Saint Ramanuja.

Ramanuja. 1017-1137.

South Indian theologian and philosopher, the single most influential thinker of devotion.        After a long pilgrimage, Ramanuja settled in Shrirangam, where he organized temple worship and founded centers to disseminate his doctrine of devotion to Lord Vishnu.                              He provided an intellectual basis for the practice of bhakti in three major commentaries,          the Ved-artha-samgraha ,on the Veda, the Shri-bhasya, on the Brahma-sutras, and the Bhagavad-gita-bhasya .

Ramanuja's contribution to philosophy was that thought is necessary in man's search for the ultimate truth, that the phenomenal world is real and provides real knowledge, and that the exigencies of daily life are not detrimental or even contrary to the life of the spirit.

In this emphasis he is the antithesis of Shankara, of whom he was sharply critical and whose interpretation of the scriptures he disputed. Like other adherents of the Vedanta system, Ramanuja accepted that any Vedanta system must base itself on the three "points of departure," namely, the Upanisads, the Brahma-sutras, brief exposition of the major tenets of the Upanisads, and the Bhagavadgita.

He wrote no commentary on any single Upanisad but explained in detail the method of understanding the Upanisads in his first major work, the Vedartha-samgraha. Much of this was incorporated in his commentary on the Brahma-sutras, the Shri-bhasya, which presents his fully developed views. His commentary on the Bhagavadgita, the Bhagavadgita-bhasya, dates from a later age.

Although Ramanuja's contribution to Vedanta thought was highly significant, his influence on the course of our religion has been even greater. By allowing the urge for devotional worship bhakti into his doctrine of salvation, he aligned the popular religion with the pursuits of philosophy and gave bhakti an intellectual basis. The goal of the human soul, is to serve God just as the body serves the soul. Anything different from God is but a shesa of him, a spilling from the plenitude of his being. All the phenomenal world is a manifestation of the glory of God Vibhuti, and to detract from its reality is to detract from his glory.

Ramanuja transformed the practice of ritual action into the practice of divine worship and the way of meditation into a continuous loving pondering of God's qualities; both in turn a subservient to bhakti, the fully realized devotion that finds God. Thus, release is not merely a shedding of the bonds of transmigration but a positive quest for the contemplation of God, who is pictured as enthroned in Vaikuntha, with Sri and attendants. Ramanuja's doctrine, was passed on and augmented by the Shrivaisnavas, got divided into two sub-castes, the northern, or Vadakalai, and the southern, or Tenkalai.

At issue between the two schools is the question of God's grace. According to the Vadakalai, who in this seem to follow Ramanuja's intention more closely, God's grace is certainly active in man's quest for him but does not supplant the necessity of man's acting toward God.

The Tenkalai, on the other hand, hold that God's grace is paramount and that the only gesture needed from man is his total submission to God. The site of Ramanuja's birthplace in Shriperumbudur is now commemorated by a temple and an active Vishist-advaita school. The doctrines he promulgated still inspire a lively intellectual tradition, and the religious practices he emphasized are still carried on in the two most important Vaishnava centres in southern India, the Ranganatha temple in Shrirangam, and the Venkateshvara temple in Tirupati,