PREFACE

Great saints and devotees of the Lord give purpose to this material world and its history by their presence; their absence renders this world useless and its history a chronological record of nonsense. By providing another glimpse into the ways that pure devotees transform the lives of materialistic people and alter the course of history, Naimisaranya Prabhu has done great service to all English readers, especially Vaisnavas and aspiring Vaisnavas. Without such information, people tend to doubt or forget that another plane, beyond the mundane, exists and even controls the destiny of that mundane plane. In the examples they set in their lives, however, saintly persons help us to see the path to Krsna consciousness. “Example is better than precept.” The philosophy of Krsna consciousness remains inaccessible except by the mercy of the pure devotees whose behavior gives three dimensions to such philosophy.

Only the hearts of unfortunate persons will not melt upon reading or hearing this moving depiction of the life of Srila Ramanujacarya. The nectarean subject matter and the competent rendering by Naimisaranya Prabhu combine to produce genuine spiritual effects within the mind. I hope Naimisaranya Prabhu will continue producing such illuminating accounts of the lives of great devotees.

Jagadisa Gosvami

FOREWARD

It is the desire of all teachers working in our gurukulas to give the children an acute awareness of the great Vaisnava tradition that they will inherit when initiated into our sampradaya. We hear frequently that the Krsna Consciousness movement is propounding the highest form of religion found anywhere in the world, but, living in the Western culture, we sometimes find it hard to be constantly aware of the true position of Vaisnavism. In the West, Vaisnavas are frequently looked upon as strange fanatics enacting bizarre rituals or some residual leftover from the hippy days of the sixties and early seventies. Therefore, it is very important that all devotees, and the children in particular, become conversant with the centuries-old religious tradition that our movement today represents.

It was for these reasons I felt it imperative to start a course on the history of Vaisnavism when I began teaching a class of older boys at the Bhaktivedanta Village Gurukula in California. From studying Srila Prabhupada’s books, I was aware that Ramanuja was one of the great Vaisnava acaryas, but I knew little of his life and teachings. Therefore, I set about researching the subject, using various books that I was able to obtain from India and the university libraries in Los Angeles. At this point, I began to learn the wonderfully instructive stories contained in this book. As I recounted them to my students, ‘History of Vaisnavism’ quickly came to be our most popular class.

From this point, with the encouragement of other devotees working in gurukula, it seemed natural to begin writing down the subject matter as I was teaching it. There is, of course, a great need at the present time to provide suitable reading material for the hungry young minds eager to employ the reading skills we have taught them in their early years in gurukula. It is therefore my hope and expectation that this book will be the first of many as we build up a full library of books for our older students, in addition to the publications for younger children that have been provided by Bala Books.

Although this book was originally written for our older gurukula students—and for this reason, the emphasis is on pastimes rather than philosophy—I am confident that all devotees will like to read about the life of this great acarya and gain inspiration from the wonderful example he set. In addition, I think that parents of younger children, for whom the style of writing may be too advanced, will find that their sons and daughters will relish these stories if they are read aloud to them.

The main source for the life of Ramanuja is a book called the Prapannamrta, written in Sanskrit by Anantacarya, a descendant of Andhrapurna. There is some controversy about the date of this work. Some scholars have tried to show that it was written as late as the seventeenth century, but most authorities agree the author was a junior contemporary of Ramanuja’s and therefore able to compile the material from first-hand sources. There are 126 chapters in the Prapannamrta, the first 68 of which describe the life of Yamunacarya. The remaining 58 chapters deal with the lives of Yamunacarya, Nathamuni, and other south Indian Vaisnavas. It is this book to which Srila Prabhupada refers when he mentions the life of Ramanuja in his purports to the Caitanya Caritamrta.

Another important work on the life of Ramanuja is the Divya-suri-charitai, a book written in Tamil by Garudavaha, who was also probably a contemporary of Ramanuja, although again this fact is disputed by some authorities. In addition, there is the Guru-parampara-prabhavam by Perumal Jiyar, written in the early part of the fourteenth century and Lokam Jiyar’s Ramananujacarya-divya-charitai.

The main pastimes are the same in all these works, but it is frequently found that they vary quite considerably in the detail. For this reason, I have occasionally had to use my own discretion in choosing between the different versions. The names of the various characters described also vary, depending mainly on whether they are given in Tamil or the Sanskrit equivalent. By and large, I have used the Sanskrit form of the names where I could find them, as I considered that these might sound more familiar to the reader.

One further point that I feel should be mentioned at this stage is the debt that all Vaisnavas owe to Ramanujacarya, whether they be within or outside of his direct disciplic succession. As Gaudiya Vaisnavas, most of our philosophical doctrines come from the writings of the six gosvamis of Vrindavana, in which they transcribed the teachings that had been given orally by Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself. However, any devotee who studies the philosophical teachings of Ramanuja, and Yamunacarya also, will quickly realize how much we have inherited from him in our basic philosophical conclusions. Particularly in the refutation of the mayavada ideas of Sankara, the works of Ramanuja play a key role. As Srila Prabhupada explains: “The statements of the Sankara philosophy, which are the teeth of the mayavadi philosopher, are always broken by the strong arguments of the Vaisnava philosophers such as the great acaryas, especially Ramanujacarya.”

Finally, I would like to offer my most humble obeisances at the feet of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, without whose mercy the glories of the Vaisnava acaryas would still be a closed subject to the Western world. I would also like to thank all the devotees who have helped and encouraged me in devotional service over the years. I am well aware that there are many discrepancies and shortcomings in this presentation, but I am praying that all the Vaisnavas will display their characteristic generosity towards me and try to overlook these deficiencies.

Naimisaranya dasa, Los Angeles, January 1986.

INTRODUCTION: RAMANUJA’S PHILOSOPHY OF VISISTADVAITA

Ramanuja is well-known as the great philosopher and acarya of the Sri Vaisnava sampradaya. However, it should not be misunderstood that he was the founder of the Sri Vaisnavas. Originally started by Laksmidevi Herself, the Sri sampradaya contained many exalted devotees prior to Ramanuja’s appearance, to whom he admits his debt in his writings. In their expressions of devotion to the Supreme Lord, all South Indian devotees were influenced by the nine Alvars, who lived several hundred years before the birth of Ramanuja. Despite some minor philosophical differences, it is plain that the themes of devotion and surrender to God, which are essential to Ramanuja’s teachings, are based to a large extent on the writings of the Alvars.

In terms of philosophy, Ramanuja was undoubtedly influenced by the teachings of previous Vaisnava acaryas, most notably Yamunacarya and Bodhayana, the commentator on the Vedanta sutras. In many ways, the major achievement of Ramanuja as an acarya was to establish a solid philosophical basis for the devotional sentiments that had been expressed in the hymns of the Alvars. In order to do this, it was first essential that he refute the impersonalist teachings of Sankara’s advaita-vada, and large sections of his philosophical writings are dedicated to this task. To combat the teachings of the non-devotional monists, Ramanuja attacked them on their own ground, rarely expressing devotional sentiment and, for the most part, citing the Upanisads and Vedanta-sutras as scriptural evidence, rather than the overtly Vaisnava sastras. It is for this reason that Ramanuja, unlike Madhva, does not use the Srimad-Bhagavatam to support his teachings. The main philosophical works of Ramanuja are his commentary on Vedanta-sutra (Sri Bhasya), the Vedartha-samgraha, the Vedanta-sara, and his commentary on the Bhagavad-gita.

Three hundred years before Ramanuja, Sankaracarya had attempted to establish his doctrine of absolute oneness, a concept bearing many similarities to the Buddhist philosophy. According to Sankara, nothing exists anywhere except Brahman, which is formless, changeless, eternal, and devoid of all attributes. Therefore, the variety that we perceive in this world is simply an illusion and does not in reality have any existence. Because the living being is covered by ignorance (avidya or maya), he perceives variety and changes; but when enlightened by pure knowledge, he will realize that everything is, in fact, Brahman and that his previous perceptions were simply illusions. Obviously, in such a philosophy, devotion is also ultimately meaningless because the distinction between God and His devotee is also illusory.

In his commentary on Vedanta-sutra, Ramanuja strongly attacks Sankara’s ideas. He states that the concept of Brahman as being indeterminate, without qualities or changes, is meaningless. Any reality that cannot be perceived, known, thought of, or even spoken about is simply fiction. The cosmic manifestation with all of its varieties may be temporary, but that does not mean it is unreal. Illusion is to perceive something as different from its real nature and not, as Sankara states, to perceive something that does not in fact exist. When one mistakes a shell for silver, both the silver and the shell are real, but the illusion is mistaking one thing for the other. Therefore, the universe is real, but the illusion is to accept it as the all in all, and not consider the underlying basis of existence, which is God.

In commenting on the second aphorism of the Vedanta-sutra, janmady asya yatah, Ramanuja establishes that all manifestations from the Supreme Reality must also be real. The sutra states that Brahman is that from which everything else has come into being. Because it does not state that Brahman is that from which the illusion of manifestation arises, it must be accepted that the manifestations are not illusory.

The philosophy Ramanuja presented as a logical alternative to that of Sankara is called Visistadvaita-vada, or qualified oneness. It is accepted that there is an underlying unity to all existence, but this oneness of Brahman is qualified by variety. Three categories are recognized, which are distinct from one another, but together comprise a unity. These are cit, the individual living beings; acit, inert matter; and Isvara, the controller-God. Cit and acit are seen as the body of God and thus are dependent upon Him, just as the body is dependent on the soul and cannot exist without it. This idea of matter and living beings comprising the body of God is essential for understanding the relationship between them. There is unity between the body and soul, yet a real distinction is recognized.

Transformation takes place within the world, and this cannot be dismissed as illusion. Sankara tried to establish that nothing exists except for the one undifferentiated, changeless Brahman. Transformation is real, but it pertains only to the cit and acit; Isvara remains eternally changeless. Just as transformation affects the body although the soul is unaffected, so the universe and the living beings, the body of God, are subject to various transformations; He remains eternally changeless. The distinctions between the three categories are real; but, because the cit and acit are dependent on Isvara, they cannot be looked upon as being separate from Him. The living beings are inseparable from Brahman, though they are substantive realities and thus qualify Brahman as the body qualifies the soul. This is the meaning of Visistadvaita, or qualified oneness.

In describing the individual soul, Ramanuja followed closely the teachings given by Yamunacarya in the Siddhi-traya. Although atomic in size, the soul spreads the consciousness throughout the body, like the rays coming from the lamp. As the body of God, the individual living beings are totally dependent on Him, but He allows them the free will to act as they desire. In fact, He creates the facility that enables them to enact their various desires. Thus, complete dependence on God does not interfere with the free will of the individual. The only exception to this general rule is with regard to those who are particularly devoted to God and those particularly inimical towards Him. For the devotees, He manifests His grace by generating within them such desires that they adopt actions by which they may easily win Him. Within those who are particularly opposed to Him, He generates desires that lead to actions that take the individual further away from Him. Though originally pure, the self becomes afflicted with worldly desires through contact with matter. Ignorance of one’s real nature, which gives rise to so many material desires, is a result of association with matter. When this ignorance is removed, then the soul can be liberated from the bondage of material existence.

Sankara had contended that all religious duties are dependent upon a perception of variety and, therefore, ultimately illusory. Ramanuja refuted this argument by stressing that devotion is the only true path to liberation. All religious duties should be seen as a means to increase one’s devotion to God; they are never to be given up. In the state of liberation, the individuality of the self is not negated as Sankara had contended. What is negated is the false sense of independence from God, which is the essence of the individual’s illusion. This can be achieved only by the grace of God, which is realized by the practice of bhakti, or devotion. Knowledge alone, without devotion, is insufficient to free the soul from material bondage. The state of pure devotion is one in which the mind is fixed constantly on the Lord in a mood of profound love. Surrender to the will of God (prapatti) is essential for the achievement of His grace. In the context of devotion and surrender to the will of God, considerations of caste and social status are irrelevant; devotion is enacted from the platform of the soul.

Ramanuja differed from Yamunacarya by stating that the existence of God cannot be demonstrated by inference in observing the cosmic manifestation. Although the universe must certainly have a cause, it cannot be presumed that the cause is God. It could equally be accepted that the universe was created in different parts at different times by different personalities. When we see a large number of pots, it is certain they have a creator; it cannot be presumed they were generated simultaneously by a single personality. From observing the universe, one can conclude it is a product of intelligence, but there is nothing to show whether it was brought about by one creator or many. As God is by nature transcendent and beyond the range of the senses, it is impossible to find proof of His existence through the method of observation.

Having thus disposed of the ascending processes of acquiring knowledge of God, Ramanuja concludes that the existence of God can be known by the testimony of the scriptures alone. All other proofs of the existence of God may be countered by opposing logical arguments. Because the scriptures are of divine origin, their version must be accepted as absolute. On this basis, Ramanuja states that Isvara is Lord Visnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as is revealed in the Vedic scriptures. The descriptions of God contained therein are factual and authentic and must be accepted as being beyond the range of mundane argument.

Anyone who is familiar with the Gaudiya-Vaisnava tradition will surely recognize the vast amount of common ground that exists between visistadvaita and the acintya-bhedabheda philosophy of simultaneous, inconceivable oneness and difference expounded by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In fact, it has been pointed out by some commentators that acintya-bhedabheda is the natural conclusion that resolves the difficulties inherent in some of the ideas of visistadvaita.

The major problem with Ramanuja’s philosophy arises when he attempts to define the exact relationship between the living beings, the universe, and God. The idea of qualified oneness gives only a vague explanation of how the unity of all beings with God is reconciled with the eternal differences between them. The concept of oneness also leads one to question how God remains changeless and free from the contamination that affects His integral elements in the form of the individual souls.

To overcome this difficulty, Ramanuja uses the soul/body analogy to explain the relationship of qualified oneness. However, there are shortcomings in this analogy, for the body is completely inert and is controlled absolutely by the soul. Therefore, just as the soul is responsible for the actions of the body—if the analogy were followed to its logical conclusion—it would appear that God would be held responsible for the actions of all beings, who would be completely devoid of free will. Philosophically, the relationship between the living entities and God is indescribable. This understanding is signified in the Gaudiya Vaisnava philosophy by the word acintya, inconceivable. From certain of his statements, it would appear that Ramanuja accepts the idea of oneness and difference, while at the same time stating that he feels it to be inadequate as an explanation of the relationship between God and the individual souls. Because it is impossible to define the idea of oneness and difference in terms of pure logic, Ramanuja attempted to employ the soul/body analogy to more accurately explain this relationship. However, because of the difficulties we have noted in completely accepting this definition, a study of the philosophy of Ramanuja inevitably draws one to the conclusion of inconceivable oneness and difference—acintya-bhedabheda-tattva.

Preface Summary:

In the preface, Jagadisa Gosvami emphasizes the invaluable contribution of saintly devotees to the world, highlighting their role in transforming lives and shaping history through their deep devotion and spiritual influence. The text credits Naimisaranya Prabhu for his insightful work on the life of Srila Ramanujacarya, praising the rendering as spiritually impactful and beneficial for readers, especially those aspiring to deepen their understanding of Krsna consciousness. The preface acknowledges that the lives of great devotees like Ramanujacarya serve as living examples, making the philosophy of Krsna consciousness accessible and practical for all.

Foreword Summary:

The foreword by Naimisaranya Dasa reflects on the need to educate young devotees, particularly in gurukulas, about the rich heritage of the Vaisnava tradition. Naimisaranya recounts how the study of Vaisnavism’s history, particularly the life of Ramanujacarya, became a favorite subject among his students. This motivated him to write the book to provide suitable educational material for young minds and offer all devotees inspiration from Ramanujacarya’s life. The foreword also discusses the historical sources used to compile the life of Ramanujacarya, acknowledging the significant debt that Vaisnavas owe to this great acarya for shaping the philosophical foundation that underpins the movement today.

Important Points:

1. Saintly devotees shape history and elevate the material world through their spiritual influence.
2. Naimisaranya Prabhu’s work on Ramanujacarya offers valuable spiritual insights to Vaisnavas and aspiring devotees.
3. The lives of great devotees serve as practical examples of Krsna consciousness.
4. The need to teach Vaisnava tradition in gurukulas is crucial to preserving the movement’s heritage.
5. The book was inspired by the success of teaching Vaisnavism’s history to gurukula students.
6. Ramanujacarya’s life and teachings provide essential guidance for spiritual growth.
7. The book aims to educate and inspire devotees of all ages.
8. Sources for the life of Ramanujacarya include Prapannamrta and other historical texts.
9. Ramanujacarya’s work played a key role in refuting mayavada and establishing Vaisnava philosophy.
10. Ramanujacarya’s teachings have significantly influenced the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition.
11. The importance of understanding the philosophical heritage inherited from Ramanujacarya.
12. The foreword acknowledges the role of Srila Prabhupada in introducing these teachings to the Western world.
13. The challenges and variations in historical accounts were addressed with careful consideration.
14. The book serves as a resource for understanding the philosophical foundations of Vaisnavism.
15. The author expresses gratitude to those who supported the creation of the book and acknowledges its potential shortcomings.