Bagavath Ramanuja

RAMANUJA DARSHANAM

Bagavath Ramanujacharya – Moolavar,

Bagavath Ramanuja VishEshams:

Avathara

!Ananthah Prathamam Roopam Lakshmanascha Tathah Parah Balabadram Thritheeyasthu Kalou Kaschit Bhavishyathi ! • Incarnation of Adisesha (Adi = first, sesha = servant), the eternal bed of supreme lord, Sriman Narayana, decended to the earth to propagate Vaishnava dharma in this kaliyugam. • Ramanuja was born as only son for the devine couple, Smt. Kantimati devi and Sriman Asuri Kesava Somayaji at the village of Sriperumbudur, 40 kms from Chennai, Tamilnadu, in 1017 CE (PingaLa naama samvatsaram, Chaitra maasam, Sukla Paksha, Panchami thithi and ArudhrA nakshatram). •His uncle, Sriman Tirumalai Nambi, a great scholar and disciple of sri Yamunacharya named the child as Illaya perumaal (Ramanuja) and foretold that the child would become a great Acharya in future.

!Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja pastimes:

Childhood

• With in 16 years of age, He Mastered all Vedas & shastras. At the age of 17, He was married to Smt. Rakshambal. • In a short course of time, his father Sriman Asuri Kesava Somayaji attained paramapadam. • After this, The family moved to the near by town, kanchipuram (city of temples), where Ramanuja started leading Vedantha under the Saivite Guru Sri Yadhava prakasha. • Ramanuja developed intimacy with Sri Kanchipoorna, a great devotee of kanchi Varadharaja perumaal. It is said that Kanchipoorna used to talk with Lord himself, for clarifying all his doubts. • Very many occasions arose when the Saivite Guru clashed with ramanuja, when the Guru misinterpreted Vedantic statements. Ramanuja fearlessly pointed out the errors in  the Guru's interpretations and corrected him. !Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe

sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja Guru:

Clashes with

• Ramanuja’s arguments enraged his Saivite Guru. Fearing that one day, ramanuja would demolish Advaita philosophy, he plotted to kill ramanuja and hence he planned a pilgrimage to kashi, thinking that they can kill swami ramanuja on the way in the forest and clear the sin by taking a holy dip in ganga. At this point of time sri embar swami (cousin brother of ramanuja) somehow came to now about his master’s evil plan and told ramanuja to go back to kanchi. • When Ramanuja was coming in the forest at night, Miraculously, an aged hunter couple appeared and guided him. Ramanuja who was in a trance, opened his eyes, he found himself at the outskirts of Kanchipuram and the couple had disappeared. He realized that it was Lord Varadaraja and Perundevi Thayar who had come in the guise of hunter couple and saved him. • He continued to stay, as if nothing had happened and started assisting Tirukkachi Nambi, in his daily service to Lord Varadaraja Perumal. !Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe

sharanam!

Alavadar’s Death Oaths:

Ramanuja’s

• News came that Alavandar was very sick and he desired to meet with Ramanuja and sent for him. Just as Tirukkachi Nambi and Alavandar arrived, they saw the funeral procession of Alavandar. During the last rites, they noticed that three fingers of Alavandar remained folded signifying three of his last unfulfilled wishes. As Ramanuja swore, ( i ) that he would write a commentary on Veda Vyasa's Brahma Sutra. ( ii ) that he would perpetuate the memory of Vyasa and Parasara who penned Vishnu Puranam and ( iii ) that he would strive to propagate Visishtadvaita on the lines of the 4000 holy collects of Alwars (naalayira divya prabandam), the fingers unfolded one by one automatically and stretched out to normal position signifying that these were his last wishes. Since he could not meet with Alavandar, before he attained paramapdam, he returned to Kanchi without even going into the temple at Srirangam !Bagavath . Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe

sharanam!

Ramanuja’s doubts Varadaraja’s answers: • Ramanuja wanted clarifications on six important things about vedantha, which never got clarified. Hence He even stopped going to vadadarajar’s sanndidi for service. •Lord Varadaraja himself gave answers to Tirukkachi Nambi and told him to pass them to Ramanuja. These six words provided the guidelines for Ramanuja to establish Visishtadvaita sampradayam. They were:( i ) That Lord Narayana is only the supreme lord (paramatma). (ii ) That the individual souls were different from Paramatma. (iii) That Prapatti (self surrender) is the means to attain salvation. (iv) That the last remembrance (antyakaala smarama) of the Lord, for a surrendered soul was not necessary. (v) That Moksha can be obtained only on laying off the mortal coils (Videha Mukti) & (vi)That ramanuja should take refuge at the feet of Periya Nambi, for panchasamkaaram.

!Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja Periya Nambi:

Meets

• As Ordered by Lord Varadaraja, Ramanuja met Periya Nambi at Madurantakam , where under the shade of Vakula tree Periya Nambi performed “Panchasamskaram’ to him. As he was initiated into the esoteric of Dvaya Mantra at Madurantakam, the place came to be known as "Dvayam Vilaindha Tiruppathi“. Both of them returned to Srirangam and did Kalakshepams on Brahma Sutra etc… for sometime. It was at this time that Lord Ranganatha hailed ramanuja as "Nammudaiyavar“. • Ramanuja was not happy in married life. His wife never understood either his greatness nor appreciated his catholicity and always acted on her own wavelength and there was no compatibility as between them. Several instances are cited wherein the lady ensconced in her own pet ideas of being holy or otherwise showed scant respect to Bhagavatas and this greatly annoyed Ramanuja. When he was about 30 years of age, He sent his wife to Her father’s house and took Sannyasa with the name of 'Ramanuja Muni‘ at the devine sannadi of !Bagavath kanchi varadaraja perumal. tiruvadigaLe Lord Vradaraja hailed him Ramanujar as ' Yati Raja'- king amongsharanam! ascetics.

Ramanuja Meets Tirugoshtiyor Nambi: • The seat of Acharya at Srirangam was lying vacant without a successor to take over. He was prevailed upon to assume charge. But, before doing so, he wanted to equip himself with the secrets of the three great Mantras. For this purpose, he approached one " Tirukkoshtiyur Nambi" who made him come 17 times before actually instructing him. He cautioned Ramanuja that he should not give out the secrets to all and sundry and if he did so, he would go to hell. • Immediately on receiving the instructions, Ramanuja climbed up to the top of the steeple of the temple and called everybody and told them about the sureway way to get mukti (Rayasya trayam with its inner meanings) and requested everybody to come and take up sreevaishnavam and attain liberation. • This enraged His guru and demanded an explanation. Ramanuja replied that He is ready to go to hell for the sake of so many people who would be saved spiritually, by knowing the rahasyatrayam. The Guru was overwhelmed by this reply, Embracing Ramanuja and !Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe appreciating his broad mindedness, he called him 'Emperumanar'- " sharanam! O! My lord" and declared that Srivaishnavism would henceforth be

Bagavath Ramanuja’s Digvijayam: • Yadava prakasa, Ramanuja’s old saivite Guru had by then returned to Kanchi, became Ramanuja's disciple assuming the name of 'Govinda Yogi‘. This was the first vijayam of swami ramanuja over advaitha. • Ramanuja was given biksha mixed with poison by some evil minded persons. When He came to know about it. He actually went on fasting to cleanse the mind of that evil-doer. This action of ramanuja (showing mercy to even people who planned to kill him) made tirukkostiyoor nambi, overwhelmed with joy and told that sreevaishnavam has got the right acharyan and hence he can depart to paramapadam. • Ramanuja traveled throughout the country spreading the message of Visishtadvaita. Once a votary of the ' illusion theory' Yagna Murthi by name confronted him for 16 days in endless arguments and counter arguments. Finally, he accepted defeat and became a disciple of Ramanuja assuming the name of 'Arulala Perumal Emperumanar‘ and wrote 'Gnana Saram and Prameya !Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe Saram'.

sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja’s Digvijayam: • Kuresan also known as ' Kurattalwan‘ was a great desciple of ramanuja. Once, Kuresan participated in the shradda ceremony performed for his mother by the famous Tiruvarangathu Amudanar. This Amudanar was in charge of the Srirangam temple. When Amudanar inquired what Kuresan desired as reward for his participation, Kuresan replied that the administration of the temple should be handed over to Ramanuja. Amudanar, who had already known the greatness of Ramanuja was only too glad to hand over the key to Ramanuja. • It is this Tiruvarangattu Amudanar who subsequently wrote the Ramanuja Noorrantadhi of 108 verses which was included in the holy collects to make up the total of 4,000. • After Mastering the Bodhaayana Vritti of Sage Vyaasa, he wrote several works like Vedanta Sangraham explaining the various viewpoints of Sankara, Yadhava, Bhaskara and others, Vedanta Deepam, Geetha Bashyam( an authorittive commentary on bagavad geetha). !Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe

sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja’s Digvijayam: • During Panguni Uttram, swami Ramanuja did Prapatti before the Divya Dhampathi of srirangam and submitted his famous Gadhyatrayam (comprising Saranagathi Gadhyam, Sriranga Gadhyam and Sri Vaikunta Gadhyam ) and offered them on to the lotus feet of lord ranganatha. • Later, he wrote a Grantha Tiruvaradhana Kramam.

called

“Nityam”

detailing

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• While swami ramanuja was on his Sancharam, it is believed that the Lord himself appeared before him at Tirukkurungudi as a Srivaishnava got Samasrayanam from Udaiyavar. • When he visited Saraswati Peetam, Goddess Saraswati was so impressed with his commentary on Brahma Sutra that she named it "Sri Bhashyam" and conferred on him the title of "Bhashyakaarar". It must be noted that while the other commentaries are known by the names of their authors like 'Sankara Bashyam' written by Aadhi Sankara, the commentary of Ramanuja is always referred to with the venerable honorific 'Sri' denoting its unsurpassed quality and tiruvadigaLe clarity and !Bagavath known as ' Sri Ramanujar Bashyam'

sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja’s Digvijayam: • When he visited Tirumala, a miracle happened. Some argued that the Lord of Tirumalai was Saiva param. It is surprising that such a claim should have arisen about the Lord who had been worshipped as Lord Vishnu by all the Alwars and Acharyas besides Elango Adigal and other Tamil Pulavars for several centuries. This was because He had earlier entrusted His insignia to a King called Tondamaan. The lord desired to take back from Tondamaan, these insignia viz., Sankhu, Tiruvaazhi, Soolam, Damarukam etc. They were placed in the Sannidhi the previous night. And when the doors were opened the next morning, the Lord gave Darshan adorning all his insignia. Ramanuja was hailed as " Appanukku Sangaazhi Alittha Perumaal" Poet Arunagiri himself sang clearing all doubts in this regard saying "Ulageenra Pachai umaiyanan, Vada Venkadathil Uraibhavan, Uyar Sanga Chakra kara Thalan“. • Ramanuja "was the greatest synoptic thinker which the world ever produced to systematize Visishtadvaitic philosophy,tiruvadigaLe faithfully interpreting the !Bagavath Ramanujar ancient knowledge

sharanam!

Ramanuja fulfilled desires:

Alavandar’s

• Kuresan was very helpful in publishing Rmanuja’s works. Thus, he fulfilled his FIRST PROMISE to Alavandar. It is this Kuresan (aka) Sri Vatsanka Misra who wrote the famous Pancha Sthava consisting of Athi Maanusha Sthava, Sri Sthava, Varadaraja Sthava, Vaikunta Sthava and Sundarabaahu Sthava. • Ramanuja named the two sons koorathalwan as Veda Vyasa and Parasara and thus fulfilled his SECOND PROMISE to Alavandar. It was this Parasara Bhattar who subsequently wrote the famous commentary on Vishnu Sahasra Nama as ordained by swami Ramanuja. • Another disciple of Ramanuja was Pillaan (kurukesa). Once, when Ramanuja was alone mentally reciting a particular hymn of Tiruvoimozhi, Pillaan entered his room and inquired if he was meditating on a particular hymn. And, it was indeed the one Ramanuja was actually meditating on!. Ramanuja decided that Pillaan was the person best suited to write a commentary on Tiruvoimozhi. As ordered, he wrote the famous 'AARAAYIRAPPADI' (also known as Bhagavad Vishayam) and called Pillaan as !Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe 'Tirukkurugai Piraan" after the name of Nammalwar. Thus, he fulfilled his THIRD PROMISEsharanam! to Alavandar .

Ramanuja moves to Thirunarayanapuram: • Kulothunga Chola was a staunch devotee of Siva. He commanded Ramanuja to come to his court to make him agree that siva is supreme. If the support was not forthcoming, the king was planning to kill Ramanuja. Sensing the danger, Kuresa went to the court disguised as Ramanuja along with Periya Nambi. The king ordered him to sign a document to the effect that 'Siva is the greatest'. Kuresa added that ' Sivam was no doubt great but Dronam was greater than Sivam'- both expressions referring to units of measurement. The enraged king ordered both of them to be blinded when he came to know that he was Kuresa who was impersonating Ramanuja. Periya Nambi was tortured to death while Kuresa survived. Kuresa, though he himself was blinded, was happy that he had saved Ramanuja. •It is this Kulothunga who is reported to have thrown away the idol of Govindaraja in the sea. Ramanuja recovered it and had it installed at Tirupathi. Later for his bagavad apacaram, kolotunga chola died due to in incurable disease.

Ramanujar • While on !Bagavath an itinerary, Ramanuja clearstiruvadigaLe the dilema of dharnurdasa sharanam! ( a hunter, who was entrapped in the beauty of his wife) and

Ramanuja moves to Thirunarayanapuram: • Ramanuja went to Tiru narayana puram in search of white clay (tiruman) usedfor applying caste marks by Vaishnavites. The idol of the temple there had been taken away by the muslim invaders and was being used at play as a doll by the muslim princess in Delhi. Ramanuja went to Delhi and when he endearingly called ' Come on! My dear child 'Selva Pillaiye Vaarum', the idol miraculously came onto his lap. Ramanuja reinstalled it in the temple. •Once some kids were playing on the road pretending to construct a temple, installing an idol of the Lord, offering fruits and flowers etc all the time using the dust on the road for the purpose. They offered some mud as prasadam to Ramanuja who was passing along , he received it with due respect. He remembered in this connection the words of Poigai Alwar who said that the Lord took whatever name and form his sincere devotees wished and in the instant case though the kids were only playing, they sincerely believed in what they were doing.

!Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja’s spreads:

Digvijayam

• Another disciple of Ramanuja was Vaduga Nambi who put the sandals of his Guru along with those of the Lord. When questioned, he replied that the Acharya's sandals were for him as holy as those of the Lord. When Lord Ranganatha was coming on his rounds on the streets of Srirangam, Vaduga Nambi remarked that the eyes that had seen the charm in the eyes of Ramanuja would not be able to appreciate the beauty of the eyes of even the Lord.-'En Amudinai Kanda Kangal Matrronrinai Kaanaave.' Such was his devotion to his Acharya. •Ramanuja arranged to make a lifelike idol of himself and embracing it invested it with his powers and had it installed in Tirumalai at Tirupati. The only temple consecrated in Tirumalai , other than that of Lord Venkateswara, is that of Ramanuja. The Archa moorthi of Ramanuja known as "Thaan Ugantha Tirumeni" was installed in Tirunarayanapuram. Once swami Ramanuja was giving a discourse in srirangam, suddenly two drops of blood flowed from his eyes. When disciples asked, he told that an archa moorthy of!Bagavath him was being installed at Sriperumbudur, Ramanujar tiruvadigaLehence they opened the eyes (as part of the consecration of the idol).

sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja’s spreads:

Digvijayam

• Once, when he visited Tondanoor in Hoysala State, he happened to meet a Jain king called Devarayan. His daughter was possessed by a demon and none could get rid of her predicament. When Ramanuja's SriPaada Theertham ( water consecrated by association with his feet) was sprinkled on her,she was cured of the devil. The King pleaded to be accepted as Ramanujas Sishya. Ramanuja accepted and named him "Vishnu Vardhana“ and also convereted another 1000 jains to sreevaishnavam. They have been know now as “Hebbar Iyengars”. • Ramanuja travelled to all nooks and corners of bharatha varsha and established 74 simhasanadhipathi’s to succeed him and blessed them so as to continue the propagation of vishitaadvaitha vedantha. Swami ramanuja is the one instituted the 13 day "iyal Goshti” in Srirangam. • Swami Ramanuja lived for a long period of 120 years and till his last breath he preached that prapatti and devotional service to sriman narayana and poorchacharyas is the way to mukti in !Bagavath Ramanujaralone tiruvadigaLe this age of kali.

sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja paramapadam:

Attains

• With his head on the lap of sri Embar and his feet on the lap of Vaduga Nambi, swami ramanuja attained paramapadam in 1137 AD listening to the recitation of the Divya Prabandam at srirangam. Born in PINGALA year, he left for his heavenly abode also in PINGALA year that followed 120 years from the year of his Avatara. Thus, he lived TWO full cycles of Tamil years after his birth (in the month of Magha, Sukla Paksha under the constellation of arudra nakshtram and at noon, as in the time of his birth). • As lord ranganatha who called ramanuja as “nammudaiyavar” (our relative). It is said that, after swami ramnauja attained paramapadam, Lord Ranganatha and Periya Piraatti also bathed and purified themselves as relatives do, when someone dies in the family. • His physical body is preserved even today in a sitting posture in the Sannidhi (Sanctum Sanctorum) dedicated to him on the southwest corner on the fifth round within the Srirangam temple as ordered by!Bagavath Lord Ranganatha himself (the same picture is given at Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe the starting slide of this PPT).

sharanam!

Bagavath Ramanuja’s Vedantha:

Works on

swami Ramanuja has written 9 books. They are also referred to as the nine precious gems, the Navarathnas. 1. His most famous work is known as the Sri Bhasyam or Brahma Sutra Bhasya. 2. Gadhya Thrayam (three prose hymns). All three are important works in Vaishnava philosophy: Vaikunta Gadyam describing in great detail Vaikuntha, the realm of sriman narayana and recommending meditating on it. 3. Sriranga Gadyam, a prayer of surrender to the feet of Ranganatha. 4. Saranagati Gadyam, an imagined dialogue between Ramanuja and Shri and Narayna where he petitions mother Lakshmi to recommend Narayana to give him grace. Narayana and Lakshmi accept his surrender. 5. Vedartha Sangraha – explains the essentials of vishitaadvaitha tatvam. 6. Vedanta Saara (essence of Vedanta) an appendix to Sri Bhasya. 7. Vedanta Deepa (the light of Vedanta), another appendix/commentary to Sri Bhasya. !Bagavath Ramanujar 8. Gita Bhashya ( his commentary on thetiruvadigaLe Bhagavad Gita) 9. Nithya Grantham (Aboutsharanam! the day to day activities to be

Bagavath Ramanuja’s •

Glories:

In his Visishtaadvaitha philosophy, swami Ramanuja refutes the arguments made by advaita acharyans and firmly establishes the lord srimannarayana is the supreme personal GOD and he resides in the mystic vaikunta lokam. He also proved that the supreme lord is chit-achit-vishishtam and the supreme lord has many kalyana gunas, including shadgunams.

• Beyond doubt, swami ramanuja proved that the supreme brahman, srimannarayana has sarvantharyamitvam (ability to be present everywhere simutaneously), saarvaboumavam (He is the knower and controller of this entir universe) and sarvaseshitvam ( everything else, including other devathas, sentinent souls and inntinent matter is under his control) and hence firmly established that srimannarayana is the supreme personality of godhead. •

Also swami ramanuja firmly established that even after mukti (the lberated state also), the jeevathmas remains subservient to the lord and serves him in eternity. Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe • swami !Bagavath Ramnauja propagated the sharanagti (self surrender) and devotional servicesharanam! to lord as the means to mukti, as

Bagavath Ramanuja’s •

Glories:

Ramanujacharya defeated advaitha siddhantham by logic and reference to vedantha vakyams and gave the true purport of vedantha to the world in his sribahsyam. kindly read the same in the following link. (SRIBHASYAM OF SWAMY RAMANUJACHARYA)

• Ramanujas’s differences with adishankara’s advaitham, can be read in this link. (VISHITAADVAITHAM Vs ADVAITHAM) • Swami ramanuja glorified the importance of four thousand divya prabandhams of alwars and gave them a special position in tiruvaaradhanam, equal to sanskrit veda. • Ramanuja’s answers to mudaliyandan (one of his great disciple) proves beyond doubt that there is actually no Varna beda for getting initiated to Vaishnavam and very body is allowed to worship the lord and can attain his tiruvadi. Which can be read in this link. !Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe (RAMANUJA’S ANSWERS TO MUDALIYANDAN)

sharanam!

Offering Prayers to Ramanuja:

Bagavath

 Swami Desika in Sloka 10 of his Yathiraja Saptadhi pays obeisance to Bhagavad Ramanuja thus before proceeding with his eulogy. Pranaamam Lakshmana Munih Prathi Grihnaathu Maamakam, Prasaadhayathi yat Sookthih Svadheena Pathikaam Sruthim! (meaning) I beseech Sri Ramanuja whose Srisookthis claimed the acclaim of the Lord and adorned the Upanishads to kindly accept my Pranams.  There is another famous Sloka which says :Thasmai Ramaanujaaryaaya Namah Parama Yoginae, Yah Sruthi Smrithi Sutraanaam Antharjvaramaso Samathaa! (meaning) I bow to that Sri Ramanuja, the great Yogi who became the very soul of Vedas, Upanishads and other Sutras.

!Bagavath Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe sharanam! --Adiyen Bhaskara Ramanuja Dasan