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Thread: Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta विशिष्टाद्वैत- Series of Study

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    Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta विशिष्टाद्वैत- Series of Study



    Acarya Ramanuja himself credits Nathamuni(CE1000) to be the originator of Visihstadvaitha, although none of his works remain extant.

    Ramanuja’s main source of inspiration came from the works of Yamunacarya, also known as Alvandar, grandson and disciple of Nathauni.

    Works of Yamunacarya

    • Agama prabandham (Authenticity of scriptures)

    • Maha-purusha Nirnayam (Deciding the Paramount Person)

    • Githartha Samgraha (The essentials of Gita)

    • Siddi Thrayam (Threefold attainments)

    • Sri-Sthuthi (A hymn on sri, the consort of Vishnu)

    • Vishnu Sthuthi (A hymn on Vishnu)


    Works of Acarya Ramanuja


    • The sri-Bhashaya is Acarya’s famous commentary on the Brahma- sutras.

    • Bhagavad Gita commentary

    • Vedartha Sangraha : Instead of writing a commentary on the Upanishads, Acarya collated their essentials into his Vedartha Sangraha(essence of scriptural teachings) as a presentation supporting the Vishishtadva Philosophy.

    • Vedanta Sara (essence of vedanta)

    • Vedanta Deepam (The lamp of Vedanta)

    • Nitya-Grantham (The eternal Treatise)



    Great Seers in the lineage

    Sudarsana Suri, one of Ramanuja’s prominent disciples, wrote explanatory comments for the Sri- Bhashya and the Vedartha Sangraha of his Guru.

    VenkattaNatha, popularly known as Vedanta Desika, lived around the middle of the 14th century was the most outstanding exponents of Vishishtadvaitha after the successful tenure of Ramanuja. He improved upon and codified the Vishishtadvaitha philosophy to the dismay of many a critic. This erudite scholar ably refuted the arguments that had been forwarded by the Advaitha Vedanta School and its followers. He then revised and cleansed the Vishishtadvaitha of all superficial additions that had accumulated over the centuries, correcting all its logical inconsistencies.

    Works of VenkattaNatha
    • Tattva Tika Taytparya Chandrika(Moonlight of the essential meaning)

    • Nyaya siddha Njanam(Unfolding the attainment of reason)

    • Tattva Mukata Kalpam(Clusture of pearls of Basic Principles)

    • Sarva Siddhi( Attainment of Entire Values)- Gita Commentary

    • Shata Dhooshani( One hundred defects) This was written to identify and expose the weak points and inconsistencies of the Advaitha Philosophy

    Srinivasa Acaryar
    Entire philosophy of Vishishtadvaitha was condensed into a book called Yatindra Matha Deepika by Srinivasacharya. This handy little treatise is helpful for gaining a general understanding of the whole philosophy of Acarya Ramanuja.

    Scriptural Base

    Vishishtadvaitha in essence is a blend of prehistoric Bhagavatha Cult with the non-dualist phiolosophy of the Upanishads.

    This blending bridged the Divya Prabandhas or the divine discourses of the ALVARS, which were of non-vedic origin, with the Vedic wisdom teaching of the Upanishads.

    Vishishtadvaitha schools accepts both these set of scriptures to be equally valid in authority.
    Last edited by brahman; 06 March 2013 at 04:28 AM.

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    Re: Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta विशिष्टाद्वैत- Series of Study

    praNAm Brahman

    Thanks for this informative post/thread.
    A couple of points about the Alwars and VA:
    1.
    Scriptural Base
    Vishishtadvaitha in essence is a blend of prehistoric Bhagavatha Cult with the non-dualist phiolosophy of the Upanishads.
    This blending bridged the Divya Prabandhas or the divine discourses of the ALVARS, which were of non-vedic origin, with the Vedic wisdom teaching of the Upanishads.
    Vishishtadvaitha schools accepts both these set of scriptures to be equally valid in authority.
    The Alwars were in direct communion with BhagavAn Shri VishNu, NArAyaNa. They did not need siddhanta to write poems. Nor did they need karma-kAnDa of the vedas.
    However, their parA bhakti was totally consistent with the purANas - the 5th Veda, and wove paurANic accounts into their poetry.
    It had to be, since BhagvAn VishNu Himself was with them, and purAN are knowledge about BhagvAn VishNu and provide accounts of His glories thru' various kalpa.

    It was live bhakti - the bhAv arising from communion in the heart as well as with the Archa vigraha of the Divya Deshams such as RanganAth. We know that RanganAth was Shri RAm's ArAdhya archa vigraha (worshippable Deity form of VishNu).

    So, we cannot say that the Alwar's devotion and devotional activities were non-vedic and needed assimilation into Vedanta. They were mahA bhAgvats, who could not afford to waste a single second to write any Bramha Sutra bhasya - but eventually RAmAnuja, Adi Shesha, came along to do the divine work for public acceptance.

    Following excerpt from http://www.templenet.com/Tamilnadu/vishnu.htm
    Divya Desams: The verses of the Alwars, speak of the glory of Vishnu, of instances from the puranams. of the devotion of the Alwars and of the glory of the temples (and locales) enshrining Vishnu (which they had visited). The entire decad of verses commencing with Amalanaadipiraan praises Ranganathar at Srirangam. Some of these verses only refer to (or address) temples in which Vishnu is enshrined ...
    2.
    Vishishtadvaitha in essence is a blend of prehistoric Bhagavatha Cult with the non-dualist phiolosophy of the Upanishads.
    The statement that teachings of the upanishads (vedAnta) are exclusively non-dual is also relative, because that is the keval viewpoint of Adi ShankarAchArya's Advaita philsophy only, which gives a lot more weightage to a few statements of abheda shruti and less weightage to the numerous ones on bheda shruti.

    None of the VaishNav AchArya viewed the shruti as exclusively abheda. They see the bheda and abheda shruti in equal light. More important than this, is their aceptance of Brahman's Personhood, eternality and transcendence all at once - rather that the two-fold "Saguna Brahman - Nirguna Brahman" of Adi Shankara.
    Hence vishishiTha-avaita, achintya-bheda-abheda, dvaitadvaita, shuddha-advaita
    Which are only pointing to the interconnectedness of all jIva and Brahman.
    They see this consistent with the upanishads (ref: Shri bhAshya, Govind bhAshya) - look at Isha, Kena, also mAnDukya for that matter.

    So, although i was reluctant to interrupt this thread, my point is that the VaishNav philosophies are not the way they are due to blending of the BhAgvat cult with vedanta. Ved-VedAnta-Itihas-PurAN is just the way it is
    because BhagavAn is just the way He is
    (Nothing was invented, lest readers get such a msg - although i know you are not saying that.)

    One is the Supreme Person - BhagavAn
    The other is His literary incarnation (Ved-VedAnta-ItihAs-PurAN)

    The bhakta is the person bhAgvat
    The book is the literary bhAgvat
    as both serve BhagvAn.

    _/\_

    om namo bhagavate vAsudevAya ~
    Last edited by smaranam; 06 March 2013 at 03:06 AM. Reason: bhAshya - spelling
    || Shri KRshNArpaNamastu ||

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    Re: Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta विशिष्टाद्वैत- Series of Study


    Divya prabandhas are lyrical by nature. Saintly AlvArs uttered them in their higher states of divine ecstasy. The word AlvAr connotes one who is immersed in Supreme.

    Yet another group of saints graced then Tamilakam(present day Tamil Nadu-a state in India Republic); they are known as AzhakiyAr (literaly ‘the beautiful'). These latter ones provide a common ground between the ecstatic devotion of the AlvAars and the non-dual vision found in the Upanishads. While the AlvArs would attain final absorption through fervent devotion, AzhakiyAr did so through a blend of intellectual understanding and ardent devotion. In other words, their burning devotion was sustained by a philosophical insight.

    NAthamuni’s name is mentioned first among the AzhakiyAr lineage. It was he who rescued the Divya Prabandhas from decaying into dust and total obscurity, who also revised the entire text into a suitable chanting form akin to the Vedic Mantras.

    NAthamuni taught these secret teachings to his disciple PundarIkAksha, who in turn taught RAmamishra, and RAmamishra then taught YamunAcArya, the grandson of NAthamuni.

    Fervently Devoted Ramanuja

    Initially, Ramanuja was a disciple of YAdava PrakAsha, a reputed scholar of Advaitha Vedanta. Ramanuja got married at the age of 16 and left his native village sri-Perumpadur(near Chennai) and settled down in Kanchipuram, were his guru YAdava PrakAsha lived.

    Ramanuja’s spirituality wold not allow for anything that degraded God’s supreme glory and divinity. His zeal can be seen in the following important episode of his life.

    YAdava PrakAsha, Ramanuja’s own guru, was reading and explaining a passage from the chandogya Upanishad.
    It reads: The Purusha seen within the Sun as possessing golden features from head to foot.

    It continues as follows: tasya yatha kapyasam pundarIkam evam akshinI(1-6-7)

    YAdava PrakAsha explained its meaning, totally in line with that of Sankara School,

    “the two eyes of that Person are similar to a lotus flower which is as red as the seat of a monkey”.

    So consecrated Ramanuja became restless, worried and even shed tears, as he did have the forbearance to hear the beauty of God almighty being likened to the seat of a monkey.

    YAdava PrakAsha understood his protest and asked him to propose an alternative meaning.

    Ramanuja presented another etymological meaning to the word Kapi, usually translated as monkey. Ramanuja reconstructed the whole meaning thus.
    Kam is water in Sanskrit, and one who drinks kam is kapi(kam pibati iti kapi: ),
    Sun always absorbs water. The verbal root ‘as’ means “blossoming like a flower”.

    And re-read the Upanishad mantra meaning as “the two eyes of the Person are as beautiful as the lotus that blossoms at the touch of the early morning sun”

    YAdava PrakAsha disapproved the interpretation saying the meaning is indirect rather than literal.

    Further Conflicts between Guru and Disciple

    Yet another incident would mark the culminating point of an impending schism. The climax happened when YAdava PrakAsha was teaching from the Taitteriya Upanishad by explicating the meaning implied in the in the words(ii-1) Satyam Jnanam Anantha Brahma. The teacher, reiterating sankara’s interpretation, explained that, realness-awareness- infiniteness, denoted the content of Brahman and not its specific qualities.

    Ramanuja objected to this meaning and contended that the supreme Lord -Bhagavan should be understood to possess realness, awareness, and infiniteness for his divine qualities, and that God was not to be understood as the Reality, the Knowledge and the infinite.

    The incident sowed the seed for a spilt between the teacher and student.

    Their differences surfaced yet again when discussing the meaning of the dictum ‘sarvam Kalvidam Brahma” (all this is Brahman indeed) 3: 14:1 of the Chandogya Upanishad.

    YAdava PrakAsha, an avowed follower of Sankara School, interpreted that the ultimate cause of the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the world is the unqualified and unconditional Brahman- The Absolute, and tha word has no reality apart from that of the reality of Brahman.

    Ramanuja disagreed and contended that Brahman or Vishnu is the Supreme God, and that the entire world, including mind(Cit) and matter(Acit), is the body of Vishnu, with which He is qualified...

    Ramanuja wrote a full thesis expounding the implications of the above dictum from his own standpoint.

    YAdava PrakAsha had no alternative but to discontinue lessons with his Brilliant disciple.



    Last edited by brahman; 07 March 2013 at 05:24 AM.

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    Re: Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta विशिष्टाद्वैत- Series of Study

    There is another not-so-well-known story about Yadavaprakasa - it is said that the king of that place where Yadavaprakasa lived had a daughter who was 'possessed' of evil spirit(s). No matter how much was tried, she remained incurable. So the king sent for Yadavaprakasa who is said to have gone to the palace with his then disciple Srimad Ramanuja. On seeing Yadavaprakasa, the possessed girl is said to have retorted that "he was just a mere Chameleon in one of Sri Rama's kshetras in his previous life and that by eating the leftover (uchita) of great devotees of Rama, did he earn this present life as a scholar" whereas when the girl saw Srimad Ramanuja next, the Yaksha who possessed her is said to have told the greatness of Srimad Ramanuja and left immediately, leaving the girl unharmed. This is said to be the main reason why Yadavaprakasa is said to have developed utmost jealousy and hatred of Ramanuja.
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

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    Re: Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta विशिष्टाद्वैत- Series of Study

    Initiated into Vaishanvism

    During these days of conflict with his Guru, YamnAcArya would visit Kanchipuruam and come to know of Ramanuja. He recognized in this young Ramanuja a promising visionary, saliently shining among the students of YAdava PrakAsha. He also heard of the existing disagreement between both of them. In YamnAcArya there developed a burning desire to groom young Ramanuja into his successor, though Ramanuja himself wholly unaware of this.

    Ramanuja would spend his days at the Vishnu temple in HasthasilA by doing service, and engaging in scholarly discussions upon the scriptures. After having learned of YamnAcArya from his uncle MahApUrna, both set out for sriRangam to see him in person. But before arriving, YamnAcArya had breathed his last. Upon their arrival, Ramanuja’s critical eyes noted that three fingers of his corpse pointed unusually straight and he immediately conjectured that they must indicate the three unfulfilled desires of YamnAcArya’s life.


    They were:

    • To propagate the idea of intense devotion and self-surrender (Prapatti) as a legitimate means to attain God, as taught by the AlvArs.

    • To write a commentary on the Brahmasutras from the standpoint of Vaishnavism.

    • To write books promoting the Vaishnava Cult.
    Ramanuja decides to fulfil these desires of this Great Seer.

    Ramanuja then returned to Kanchipuram where he continue to study under KAnchIpUrna, who was a modest man only wished to serve God, belonged to a lower caste, did not desire to fill the role of Guru for Ramnuja. Instead he sent him to SriRangam, to meet Mahapurna, who formally initiated Rmanuja into Vaishnavism.


    Guru role Begins

    At the age of 32, he went to Varadaraja Temple, sending his wife back to her parents and ordained himself a Samnyasin in the presence of Lord Varadaraja (Maha Vishnu) and Kancipurna, his former teacher.

    Kanchipurna spontaneously dubbed him “Yati RAja”-King of ascetics, an epithet he would become well known by.

    Soon his former teacher YAdava PrakAsha became his disciple. He also defeated yajnamUrti, a scholar of Advitha Vedanta, on scriptural disputes, converting also into his disciple. Jnana saram and Premaeya Saram are two important books of YajnamUrti in Tamil Language.

    It was during this period that famous disciples would congregate around Charismatic Ramanuja. Filling the ranks were such great scholars as Bhakta-Grama-purna, Maruta-Grama-Purna, Anantarya, Varadacarya and Yajnesha.

    Gadya- Trayi was his first book. After writing the commentary on the Brhma Sutras, named Sri- Bashya, Ramnuja travelled across Indian sub-continent, visiting holy places and defeated many a debating opponents. During this time he founded various centres for religious studies and temples at different places across the continent. The Sri Ranganatha temple itself came under his complete authority after he converted its chief administrator to Vaishnavism.

    By this time Ramanuja had become a leader, a powerful influential personality and moreover a Saint in Sandhana Dharma.

    Acarya Ramanuja purportedly lived to age of 120years.


    Last edited by brahman; 09 March 2013 at 03:27 AM.

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    Re: Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta विशिष्टाद्वैत- Series of Study



    Acarya as a Pioneer Philosopher


    paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṃ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām |
    dharmasaṃsthāpanārthāya saṃbhavāmi yuge yuge || (4.08)

    Again and Again in the path of the profound, there appear brilliant souls of deep understanding and infinite mercy who are looked upon by the world, rightly and gratefully, as the saviours of mankind.

    Ramanuja was no exception to it, happiness seen to be his essential nature. Filled with immaculate bliss and boundless compassion for humanity’s suffering, Acarya moved from temple premises to the fringes of civilization, preaching a philosophy of religion that reconciles the opposition between religion and philosophy, which could even transcend all abiding conflicts between monism and pluralism.

    The populace felt moved to the service of Lord by his words of wisdom and mere presence as nothing had ever moved them hitherto. All who came to associate with him felt a pervasive peace in his presence, and felt themselves freed from tedious hair-splitters and their logic chopping.

    Extra-terrestrial stories brought by the invasive alien priests and the prophets had even made the Lord God bored is another chapter which we would not linger long.


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