the few scattered ideas about physics, cosmology, eschatology, etc. that are found in the Upani@sads consistently with the Brahman philosophy.  In order to show that the philosophy of the Upani@sads as he expounded it was a consistent system, he had to remove all the objections that his opponents could make regarding the Brahman philosophy, to criticize the philosophies of all other schools, to prove them to be self-contradictory, and to show that any interpretation of the Upani@sads, other than that which he gave, was inconsistent and wrong.  This he did not only in his bhasya on the Brahma-sutras but also in his commentaries on the Upani@sads.  Logic with him had a subordinate place, as its main value for us was the aid which it lent to consistent interpretations of the purport of the Upani@sad texts, and to persuading the mind to accept the uncontradicted testimony of the Upani@sads as the absolute truth.  His disciples followed him in all, and moreover showed in great detail that the Brahman philosophy was never contradicted either in perceptual experience or in rational thought, and that all the realistic categories which Nyaya and other systems had put forth were self-contradictory and erroneous.  They also supplemented his philosophy by constructing a Vedanta epistemology, and by rethinking elaborately the relation of the maya, the Brahman, and the world of appearance and other relevant topics.  Many problems of great philosophical interest which

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had been left out or slightly touched by S’a@nkara were discussed fully by his followers.  But it should always be remembered that philosophical reasonings and criticisms are always to be taken as but aids for convincing our intellect and strengthening our faith in the truth revealed in the Upani@sads.  The true work of logic is to adapt the mind to accept them.  Logic used for upsetting the instructions of the Upani@sads is logic gone astray.  Many lives of S’a@nkaracarya were written in Sanskrit such as the S’a@nkaradigvijaya, S’a@nkara-vijaya-vilasa, S’a@nkara-jaya, etc.  It is regarded as almost certain that he was born between 700 and 800 A.D. in the Malabar country in the Deccan.  His father S’ivaguru was a Yajurvedi Brahmin of the Taittiriya branch.  Many miracles are related of S’a@nkara, and he is believed to have been the incarnation of S’iva.  He turned ascetic in his eighth year and became the disciple of Govinda, a renowned sage then residing in a mountain cell on the banks of the Narbuda.  He then came over to Benares and thence went to Badarikas’rama.  It is said that he wrote his illustrious bha@sya on the Brahma-sutra in his twelfth year.  Later on he also wrote his commentaries on ten Upani@sads.  He returned to Benares, and from this time forth he decided to travel all over India in order to defeat the adherents of other schools of thought in open debate.  It is said that he first went to meet Kumarila, but Kumarila was then at the point of death, and he advised him to meet Kumarila’s disciple.  He defeated Ma@n@dana and converted him into an ascetic follower of his own.  He then travelled in various places, and defeating his opponents everywhere he established his Vedanta philosophy, which from that time forth acquired a dominant influence in moulding the religious life of India.