Drgdrsyaviveka, Discernment Between Atman and Non-Atman

SANKARA is regarded as one of the pre-eminent philosophical minds in the history of India. He realized the most perfect synthesis and harmonization of the entirety of Indian philosophical thought. His method for the research of Truth, which consisted primarily in liberating it from the veils that cover it, has given a contribution of great value to the metaphysical philosophical thought of the entire world. Sankara is considered from many perspectives a philosopher, a mystic, an exegete of the Sruti, a founder of monastic orders (mathas), an Avatara (Siva's incarnation). But above all, he is to be considered as the supreme Instructor (Acarya) who was able to indicate the true and supreme end of human existence, based on Knowledge, and which constitutes the very end of the Upanisad: the recognition of our own real nature and liberation (moksa) from samsara-becoming. Raphael was, with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, one of the three masters of the High Renaissance. He was also the youngest and died prematurely after a life of incredible creativity and accomplishment. The son of a painter, Giovanni Santi, his actual name was Raffaello Santi of Sanzio. He was trained in Florence but spent most of his short life in Rome. There he created his major works, famous for the harmony and elegance of their design. Above all, there are the frescoes for the papal apartments in the Vatican (The Stanze), which he painted at exactly the time Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel (1508--12); among them are such masterpieces as the School of Athens and the Disputa. His oil painting, the Sistine Madonna, is justly famous. Raphael---in the Renaissance manner---was also an accomplished architect and, in his last years, architect-in-chief of St. Peter's.