As is well known, the Adi Shankara had extensively toured to spread Hinduism in India.
Right from the start what actually was his motivation to undertake his (seemingly self inspired) life mission to spread the philosophy of Advaita through the Vedas?
Did he proclaim to the world with any messages before he set out on his epic journeys or during his first encounters?
What he did is well known. However I like to read or hear about self declarations of his own intent before his Maha Prasthanam.
He expressed much on Bhakthi and a philosophy so new at that time and I wonder if there was an autobiographical note stating his purpose.. a record that may or may not have come down to us.. To come to think of it for one so fiercely objective in enquiry, mundane subjective personal narratives might have appeared rather irrelevant.