So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu took sannyāsa, renounced order of life, at the age of twenty-four. When He was only twenty-four, years old, young man, He took sannyāsa. And Śaṅkarācārya, he also took sannyāsa at the age of eight years. Śaṅkarācārya was exterminated from the, extricated from the brāhmaṇa society. Therefore he took sannyāsa, gave up the whole society, friendship and love, so-called, at the age of eight years. He was born of a widow; therefore he was not accepted in the society. So when his mother died, he called for the neighbors to help him for the funeral ceremony. Nobody came to help him, because he was considered a bastard. In the society, say one thousand—how long?—one thousand five hundred years ago, was very, very strict. So he set fire in his house - house means cottage - and went away. So the funeral ceremony was performed along with the burning of the house.
So he was great, he became very great scholar. It is said that Śaṅkarācārya is incarnation of Lord Śiva. Śaṅkara, śaṅkara svayaṁ. Śaṅkara is known as Lord Śiva. This Śaṅkarācārya was also a great devotee of Lord Śiva. This Māyāvādī, they worship especially Lord Śiva. So the Māyāvādī means that Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His name, His fame, His quality, His entourage—everything belonging to Kṛṣṇa—these philosophers, followers of Śaṅkarācārya, they believe they are māyā. Māyā means this material. Their philosophy is that nirviśeṣa-vāda. Ultimately, everything is impersonal, almost akin to the philosophy of Buddha. Zero, void.
So nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi. Our mission is to defy this nirviśeṣa, impersonalism and voidism. Our Kṛṣṇa is not void; He is the person, Supreme Person, but not made of this māyā. He is person eternally. Here we are made person by māyā. Your body and my body, we are person undoubtedly, but this body is made of māyā. Māyā means it will not exist: "which has no eternal existence." Whatever body we have got, it will be finished after some years, and it will never come in existence. It was never in existence before, neither it will again come into existence. Just like exactly the each and every wave of the ocean, it is temporary. That particular wave was never in existence, and after it subsides it will never become again of the same size, same, like that. Every wave, it is coming and again going. This morning we were singing about Lord Brahmā, sung by Vidyāpati: kata catur anana, mari mari yāvat. Catur anana: four faces, Lord Brahmā. Many, many Brahmā is coming and going, what to speak of . . . this material universe is like that. You come, you take a form, and again this form is vanquished. Again you take another form. That form which you had in your last life, that is gone. So this is called māyā.