After ascending the Sarvajna Peetham in Kashmir, Shankara traveled to Kedarnath in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. Tradition holds that divine beings led by Brahma arrived to escort this incarnation of Shiva back to Shivaloka. Nandi, Shiva's bull, appeared; Shankara mounted him and ascended to his divine abode—or attained videha mukti (liberation while discarding the body). He left physical form at approximately age 32, having accomplished in three decades what might take lifetimes: systematic philosophy establishing Advaita Vedanta, commentaries on all major scriptures, hundreds of independent works, four functioning monasteries spanning India, a unified monastic order, temple reforms, countless philosophical victories, and a framework that would define Hindu philosophy for over twelve centuries. His legacy lives not in biographical details—which remain contested—but in the enduring power of his ideas and institutions.