Sankara the Poet: Sivanandalahari By I. S. Madugula

Sankara was nothing short of a phenom during his lifetime and has been one ever since. His massive output during a short life span is mind-numbing.

Among the tons of tomes written about him, there are none exclusively devoted to his literary skills. This book shows that, no matter what genre he chose to write in, he advocated undiluted (suddha) advaita from his folksy Bhajagovindam to the highly technical Saundaryalahari. The dozens of stotras that he composed in between, while apparently praising this or that deity, taught nothing but the one Reality called Brahman. Sivanandalahari is unique among the stotras in that all one hundred of its verses have a single unified theme-of jnana presented in the guise of bhakti-selfless, dedicated, whole hearted surrender to the Supreme. And the sheer beauty of his poetry is bliss per se.