Adi Shankaracharya birth anniversary to be celebrated as Philosopher’s Day

New Delhi : The government is all set to give a final nod to celebrating Adi Shankaracharya birth anniversary as Philosopher’s Day from next year. Culture ministry officials said the government has accepted a proposal sent by the Sringeri Math, established by the Shankaracharya in the 8th century in Karnataka, and is in favour of promoting Shankaracharya’s commentary on the Upanishads and his role in generating awareness about Indian philosophy.

“We are in the process of deciding the logistics now on how the day could be observed across the country,” an official at the ministry said. Sringeri Mutt officials told ET that they had written to the Centre, last year, about the “need to recognise and promote valuable contributions made by Sri Adi Sankara to the country through his doctrine of Advaita (non-dualism)”. Thereafter, according to culture ministry officials, the PMO had asked the ministry to look into the proposal.

“The culture ministry acknowledged our proposal and suggested if we approach state governments. We told them it was important that the Centre, not just states, made efforts to honour Adi Shankaracharya and promote his philosophy,” said VR Gowrishankar, CEO and administrator of the Sri Sringeri Math.

Gowrishankar said the mutt has been writing to the Centre every year, since 1996, but it was for the first time that the Centre had acknowledged the letter and taken note of the proposal. “We had tried to talk to the Vajpayee government too, but the talks never materialised.” While Kerala and Karnataka had accepted the Mutt’s proposal in 2005, after constant reminders, the Uttarakhand government which has several Hindu shrines had never replied to it, Gowrishankar added.

“Sitting in a small place like Sringeri, it is not possible for us to get all states on board.”

It is believed that the Adi Shankaracharya conceived the idea of “Char Dham”, which means four holy destinations of God in the four directions in India — Badrinath, Rameshwaram, Puri and Dwarka.

“Adi Shankara was the one who reunited fragmented Hinduism. He travelled all over India on foot and in each town he had philosophical discussions with scholars. He was the first to think and speak of India as one entity,” Gowrishankar said.

The Mutt has suggested readings of the Shankaracharya’s commentary on Upanishads, chanting of his stotras and studying his principles of Advaita Vedanta and works of other Indian philosophers as part of his birthday celebrations, which falls in the Vaisakha month of the Hindu Calendar, around April. The government’s steps have been aligned with its efforts to improve infrastructure, security and flood relief facilities to the Char Dham circuit this year. According to tourism officials, this has led to the total number of Hindu pilgrims tripling this year.

Source : Economic Times