Bhagavan Ramanuja

In the religious history of our hoary and holy Bharatavarsha, it was a bleak period when the people were generally confused and most often misled by the vicious preachings of non-Vedic religions and by philosophies, that interpreted Upanishadic teachings incorrectly and unrealistically. And to stem the rot that had set in, in the religious life of the people, was then born Sri Ramanuja in Sriperumbudur, as the Godgifted son of Sri Asuri Kesavacharya and Kanthimathi, in the Tamil month of Chittirai, Suklapaksha Panchami, in the year of Pingala (Saka 939) and on a Thursday.

He is severally held to be the incarnation of the Five Divine Missiles (Panchayudha) of Sriman Narayana, of Vishvaksena, the Commander-in-chief of Lord Vishnu and of Adisesha, His serpentine Couch. The concesus of opinion among the Vaishnavite Acharyas is definitely in favour of the thirdmentioned belief. Sri Venkatesetihasa Mala of Tirumalai Ananthazhvan, Yatiraja Vaibhava of Vatuha Nambi, a devoted disciple of Sri Ramanuja and "Dieyanuricharita" a Mahakavya by Garudavahana Panditha, one of the ardent pupils of Sri Ramanuja, state in no ambiguous terms, that the Yatiraja was but the incarnation of Ananta or Adisesha. A Sanskrit verse observes that Adisesha incarnated as Lakshmana, (in Tretayuga) as Balarama (in Dvaparayuga) and as Ramanuja in Kaliyuga.

The Vedantic School consists of three main divisions, whose founders, as we all know, are the great philosophers Sankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, and Madhvacharya. All these great thinkers are Vedantins in the sense that they follow the teachings of the Upanishads although differing in their interpretation thereof. The Advaita system evolved by Sankara and Visishtadvaita system propounded by Ramanuja are of considerable antiquity and popularity. Several great scholars have accepted their teachings and have become their disciples.

Although it is nearly nine centuries since Sri Ramanuja attained Moksha, no regular and correct biography of the great Acharya has been available to the public, in general and to the youth, in particular. So far our youngsters in schools and Colleges have not been provided with any authentic book of biography like that of St. Paul or of St. Ignatius Loyola. Indian children, chiefly Hindu children, have had no systematic knowledge of Hindu philosophers and Men of God, except for some scrappy information on them included in history-bocks.

A short biography of Bhagavan Sri Ramanuja and his teachings is, therefore, an urgent necessity-a sine qua non. Sri Ramanuja has a claim to greatness, as a great Vaishnava preacher, who expounded the philosophical system known as Visishtadvaita which is but Vaishnava Siddhanta and which must really be traced to the great and blessed Azhvars who preceded him.

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