I’m adapting the saying of Frank Pain from his book ‘Practical Woodturning’ - ‘cut the wood the way the wood likes to be cut’. How does Sankaracarya cut Advaita and who does he cut it as? As a Teacher and non-dually straight to the consciousness of the seeker that has come to him:
“with fuel in his hands, he should approach a teacher versed in the Vedas and established in Brahman in order to know the Eternal.”
The earnest disciple with full faith in the wisdom of the Vedas will receive instruction according to the rubric of the mahavakyas. Dwelling on them and drawing out their implication is his path. Another type of seeker will be served Vedanta with a helping of rational argument. Those two types are dealt with in the first chapters of ‘Upadesa Sahasri’
(1) A Method of Enlightening the Disciple
(2) The Knowledge of the Changeless and non-Dual Self.
The latter instruction and explication is heavily epistemological and culminates in the argument for the nature of the Self deduced from the knowledge that we have been in a state of Deep Dreamless Sleep (Sushupti).
Upadesa Sahasri is Sankara’s only authenticated non-commentarial work and we may assume that it covers his classic procedure. The other work that stands out as an onto-epistemological disquisition peculiar to him is found in the preamble to the Brahma Sutra Bhasya. This is also known as the adhyasa Bhasya (superimposition).
Those are my thoughts on the shape of an introduction to Sankara. Follow the tags for more on each topic.
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