RAMANUJA

DARSHANAM

Bagavath Ramanujacharya – Moolavar,

 Bagavath Ramanuja Avathara
VishEshams:

!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 Childhood
pastimes:
• 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
!Bagavath him.
Ramanujar tiruvadigaLe
sharanam!
 Bagavath Ramanuja Clashes with
Guru:
• 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 Ramanuja’s
Oaths:

• 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 Meets
Periya Nambi:

• 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 Ramanujar
kanchi varadaraja perumal. tiruvadigaLe
Lord Vradaraja hailed him
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
appreciating Ramanujar
his broad mindedness, tiruvadigaLe
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
!Bagavath Ramanujar Saram and Prameya
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 called “Nityam” detailing the

Tiruvaradhana Kramam.

• 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
clarity and !Bagavath
known as ' Sri Ramanujar
Bashyam' tiruvadigaLe
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
!Bagavath philosophy,tiruvadigaLe
Ramanujar faithfully interpreting the
ancient knowledge
sharanam!
 Ramanuja fulfilled Alavandar’s
desires:
• 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.

• While on !Bagavath Ramanujar

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 Digvijayam
spreads:
• 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 beingRamanujar tiruvadigaLehence they
installed at Sriperumbudur,
opened the eyes (as part of the consecration of the idol).
sharanam!
 Bagavath Ramanuja’s Digvijayam
spreads:
• 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
!Bagavath
sriman narayana Ramanujaralone
and poorchacharyas tiruvadigaLe
is the way to mukti in
this age of kali.
sharanam!
 Bagavath Ramanuja Attains
paramapadam:
• 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
Ramanujar same picture is given at
tiruvadigaLe
the starting slide of this PPT).
sharanam!
 Bagavath Ramanuja’s Works on
Vedantha:
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
8. Gita Bhashya Ramanujar
( 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.
• swami !Bagavath Ramanujar
Ramnauja propagated tiruvadigaLe
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 Bagavath
Ramanuja:
 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