SOURCE: "The Modem Relevance of Shankara" in Shankara's Universal Philosophy of Religion, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1987, pp. 130-46.

In the following essay, Masih discusses Sankara in several contexts including comparative religion, psychology, and modern philosophy in exploring his relevancy to the modern world.

The most important commitment of Shankara was to find out the way out of human miseries involved in earthly existence. Ontologically he established that the supreme reality is Brahman, which is eternal, unchangeable and untouched by the vicissitudes of any existents. After giving an ontological reason and defence of non-dual Brahman he proceeded to offer his epistemological explanation for the identity of knowing and being. The important contention is that the knower of Brahman himself becomes Brahman. The advaitic analysis of perception is that perception is possible when the vrttis assume the shape and form of the objects cognized. Similarly by knowing Brahman, the...