RAMANUJA'S STUDENT LIFE (Part 2)

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April 7th, 2003, Monday (Pancami)Appearance day of Sri RamanujacaryaAT THE

SCHOOL OF YADAVAPRAKASA At that time a very learned scholar was living at Kanci.

His namewas Yadavaprakasa, and the fame of scholarship had attracted a large

groupof disciples to him. Being desirous of understanding the Vedic

literatures,Ramanuja also became his student, and his pleasant nature and

quickintelligence soon endeared him to the great pandita. However,

thisrelationship did not last for very long, for despite his learning

andknowledge of the scriptures, Yadavaprakasa was a firm adherent of themayavada

philosophy of absolute oneness. He taught that the all-pervadingBrahman was the

Absolute Truth and that the personal God, Lord Visnu, wasillusory. Ramanuja was

a pure devotee of the Lord, and so he was pained tohear the statements of

Yadavaprakasa, that denied the supremacy of hisbeloved Lord. Out of humility and

respect for his guru, Ramanuja would notpoint out the defects in these

impersonalist teachings, but the situationgradually became impossible to

tolerate.THE FIRST CONFRONTATION One day when the other students had gone home

to take lunch,Yadavaprakasa asked Ramanuja to massage his body with oil. At that

time oneof the other students returned to the school to discuss with his teacher

apassage from the Chandogya Upanisad they had been studying that morning.

Inparticular he inquired about the word kapyasam, which occurs in the

firstchapter, part six, verse seven. Therein it is stated, kapyasam

pundarikamevam aksini. Following Sankaracarya's interpretation, Yadavaprakasa

began toexplain that kapyasam referred to the rear-end of a monkey and that

thewhole passage meant that the Supreme Lord had eyes like lotuses as red as

amonkey's rear-end. On hearing this horrible explanation of the appearance of

hisbeloved Lord, Ramanuja, who was still massaging his guru, was filled withsuch

intense grief that hot tears immediately began to pour from his eyes.When

Yadavaprakasa felt the touch of these tears, he looked up in surprise.Seeing

Ramanuja's distress, he asked what was causing him such pain. To thisinquiry

Ramanuja replied, "0 master, it causes me such suffering to hearthis terrible

explanation from a great soul like yourself. How sinful it isto compare the

beautiful lotus eyes of the Lord to the posterior of amonkey. I never expected

to hear such a thing from my teacher." Yadavaprakasa was angered by this

challenge from one of his ownstudents, and he replied sharply, "I also am very

aggrieved. Impudent wordsfrom an inferior are never praiseworthy. If you have

become so proud thatyou think yourself a better teacher than me, then let us

hear yourexplanation of the passage.By your mercy everything is possible"

replied Ramanuja. Yadavaprakasa smiled derisively. "Now we are going to see this

boyoutdo the great Sankaracarya," he said. Ramanuja remained peaceful, and when

he spoke it was in a veryhumble way. "Instead of understanding the posterior of

a monkey from theword kapyasam, " he said, "another meaning is possible. Ka-pi

can be takenas kam jalam pibati, that which drinks up the water, or, in other

words, thesun. The word asam also means to blossom, so the whole word kapi-asam

can beunderstood as that which blossoms under the sun, or, in other words,

thelotus flower. Thus we can understand the mantra of the Upanisad to mean

thatthe Lord has eyes as beautiful as the lotus flower." Yadavaprakasa was very

surprised to hear such a clever explanationfrom one of his own students and he

realized that Ramanuja was a staunchadherent of the devotional philosophy of

dualism. The devotees understandthat the perfection of life is to worship Lord

Visnu without any personaldesire, and so they never aspire for oneness as the

mayavadis do. Thisphilosophy was directly opposed to the teachings of

Yadavaprakasa and afterthis incident his affection for Ramanuja began to

wane.MORE CONFLICTS AT SCHOOL A few days later when Yadavaprakasa was

instructing his studentsfrom the Taittiriya Upanisad, he made the statement that

the Supreme Brahmanis Truth, Knowledge, and Infinity. On hearing this impersonal

idea of God,Ramanuja could not contain himself. He immediately objected to his

teacher'sexplanation, saying, "No, this verse means that the Supreme possesses

Truth,Knowledge, and Infinity, but still He has His own existence beyond

theseattributes." Angered by this unexpected interruption, Yadavaprakasa

replied, "Youpresumptuous child, if you won't accept my explanations, then why

do youcome here? Why not go home and start a school of your own?" When he

hadcomposed himself somewhat, he went on more quietly, "Your explanation is

notin accordance with Sankaracarya or any of the previous acaryas, so kindlykeep

your impertinence to yourself." By nature Ramanuja was humble and meek, and so

he tried to avoidsuch confrontations with his teacher. However, he was also

absolutelydevoted to knowledge of the truth: thus, when he heard the misleading

monistinterpretations being put forward by Yadavaprakasa, he was sometimes

unableto contain himself. In the presence of the other students Yadavaprakasa

usedto make light of these challenges, but in his heart there began to arise

agrowing fear and hatred for the boy. "As he grows older," he contemplated,"this

boy will strongly establish the dualistic philosophy of devotion. Thismust not

be allowed to happen. I will do whatever is necessary to protectthe doctrine of

monism, even if it means that I have to kill him."YADAVAPRAKASA'S PLOT

Actually, Yadavaprakasa was very envious of Ramanuja, seeing in himboth a purer

heart and a greater intellect than his own. One day, therefore,he called all his

other students to a secret meeting. There he addressedthem, "My dear children,

none of you has ever found fault with my teachings,but this impudent Ramanuja

has repeatedly challenged my explanations. He maybe an intelligent boy, but all

his ideas are based on the false doctrine ofdualism, seeing a difference between

the self and God. He is a completeheretic who will cause havoc in society

through his teachings. We must findsome way to be rid of him.Sir, surely you

could just forbid him from coming to the school,"suggested one student. "But

then our master's worst fears would be realized," respondedanother, "for he

would open his own school and go on propagating hisfalsehoods all the more.

Already he has written a commentary on the mantra:satyam jnanam anantam brahma,

which contradicts everything we have learnedfrom our teacher." This was true,

for Ramanuja had effectively refutedSankara's explanations: and his writing had

been widely read and appreciatedby Vaisnavas in south India, including

Yamunacarya at Rangaksetra. After discussing the matter for some time, they all

agreed the onlyway to stop Ramanuja was to kill him. They then began to consider

how thiscould be done secretly without anyone discovering their crime.

EventuallyYadavaprakasa made a proposal, "Let us all go on pilgrimage to bathe

in theGanges. On the way there are many remote areas, where we can put an end

tothis heretic without anyone knowing anything about it. By bathing in thesacred

Ganges we will free ourselves from the sin of killing a brahmana andwhen we

return we will simply say he felt sick and died on the journey." All the

disciples readily accepted their teacher's suggestion andset out to induce

Ramanuja to accompany them on their journey. Ramanuja was delighted at the idea

of bathing in the Ganges and happily accepted their invitation. Govinda,

Ramanuja's cousin, was living with his aunt inKancipuram at this time, and he

also studied at the school of Yadavaprakasa.When Ramanuja announced that he was

going on pilgrimage to North India,Govinda immediately decided to go with his

beloved friend and relative.

[Guest guest]

--- adhavan A <adhavan_a wrote:

> April 7th, 2003, Monday (Pancami)Appearance day of Sri

> RamanujacaryaAT THE SCHOOL OF YADAVAPRAKASA

 

This story is not authenticated historically! Shree Yadavaprakasa, one

of the gurus of Ramanuja who later became his disciple, suppposed to

have tried to kill Bhagavaan Ramanju when he was a student. Even that

is not historically documented. Theses stories are similar to Shankara

Digvijayams and Madhavijama-s etc. Disciples glorify their master and

their is nothing wrong with that except if it is pased on as history

then we run into problems. My recommendation is to read these stories

with a grain of salt - rather lot of salt.

>From the perspective this list, it is important to recognize Ramanuja

comes after Shankara and some of the objections he raised in his Shree

Bhaashya against Advaita Vedanta are very important. Sevearal post

shankara Advaitins have addressed those issues -for example Vidyaranya

swami in panchadasi, Sadananda yatiindra in Vedanta saara, Madushudhana

saraswati in Advaita siddhi etc.

 

There are several problems in VishisshTadvaita too and one day we will

be addressing those. Major one from the currect discusisons is the

personified form for Iswara and identity of iswara and Brahman - that is

Brahmna with attributes. Free will of Iswara becomes Iswara liila.

 

Hari OM!

Sadananda

 

 

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What you have is His gift to you and what you do with what you have is your gift

to Him - Swami Chinmayananda.

 

 

 

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