Jayendra Saraswathi

Jagadguru Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya Swamigal (born Subrahmanyam Mahadeva Iyer; 18 July 1935 – 28 February 2018) was the 69th Shankaracharya Guru and head or pontiff (Pïțhādhipati) of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham

Quotes

Interview

The Rediff Interview/Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal

• The British never created anything in India -- they merely destroyed. Instead of uniting, they divided; so the question is meaningless. For 5,000 years Hindus have chanted in their morning prayers:
  Gange cha! Yamune chiava! Godavari!
  Saraswati! Narmade! Sindhu! Kaveri! Jale asmin sannidhim kuru!
  There has been an explicit and clear geographical area that we have referred to as our land. Adi Sankara not only went to the four corners of this territory, he set up tens of shrines all over the Hindu land to be able to revive and revitalise Hinduism. It is absurd to think that India is a new idea.

• We need both pacifism and just wars for the good of the land. Wherever and whenever there is adharma, there needs to be himsa.

• The models of Sri Narayana Guru and E V Ramaswamy Naicker are poles apart. Sri Narayana Guru was one in the tradition of Adi Sankara, a true Hindu. You ask me why we cannot have reform like Sri Narayana Guru's reforms elsewhere in India, say in Bihar. Well, some day a great person like him will have to be born in Bihar for that to happen.