The greatly revered Advaitins Adi Sankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda have a striking common theme in their lives: Not just were both of them great Communicators, but also tireless Social Reformers.
Both have written Bhashyas that have been held in high regard. While Sankaracharya achieved a vast more number of self written material in a systematic manner, Vivekananda's talks and lectures (published in the Complete Works) makes him seem a walking encyclopaedia.
Both are poets and convincing speakers with the power to influence listeners considerably.
While these are monumental achievements by themselves, these two stalwarts are best known for matching and exceeding their words with their work.
Both Swamiji and Jagadguru Bhagavatpada tried their best to rid the society of the negative effects of pedantic orthodoxy.
They exhorted listeners/readers to look beyond the ritualistic aspects of religion. Both asserted boldly that God resides within us, neigh verily God is nothing but our true realised Self. This is why their message had universal appeal.
While Vivekananda set up the Ramakrishna Mission to channelize the direction of the followers towards the spread of Jnana yoga, Sankaracharya had a much more daunting task of reviving the real Hinduism i.e. Sanatana Dharma itself. For this he set up four Mattas in the four corners of the country, all covered on foot. Vivekananda on the other hand, apart from being the rationalist, nationalist, fire-in-the-belly spiritual giant in Bharat, he crossed the seven seas reaching the shores of America, half the world away. A task no less daunting considering he was out spreading the word amongst a populace that was no doubt open hearted, but still which had never been exposed to such profound philosophy.
And as is seen today, so it will be in the future. While their teachings will continue to light up the minds of listeners, the more relevant change is the seed they've planted in the hearts of humans and humanity.
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