One of the most famous Hindu sages of historical times, Shankaracharya, was so disgusted with the petty disputes of the different Hindu sects that he formed his own denomination, the Smartas. The Samrtas, he directed, would worship all the major gods of both North and South India! To this day, Smarta swamis honor Hinduism's great gods : Vishnu (the one who keeps the universe in good running order and incarnates on Earth from time to time to deal with special emergencies), Shiva (the one who sits in meditation all the time), Devi (the Mother of the Universe),Ganesha (that's the one with the elephant head), Murugan (the young warrior god of the Tamils), and Surya (the sun god).
Shankaracharya was an advanced yogi who believed that in reality God is beyond all form. Yet he was wise enough to recognize that the tremendous faith simple people had in their beloved deities, like Krishna or the Divine Mother, could be mobilized to their spiritual benefit if it was directed intelligently. Directed away from squabbling about whose god was the greatest of all and toward the actual experience of the unity of all gods and all beings in the one Supreme Being.
Shankaracharya founded four great monasteries at the four corners of India : Puri in the east, Badrinath in the north, Dvarka in the west, and Sringeri in the south. Down through the centuries the heads of these institutions, called Shankarachrayas after their founder, have emphasized the need for tempering enthusiastic devotion with mature intelligence.
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