Ramanujacharya

The Story

Born at Sriperumbudur in the 11th century, young Ramanuja was a prodigy of the Vedanta who found the prevailing philosophy of his teacher cold and empty. 'Even the lowest of the low can reach God through love,' he insisted — and his teacher, seeing the boy's greatness, warned him that his compassion would be his undoing.

Ramanuja left to teach his own school, Vishishtadvaita — qualified non-dualism: the world and souls are real, and all are the body of God, who is reached through loving surrender, prapatti. He wrote the great commentaries — including the Sri Bhasya — and travelled from the Kaveri to the Himalayas, debating and teaching for decades.

His greatest act was social: he threw open the doors of the Srirangam temple to all people, regardless of caste — an unheard-of act in his age. He established the tradition of Sri Vaishnavism that still flourishes, and he lived to be 120, leaving a lineage of teachers who carried devotion across Bhārat.