know his name
> but knew that he was a communist. This result truly disheartened me.
> If the Hindus of Kerala stand together and know about the legendary
> Adishankaracharya who is the man behind the renaissance of Sanatan Dharma,
> we'll also get a statue of Adishankaracharya here in his birth place.
> These morons who are opposing the statue of Adishankaracharya are the one
> who advocated for the statue of Ali Musaliyar, the man behind the Moplah
> Hindu genocide. Adishankaracharya is revered and valued all throughout
> Hindustan except his birth place.
> Another reason might be because of the history, that there were clashes
> with Namboodiris of Keralam and the Jagadguru. He left for sanyasam at a
> very young age which was not acceptable by the namboodiris of Kerala. So
> Adi Shankaracharya didn't have any touch with Kerala after that. He came to
> see his mother when she was about to pass away. The Namboodiris and others
> refrained from touching her and igniting the fire (Shankaracharya can't do
> that). Then jagadguru with his yogic power ignited the fire. He didn't
> consecrate any temple in Kerala. But I beleive, at least now Keralites
> should leave that behind and follow him and his teaching. Yes, we mainly
> follow Tantric practices but Adi Shankaracharya is much beyond an advaita
> Vedanta philosophy. If today, in Hindustan, Sanatan Dharma is wide spread,
> Adi Shankaracharya is the main reason. I don't think these reasons or
> regional chauvenism or political ideology of yours should prevent you for
> adoring the Jagadguru.
> The reason why many Keralites oppose it is because, they're “literates" ! I
> saw some malayali IG pages(chauvinistic) which said instead of unvieling
> Shankaracharya's statue, he must eradicate poverty. I'm sorry. But that's
> how the mentality is. So…along with not knowing his contributions, this is
> also a reason.
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