Sankara, Shri Adi

Shri Adi Sankara was a philosopher-theologian of the Advaita Vedanta (nondual) school of Indian thought. His dates are disputed, although he probably lived and worked in the early 8th century. Besides his distinguished career as an influential thinker, he played several roles: Hindu reformer, founder of monastic centers, commentator on ancient texts, and author of original works of philosophy.

Medieval Indian culture recognized two types of time: linear historical time, often associated with dynastic rule, and cyclic cosmic time, which was depicted as four yugas (ages) of descending longevity. In the ancient Atharva Veda text (19.53–54), time is identified with the deity Prajapati. According to the Maitri Upanishad (6.14–16), the sun, a source and support for all living things, is also identified with Brahman, and time is, by extension, identified with Brahman, or the highest reality. In the cosmic level, time is a power that brings about the evolution and involution of the entire universe. Time is depicted in the Upanishads as cyclical, with [Page 1130]an inconceivable beginning and end. Being described as all-inclusive and rolling on endlessly, time is conceived commonly as a destructive force. Time is, for instance, compared with the six seasons, which swallow up creatures, or cook all creatures, according to the Maitri Upanishad (6.15), making them ripe enough to be swallowed by death. Other metaphors of time depicted it as a noose that binds one and tightens as one grows older; time is imagined to be a winged horse that carries away all creatures, or time is like a ceaselessly revolving wheel. Moreover, time is connected to the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, which is interpreted as an endless cycle of suffering that only ends with the attainment of liberating knowledge and status of one liberated while alive (jivanmukti)

The conception of time as four yugas is found in the worldview of the Puranic texts (c. 4th century CE). The term yuga is derived from the throws of dice and suggests that life is similar to a gigantic dice game. The primary or golden age is the krita yuga, which lasts 1,728,000 years, and it is represented by a four-legged mythical cow, which is a symbol of the social and cosmic order (dbarma). The second age, the treta yuga, lasts for 1,296,000 years and is a period of time when the mythical cow stands on three legs. This silver age is followed by the copper age of the dvapara yuga, a period when the mythical cow stands on two legs and which lasts for 864,000 years. During the final age, or kali yuga, the mythical cow stands on one leg for a period that lasts for 432,000 years. During this last period, the mythical cow symbolizes the idea that humans can no longer perform good deeds during a final age characterized by strife, quarrel, dissension, war, and evil. Each cycle of the four yugas is called a mabayuga (great age), which represents a kalpa (eon) at the conclusion of which there occurs a dissolution of the world and return to cosmic nondifferentiation. After an unspecified period, the cosmos is recreated, and the cyclic process begins again with the dawn of a golden age and a repeat of the entire cycle.

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