Adi Sankaracharya was born due to divine blessings to his mother during pregnancy. Adi Sankaracharya’s parents Siva guru and Arya (appropriately named) visited a number of shrines in Southern India praying to Lord Siva for a son.

When they were sleeping exhausted after a long fast, Lord Siva appeared to Siva guru in a dream and offered him the choice of a saintly but short-lived son and a long-lived but ordinary boy. Siva guru wisely chose the former, and he saw a bright ray of light emanating from the Siva image. Sankara’s life was later extended by another sixteen years for a total of thirty-two years, during which time he wrote monumental philosophical and literary works and established religious orders which survive till today.