Adi Shankaracarya Quotes & Sayings

Who but the Atman is capable of removing the bonds of ignorance, passion and self-interested action? — Adi Shankaracarya

Once we become conscious, even dimly, of the Atman, the Reality within us, the world takes on a very different aspect. It is no longer a court of justice but a kind of gymnasium. Good and evil, pain and pleasure, still exist, but they seem more like the ropes and vaulting-horses and parallel bars which can be used to make our bodies strong. Maya is no longer an endlessly revolving wheel of pain and pleasure but a ladder which can be climbed to consciousness of the Reality. — Adi Shankaracarya

When your last breath arrives, Grammar can do nothing. — Adi Shankaracarya

When our false perception is corrected, misery ends also. — Adi Shankaracarya

Like the appearance of silver in mother of pearl, the world seems real until the Self, the underlying reality, is realized. — Adi Shankaracarya

Let my idle chatter be the muttering of prayer, my every manual movement the execution of ritual gesture, my walking a ceremonial circumambulation, my eating and other acts the rite of sacrifice, my lying down prostration in worship, my every pleasure enjoyed with dedication of myself, let whatever activity is mine be some form of worship of you. — Adi Shankaracarya