Vedantha SaarA and Vedantha DeepA of Bhagavadh RaamAnujA

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Dear members of the prapatthi group :

 

Both of the two works of Sri Ramanuja deal with

the Brahma SutrAs of BadarAyaNA , who is considered

as Veda VyasA himself. Vedas were systematized by

Vyasa Bhagavan . Next he focused on the Upanishads ,

which are known as Vedantha , since they are considered

the head or gist of VedAs . Sage Vyasa /BadarAyaNA chose

few upanishadic pasages and created concise aphorisms

(SutrAs ) for them to establish their true meaning beyond any

refutation . These SutrAs by their very nature were short and

hence commentaries were needed to elaborate on the meaning

intended by BadarAyaNA . There are no less than 14 commentaries

on the Brahma SutrAs by different AcharyAs and scholars , each

of which claim that theirs is the most correct intrepretation of

the views of BadarAyaNA . Aadhi Sankara , RamAnuja , MadhvAchArya ,

PurNaprajna , Bhaaskara , Nimbhaarka , VallabhA and others

are among the fourteen or more , who have written commentaries

on Brahma SutrAs .

 

Sri RamAnujA 's elaborate commentary on Brahma Sutras

( Sri Bhashyam ) , shorter and the intermediate versions

( Vedantha saaraa and Vedantha deepA respectively ) provide

the authoritative texts for us to understand the glory of Bhagavadh

RaamAnuja siddhAntham .

 

The Adayar Library and Research Center has released the English

translation of Vedantha Saara by Sri M.B. Narasimha Iyengar in 1953.

The Sanskrit text for this translation was edited by Pandit V.Krishnamacharya.

 

The Vedantha DeepA was translated into English by

Sri Bhashyam from its Tamil Commentary by Uttamur Swamigal

in 1990 . It appeared as a volume in the Ubhaya Vedantha GranthamAlA

series .

 

V.Sadagopan