Life History and teachings of Sri Ramanujar

(Essence of Visishtadvaitham)

{Distributed on the occasion of 993rd annual tirunakshatram-( ten day

celebrations) of Sri Ramanujar being held from 11th April to 20th April 2010.}

Life History

Sri Ramanujar was born in the year 1017 AD at Sriperumbudhur, Tamilnadu in

the Chaitra month- tiruvadirai star. His name was Ilayaazvar. Initially he was
placed under the advaitic sanyasi Yadavaprakasar at a nearby place for
vedantic learning. He excelled others in this school with his intelligence and
cohesive arguments. When his guru misinterpreted some vedantic
statements, Ilayaazvar. fearlessly pointed out the errors in the interpretations
and corrected him. Fearing that his advaitic philosophy would be demolished
by Ilayaazvar, the guru plotted to eliminate him. This made Ilayaazvar leave
this place and seek guidance from Sri Perianambi, a vaishnavite scholar. Sri
Ramanujar learnt the vedantic and philosophical insights from five
vaishnavite gurus. He later took sanyas under the name ”Ramanuja Muni”
and subsequently came to be known as “Yatirajar-king of saints”. He
dedicated his entire life for propagation of our philosophy.

He was one of the greatest saint philosophers of our country. He was the chief
expositor of visishtadvaita philosophy, which was enunciated earlier by sage
Bodhayanar, also known as Veda Vyasar. His exposition of the doctrine of
bakthi and saranagathi (total surrender at the lotus feet of god) is most
revealing. He declared that prapatti is an all sufficient way for attaining
salvation. He interpreted the messages of upanishads, brahmasutra and
Bagavadh gita and established harmony amongst all the vedantic

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statements. He was an ocean of compassion and his concern for humanity
was unique as explained below.

He learnt the meaning of the three important rahasyams (secrets)-

tirumantram, dvayam & charmaslokam from one of his gurus. Knowledge of
these is said to pave way for moksha (salvation of the souls). He had to make
eighteen trips to the place of his guru to learn one of the rahasyams. The
meaning of these rahasyams used to be taught only to limited persons earlier.
Only Sri Ramanujar changed the practice and made it known that those who
are disciplined enough in life & interested in attaining salvation through the
understanding of these rahsyams, could get initiated under him and learn the
meaning. He was keen that more persons could benefit in this process rather
than confining the secrets to limited persons.

When questioned by the guru on this breach of practice, he clarified that

while he might be denied the moksha for having breached the past practice
of limiting the knowledge of these secrets, those who became aware of it
now could get moksha and hence in the larger interest of society he thought
it better to share these rahasyams.

Overwhelmed by this response the guru embraced him and called him
“Emberumanar-oh! My lord” and also declared that sri vaishnavism would
henceforth be called “Ramanuja Darsanam”. It is said that mere connection
to Sri Ramanuja and his worship is sufficient to get salvation for any soul.

Works of Sri Ramanuja

He mastered the vedantic texts, puranas and ithihasas in Sanskrit as well as

tamil. His magnum opus is Sri Bashyam, his wonderful commentary on Veda
Vyasar’s brahmasutram. He established how it was possible to explain and
accept all the three types of sruthis in Vedas under visishtadvaita philosophy.
In the other schools of thought, both dvaita and advaita, some of the vedic
sruthis could not be explained and accepted.

Apart from this, his works include Vedartha sangraham, Gita bashyam,
Saranagathi gadyam, Sriranga gadyam, Vaikunta gadyam, Vedanta saram
and Vedanta deepam. While the other two commentaries (bashyam) on
brahmasutram are known by the names of their authors - by Adisankarar and
Madhvacharyar as Sankara bashyam and madhva bashyam respectively -
goddess Saraswati is said to have coined Ramanuja’s bashyam as “Sri
Bashyam”. He is also known as “Bhashyakarar”

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Ramanuja, as the apostle of visishtadvaita refuted mayavadism on the
strength of Upanishads and brahmasutra. He defeated a famous advaitic
scholar by name Yagnamurthy of his time, who later became his disciple.

He set at right the temple management at several places including

Srirangam, the famous vaishnavite temple in South India , for which he came
to be known as “Udayavar”. He travelled across the length of the country to
propagate vaishnavism and also appointed 74 disciples for preaching his
school of thought. He lived for 120 years till 1137AD.

Essence of visishtadvaitam - based on commentaries by Sri Ramanuja.

Visishtadvaitam means “visishtaasya- along with attributes”, ”adviteeyeam-

non-dualism”. The objects of knowledge or what needs to be known to us in
this universe are known as “Prameyam” and the instrument or source through
which the knowledge is obtained is known as “pramanam”.

The Vedas together with vedangas, Ithihasas and Puranas are accepted as
the sources of knowledge or pramanam. Within this, Vedas are accepted as
the “Parama pramanam” (supreme authority). Vedas are also “apourusheya”
-not of human origin but eternal. As they are not man-made, they are free
from any defects.

Prameyam (reality) in the universe is under three tatvas- Isvara, Chetana and
Achetana. Upanishads reveal that Isvara refers to Sriman Narayana, who is
the origin of the universe and is therefore the “Para-tatva” or supreme reality.
He is omnipresent, omnipotent and has all the pure and auspicious qualities.
He is the embodiment of Satyam(truth), Gnanam (knowledge) and
Anantham (eternity). He controls everything and everything exists for him. All
other things are supported and controlled by god.

The other two tatvas are “chetana” also known as soul or atma - the sentient
beings (such as human beings, animals,) and “achetana” also known as the
“matter”- the non-sentient substances which are devoid of knowledge.

The Vedas contain three types of statements. Abhedha sruthis proclaim the
existence of only one supreme being to the exclusion of all. Bheda sruthis
reveal the existence of multiple objects. There are also Ghataka sruthis, which
signify the inseparable aspects of paramatma with other realities..

In the dvaita philosophy propounded by Sri Madvacharya only the bhedha

sruthis can be accepted and explained and not the others. Similarly in
advaita philosophy of Sri Sankara only abedha sruthis can be accepted and

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explained. Only in visishtadvaitha philosophy all the above three types of
sruthis can be accepted and explained without any conflict.

In visishtadvaitha, the paramatma (Sriman Narayana) is the atma or sareeri of

all the objects in the universe -both chetana and achetana as they are his
sareea or body. In other words without paramatma the other two cannot
exist and all things exist only for his enjoyment. This “sareera -atma bhava
sambandham” between the two tatvas & god is unique to this philosophy.

In view of the above concepts, all the three statements of veda are
accepted. When we refer to the three individual tatva the bedha sruthis are
used. When denoting the paramatma as the ultimate reality the abhedha
sruthis are applied. Because of the “sareera-atma-bhava” relation between
pramatma and the other two tatvas, the ghataka sruthis could also be easily
explained and accepted.

Knowledge of the tatvas creates a desire for attaining moksha, salvation for
the soul. “Parama purushartham” or ultimate goal of each soul is to seek
refuge in the lord, do eternal service to him and the consequent enjoyment
of super bliss in Sri vaikuntam. Means for attaining this goal are known as
“Hitam”. Each soul has to understand the need for moksha and follow means.

While karmayoga, gnanayoga and baktiyoga are described as the means in

vedas, these require concentrated mind and/or strenuous activities. In
today’s world it is very difficult for a common man to practice these. In view
of this difficulty, lord Krishna himself declared in Bagavad Gita that total
surrender to him and absolute belief in him for our protection would enable
souls to attain moksha, without following these difficult yogas.

All are requested to seek further details from a vaishnavite acharya.

Sri Ramanuja’s physical body is even today

preserved and worshipped in a sitting posture at
Srirangam, Tamilnadu, known as "Bhuloka
Vaikuntam". This sannidhi is almost 900 years old.

There are no chemical preservatives used here.

Aazwaar Emberumaanaar Jeeyar

tiruvadigale saranam.(In Tamil)
(Prey at the feet of Sri Nammalwar, Sri Ramanujar
and Sri Manavala mamunigal.)
- T E S Varadhan- Newdelhi, yesvee@sify.com- April 2010

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