Ramanujachrya (1017-1137 AD)
His
stay on this planet is known from 1017 to 1137 AD. His advent place is
Sriprembuddur almost on midway from Chennai to Kanchipuram. His birth
star is ardra (sixth star of constellation) in the month of chaitra on Thursday, shukla panchami. There is another version which mentions his birth on vaishakh shukla shashthi. His father was Keshavacharya Dikshit and Kanthimati was his mother. His father had performed many a ygya at several religious places which caused him to be called as sarvakratu also.
The
chief disciple of Alvandar (Yamunacharya) at Srirangam was
Periyathirumalai Nambi who was also known as Shailpurna. He was in his
advanced age and had two sisters Kantimati and Diptimati. The elder one
was married to Keshavacharya (Sriprembuddur) and the younger one was
married to Kamalnayan Bhatta of the nearby village, Aharam.
Keshavachayra had no issue for a long time and to have one child he
resolved to perform ygya with his wife Kantimati at the bank of Tiruallikeni of Lord Pathsarthi, near Madras (now Chennai).
The word Tiruallikeni means (Tiru) Sri+ (alli) Water lily+ (keni) lake.
Now in English it has become Triplicane. Lord Parthsarathi was pleased
with his ygya and in dream assured him to become his son Himself.
Since
childhood divinity was reflected over Ramanuja’s face. Initially he got
his education under the guidance of his father at Sriprembuddur. When
he was sixteen he was married to a beautiful wife and his parents were
very happy to see him in wedlocked. Soon after his marriage his father
died which gripped the whole family with shock. Ramanuja with the
consent of his mother decided to shift to Kanchipuram. There at
Kanchipuam, he joined the school of Yadavprakash, a renowned advaita scholar of that time. Once his exposition over a Sanskrit vedant (chandogya upnishda) sutra didn’t appeal to Ramanuj. The sutra reads : tasya yatha kapyasam which meant to describe the beauty of the eyes of the almighty father. The Sanskrit word kapsyam was interpreted by Yadvaprakash as nates (buttocks) of a monkey. He explained that the sutra
means “ The lotus eyes of the almighty father were red like the
buttocks of a monkey.” Hearing his exposition Ramanuja burst into tears
since the simile quoted by Yadprakash was not appropriate for the colour
of the lotus flower representing the eyes of the almighty Narayan. He
was asked by Yadavprakash to present his exposition and Ramanuja
mentioned, “Etymologically kapsyam means kam jalam pibati – kapih, iti surya (sun); the word ‘as” means blossomed and the whole meaning thus would be – ‘the eyes of the param purusha (almighty) are as beautiful as flower lotus blossomed by sun.” Yadvaprakash
expressed his displeasure over the interpretation by Ramanuja by saying
that he had illustrated the indirect meaning of the word, kapasyam contrary to his direct exposition.
There was another occasion when Ramanuja expressed his dissent with his teacher on the exposition of a mantra of Taittriyopnishad : “satyam gyanam anantham brahma.” Yadvapraksha
mentioned, “Brahma (almighty) is truth, knowledge and infinite”.
Contrary to this Ramanuja presented, “Brahma (almighty) has the
attributes of truth, knowledge and infinity”. Ramanuja later wrote an article on this which was published in a journal. Yadvapraksah didn’t like his inclination towards vishistadvaita philosophy. He became so much disturbed that he saw his enemy in Ramanuja and decided to get rid of him by way of his murder.
He hatched a plan with his close students to kill Ramanuj. His
plot was that he would undertake a pilgrimage to Kashi with all his
students among which he would invite Ramanuja also. He would kill
Ramanuja somewhere in the deep forest which would be taken by the people
that he was killed by some wild animal. As planned, Yadavaprakash
announced his intention to go on pilgrimage to Kashi and invited
Ramanuja also to join the team of students on pilgrimage. The journey
began on the appointed day.
Govinda was another student who was Ramanuja’s cousin (son of Diptimati, younger sister of Kantimati- the mother of Ramanuja). After several days of travel on
foot, the team happened to pass a deep forest on the foot of
Vindhyachala range of mountains. Yadvaprakash considered the place
suitable to get rid of Ramanuja when everybody would be sleeping at
night. Somehow Govinda got the hint of the criminal plot against
Ramanuja. He forewarned Ramanuja and before the fall of darkness, Ramanuja silently slipped out of the touring team. Seeing absence of Ramanuj, a lot of effort was made to find him out but he couldn’t be located. It
was guessed that he might have fallen a prey to some wild animal.
Yadvprakash although expressed his outward grief over the incidence but
from inward he was very happy that the thorn of his way was himself
destroyed.
The
team, on the one hand proceeded next day further towards Kashi without
Ramanuj, on the other hand, Ramanuja paced back fast on his foot to get
out of reach of Yadvprakash’s team. Coincidentally on his
way he met a hunter couple who navigated his way to Kanchipuram. They
felt thirsty and stopped near a water source where the water level was
at a little lower depth from the surrounding ground level. Twice
Ramanuja brought water to quench the thirst of the accompanying couple.
When he went for the third time and came back with water over the
surface, the couple had disappeared. Looking a little ahead he found
some people coming close to the water source with water pots over their
heads. On enquiry he learnt that he was on the outskirt of Kanchipuram.
On
reaching home he visited the temple of Lord Varadraj and narrated the
entire incidence to his family. When Yadavprakash came back from the
pilgrimage he learnt about the escape of Ramanuja and he was very upset
to see him alive. Ramanuja began studying at home and he never went to
Yadvaprakash again.
There was a peculiar turn of the events. The daughter of the king was sick. She asked, “If Ramnuja touches his
feet over her head she would be cured.” The king solicited the presence
of Ramanuja and the miracle took place. This helped in spreading the
fame of Ramanuja far and wide.
There
was a saint known as Kanchipurna swamy at Kanchipuram. He belonged to a
low cast but had a deep devotion for Lord Varadraj. Although he was
illiterate, but Ramanuja gave him a great respect and assumed him as his
teacher. Kanchipurna used to put some of the doubts of Ramanuja to
Varadraj for his clearance. Varadraj always guided by His divine
directions. Kanchipurna used to fan the face of the Lord in summer days. Once
Ramanuja invited Kanchipurna at his residence for lunch. Kanchipurna
was initially hesitant to accept the invitation for he was a low cast
and Ramanuja was a Brahmin. He accepted the invitation and Ramanuja was
passionately waiting for his arrival at his home. The lunch time was
passing by and Kanchipurna didn’t appear. Ramanuja went out to find him
out, but Kanchipurna in the meanwhile came to his home thorough some
different route and asked for his food from the wife of Ramanuj. He got
the food and after eating quickly cleaned the place and left for the
temple. As soon as he left, Ramanuja came back and came to know that he
had already finished his lunch. Seeing his wife cleaning all the
utensils and cleaning the home, he enquired about his own food. She
replied, “The place was defiled by the presence of a low cast person, so
I have thrown all the left over and after cleaning I would prepare a
fresh food for you.” Hearing this Ramanuja was very upset over his
wife’s behaviour.
Yamunacharya
used to stay at Srirangam. He once came to worship Lord Varadraj at
Kanchipuram. He saw Ramanuja from a distance and he was impressed by his
charming aura. He prayed to Lord to get Ramanuja in his fold. He
couldn’t talk to Ramanuja and went back to Srirangam. From there he sent
Mahapurna swamy to Kanchipuram to impart in-depth knowledge about
spiritual scriptures to Ramanuj. As commanded by Yamunacharya Mahapurna
came with his wife to stay at Kanchipuram. He met Ramanuja and told him
that he had come at the instance of Yamunacharya to familiarize him with
dravid veda (divya prabandham). Ramanuja was very glad to see his new teacher. Mahapurna stayed near Ramanuja house.
Once
there was some quarrel between the wife of Mahaipurna and wife of
Ramanuja for the turn of drawing water from the well. Ramanuja’s wife
observed strictly the brahaminical domestic rules. She thought, “She being a brahmin
has the privilege to draw water first from the well, and Mahapurna’s
wife being a low cast should have waited until I leave the well.” Mahapurna’s wife was under the impression that being the wife of guru of Ramannuj she was privileged to take water any time irrespective of the turn of Ramanuj’s wife. After this quarrel of the wives Mahapurna didn’t prefer to stay longer and left with his wife for Srirangam.
Ramanuja
was further upset with the behaviour of his wife. He planned to get rid
of her. He sent a man with a fake letter to his wife. The fake letter was from the birthplace of his wife and it mentioned, “There was a function at her father’s place. She
must come immediately with the bearer of the letter.” She was very glad
to get the invitation from her father’s place. As soon as Ramanuja
reached home she mentioned about that letter and expressed her
willingness to immediately go to her father’s place. Ramanuja all knew
in advance as he was the master mind behind the plot. He immediately all
arrangements for her departure and he stayed alone at the residence.
After the departure of his wife, Ramanuja immediately entered the sanyasi order in the temple of Varadraj. The
news of his entering into life of a recluse spread far and wide.
Several known personalities began to accept his fold. The mother of
Yadavprakash persuaded him to go and accept Ramanuja as his guru. Yadavprakash joined his religious fold.
Yamunacharya
being very old fell sick and he expressed his desire to see Ramanuj. He
sent for him from Kanchipuram. Goshthipurna was the messenger. Getting
the message from Goshthipurna, both left for Srirangam. When they
reached Srirangam, Yamunacharya had left his mortal remains and
preparations were going on for his rites. Ramanuja noticed that the body
of Yamuncharya was lying in state but his three fingers were not straight,
He could realize that some of alwandar’s desire in his life had remained unfulfilled. He immediately made three commitments that he would write a commentary on Brahmasutra. One finger became straight. He took another vow that he would spread srivaishnavism in which sarnagati
(self surrender) to God is the only way to salvation. The second finger
became straight. He further announced that he would spread the name and
fame of Parasara (who had been credited for devotional scripture of vishnupurana) and Shathkopa. Alwandar’s
third finger also straightened. Everybody was surprised to notice the
developments. He didn’t stay there longer and left for Kanchipuram.
Later
to put the management of Srirangam temple, Ramanuja was invited and
assumed the control. He strengthened the institution and propagated
srivaishnavism to common masses. There was a shaivite king at Srirangam
(Krimi kanth) who was jealous of vaishnavites. With a view to kill Ramanuja he sent for him. The disciples of Ramanuja sensed the imminent trouble and persuaded Ramanuja to quit chola
kingdom. Kuresh, one of his disciples, disguised as Ramanuja went to
see the king and Ramanuja set out quickly towards Karnatka, to a place
out of the nearest border of chola kingdom.
The
king, Krimi kanth ordered Kuresha to follow his sect which he declined.
In punishment his both eyes were badly damaged and he became blind. He
succeeded in saving the life of Ramanuj. By that time Ramanuja had
crossed to Karnataka. A Jain king hearing the fame of Ramanuj, invited
him for debate with Jain saints. Ramanuja defeated them all and the king
became a vaishnava. Later Ramanuja reached a place, called Mellekote, where the clay was white to be used for urdhva pundra tilaka. This tilaka is the symbol of a vaishnava and has two white vertical marks over
the forehead with a read vertical line in the centre. The two outer
marks .represent the lotus feet of Narayana and the central red line
symbolizes the presence of goddess Lakshmi.
Ramanuja
stayed for fourteen years at Mellekote and established the famous
temple of Lord Chellunarayana. Later he also got Sampatkumar bhgwan and installed him at Mellkote. The story goes that the idol of Sampatkumar was lying in the possession of the daughter of a muslim
king. He went to fetch the idol. The king was impressed by Ramanuja and
he allowed him to chose the idol he was looking for from several idols
from his palace. Ramanuja found Sampatkumar in the room of the daughter
of the king. She was out and that gave Ramanuja a chance
to pick up the idol and moved towards Mellekote. When the daughter of
the king came back she could find her favorite idol missing. She
immediately moved with a contingent force to follow Ramanuj. By that
time Ramanuja had reached Mellekote and installed the idol in the
temple. When she reached there she found the idol installed as a deity,
she preferred to stay there only and never went back to her home.
Ramanuja gave her a place of stay and later when she died her icon is
installed at the lotus feet of the Lord as a mark of her ardent love to
Him. She is endearingly called Bibi Nachiyar.
When
Krimi Kanth died his terror was over and Ramanuja retreated to
Srirangam. When he was leaving Mellekote, his disciples installed his
life size statue to keep them guiding.
Kuresha who had lost his eyes due
to the barbaric act of Krimikantha was able to regain his eyesight by
the blessings of Lord Varadraj of Kanchipuram. Among all the disciples
of Ramanuja he was the most favourite to him.
With a view to write commentary on Brahma-sutra, Ramanuja wanted firs to refer bodhayan britti which was the most reliable and recognized scripture. He left for Kashmir to get an access to the famous book bodhayan britti as it was available in the library of the king of Kashmir. There he got an access to the library and could lay his hand on bodhayan britti. He
was accompanied by Kuresha. Both of them left the place for Srirangama
by possessing the book in their control. Soon, it was detected by the
librarians that the book was missing. They rushed a force behind
Ramanuja and Kuresha to get back the book. After a long chase they could
get hold of them and got the book back from their possession. When
Ramanuja was very sad to lose the book, Kuresha consoled him that he had
remembered the whole book. Kuresha was blessed with a very sharp
memory. When Ramanuja used to sleep at night he used to read the book
this way the entire book was in his memory. He recited the entire book to Ramanuj. He was very happy and thus it helped him to write commentary on brahma-sutra.
Ramanuja
was a great spiritual reformer. He visited several temple and helped
put the management in order. The most known among them is Tirumala
temple of Lord Venkateshwara. The deity was initially had become
controversial whether he represented Shiva or Vishnu. Ramanuja proved
that he was Vishnu. At one night the divine insignia of Vishnu and Shiva
were placed inside the temple before it was closed to be opened in the
morning. In the morning when the shutters were opened the deity was
found to hold chakra and sankha in the upper hands. Thereafter the deity began to be worshipped with rituals of Vishnu.
A
legend goes that Ramnuj tried to reform the worship rituals of Lord
Jagannath at Puri. The king was impressed by Ramanuja and he wanted to
implement the worship rituals advocated by Ramanuja but the priests of
the temple were not in favour of any change which they had observed from
generations. A miraculous incident took place. Overnight Ramanuja was
shifted to a place about 100 km away from Puri when he was sleeping.
When he woke up in the morning he found himself away from Puri. He
accepted this development as the Lord Jagannath command and never tried
again to effect the reformation.
Ramanuja is credited for giving a sound footing to srivaishnavism. He wrote commentary on brahma-sutra, srimadbhagvat geeta. His commentary on brahma-sutra is called sribhasya and the one srimadbhagvat geeta is called geeta bhasya. Besides these two books his other books (out of nine) are (i) vedarth-sangrah,
(ii) vedant-deep, (iii) vedant sar, (iv) sharnagati gadya, (v) vaikunth
gadya, (vi) sriraga gadya, (vii) nitya –granth.
He contradicted the Adi-Shankara’s philosophy of advait (monism or non-duality). He advocated vishishtadvaita – a
qualified monism. Shankar doctrine is that everything in this universe
is an illusion and the sole universal spirit is the entire creation. The
diversity (plurality) seen in the creation is due to illusion and the
truth is that each and every element of the creation is He Himself;
there is no entity other than Him.
Ramanuja propounded the vedic approach followed by Bodhayan and others and explained with different
approach. He says that the diversity noticed in the creation is the
eternal attributes of the supreme universal spirit. It is not an
illusion. The attributes can never become He Himself. The universal
spirit is made of all the diversities in the creation and the entity of Jeeva (self), Jagat (matter or world), and Ishwar
(God) is eternal. Ishwar is the eternal home of all other creations but
various elements of the creation can never become He Himself. That is
why the literal meaning of Narayana is one who is the ayana (home) of all the other entities. The explanation of satyam-gyanam-anantham brahma is truth, knowledge, infinity (endlessness) are the attributes of God is vishishtadvait doctrine, whereas truth, knowledge, infinity (endlessness) are God is advait doctrine.
The
basic difference is that Shankara takes only one spirit in all the
creations, where as Ramanuja takes the creation (self or consciousness,
and matter or world) as separate entity and Narayana a separate entity.
The creation is made of Jeeva (consciousness), and Jagat (matter), and therefore they are also eternal as the attributes of the supreme consciousness (God).
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment