His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Candrasekharendra Sarasvati, Sankaracarya of Kanci Kamakoti Pitham, is the sixty-eighth in the line of succession from Adi Sankara on the Kanci Kamakoti Pitha in Kanci. He became the head of the Matha at the age of thirteen in 1907. After the requisite training in seclusion on the banks of the river Kaveri near Kumbhakonam, he under-took a peripatetic pilgrimage of India, which lasted from the year 1919 to 1939. In the course of this dig-vijaya he spent four months in the city of Madras in the year 1932. During his stay, the Acarya used to deliver discourses every evening after puja. Thousands of people listened to these words in pin-drop silence. Seated on the simhasana, the Acarya would remain silent for some time. Then slowly he would commence to speak. It was not mere speech; it was a message from the heart each day. At that time, he delivered a series of discourses on the life and message of Adi Sankara, in Tamil, which was published by Messrs. B.G. Paul and Company in 1933. We must indeed be grateful to Sri K. Nilakantan for compiling these speeches in book-form. It was a privilege for Sri T. M.P. Mahadevan to translate them into English for the benefit of as many people as possible.

In the year 1954 His Holiness nominated his Successor giving him Sannyasa. After training him for the arduous duties connected with the headship of the Math, His Holiness retired from active administration thereof. Even now he travels from place to place as a peripatetic monk blessing the people by his very presence in the respective villages or towns. It is by his grace that this series of discourses has been translated and published in Bhavan's Series under the title "Adi Sankara: His life and Times."