Ramanuja

Ramanuja ([ɽaːmaːnʊdʑɐ]; Middle Tamil: Rāmāṉujam; Classical Sanskrit: Rāmānuja; c. 1077 – 1157, trad. date 1017-1137), also known as Ramanujacharya, was an Indian Hindu philosopher, guru and social reformer. He is one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition in Hinduism. His philosophical foundations for devotional practice were influential in the Bhakti movement.

Ramanuja's guru was Yādava Prakāśa, a scholar who, traditionally, is said to have belonged to the Advaita Vedānta tradition, but probably was a Bhedabheda scholar. Sri Vaishnava tradition holds that Ramanuja disagreed with his guru and the non-dualistic Advaita Vedānta, and instead followed in the footsteps of Tamil Alvārs tradition, the scholars Nāthamuni and Yamunāchārya. Ramanuja is famous as the chief proponent of Vishishtadvaita school of Vedānta, and his disciples were likely authors of texts such as the Shatyayaniya Upanishad. Ramanuja himself wrote influential texts, such as Sanskrit bhāsyas on the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita.

His Vishishtadvaita (qualified non-dualism) philosophy has competed with the Dvaita (theistic dualism) philosophy of Madhvāchārya, and Advaita (non-dualism) philosophy of Ādi Shankara, together the three most influential Vedantic philosophies of the 2nd millennium. Ramanuja presented the epistemic and soteriological importance of bhakti, or the devotion to a personal God (Vishnu in Ramanuja's case) as a means to spiritual liberation. His theories assert that there exists a plurality and distinction between Ātman (soul) and Brahman (metaphysical, ultimate reality), while he also affirmed that there is unity of all souls and that the individual soul has the potential to realize identity with the Brahman.

Ramanuja was born into a Tamil Brahmin community, in a village called Sriperumbudur (present-day Tamil Nadu) under the Chola Empire. His followers in the Vaishnava tradition wrote hagiographies, some of which were composed centuries after his death, and which the tradition believes "at face value."

The traditional hagiographies of Ramanuja state he was born to mother Kānthimathi and father Asuri Keshava Somayāji, in Sriperumbudur, near modern Chennai, Tamil Nādu. He is believed to have been born in the month of Chithirai under the star Tiruvadhirai. They place his life from 1017–1137, yielding a lifespan of 120 years. However, based on 11th- and 12th-century temple records and regional literature outside the Sri Vaishnava tradition, modern era scholars suggest that Ramanuja might have lived from 1077–1157. Paul syndor notes that "reconstructing his 'historical life' is nearly impossible," and such efforts as Carman's datings (1077-1157), although "well-reasoned," are speculative and "ultimately unverifiable."

Ramanuja married, moved to Kānchipuram, and studied with Yādava Prakāśa as his guru. Ramanuja and his guru frequently disagreed in interpreting Vedic texts, particularly the Upanishads. Ramanuja and Yādava Prakāśa separated, and thereafter Ramanuja continued his studies on his own.

He attempted to meet another famed Vedanta scholar of 11th-century Yamunāchārya, but Sri Vaishnava tradition holds that the latter died before the meeting and they never met. Ramanuja was the great-grandson of Yamunāchārya through a granddaughter. However, some hagiographies assert that the corpse of Yamunāchārya miraculously rose and named Ramanuja as the new leader of Sri Vaishnava sect previously led by Yamunāchārya. One hagiography states that after leaving Yādava Prakāśa, Ramanuja was initiated into Sri Vaishnavism by Periya Nambi, also called Mahapurna, another Vedānta scholar. Ramanuja renounced his married life, and became a Hindu monk. However, Katherine Young states that evidence on whether Ramanuja led a married or renunciate life is uncertain.

Ramanuja became a priest at the Varadharāja Perumal temple (dedicated to the deity Vishnu) at Kānchipuram, where he began to teach that moksha (liberation and release from samsara) is to be achieved not with metaphysical, nirguna Brahman, but with the help of personal god and saguna Vishnu. Ramanuja believed that when scriptures such as the Vedas declare god as nirguna, they should be interpreted as saying that qualities such as pain, sorrow, mortality and age are absent in god. Ramanuja has long enjoyed foremost authority in the Sri Vaishnava tradition.