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Article sent from The Hindu

Mon, 29 Apr 2002 02:07:34 +0530

 

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This article has been sent to you by Manavasi S. Parthasarathi

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Source: thThe Hindu

(http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/04/29/stories/2002042900120800.htm)

 

Miscellaneous

This Day That Age

dated April 29, 1952: Sankara and Ramanuja

 

In his article entitled "Sankara and Ramanuja", D. Ramaswami Ayyangar had

asked: "Is it a mere accident that Sankara and Ramanuja, two of the greatest

Acharyas of South India should have come into this world under the same

constellation and that their jayantis or birthdays should fall on the same

day almost every year?"

 

"When one comes to think of it from the higher plane was there any such

thing as accident at all? To us, short-sighted men and women who do not have

the means of obtaining an all-comprehensive vision, so many occurrences

appeared to be accidents, but viewed from the Omniscient view point, nothing

can be accident and everything must be by design. The periods during which

these two Acharyas lived and taught, were several centuries apart. One of

them was very short lived and the other lived up to a ripe old age. The

doctrines preached by them, people are never tired of telling us, are very

divergent. When we come to think for ourselves, however, the divergence is

on a very few and other unimportant points. One can never miss the purpose

of the life and teachings of these two great Acharyas and the purpose was

one and the same. The difference in doctrines promulgated by each has got to

be evaluated in the proper historical perspective. It will then be found

that the theory propounded by each was an answer to the problem that faced

thinking humanity in the respective centuries...

 

"In my humble opinion, enough emphasis has been laid upon diversity between

the several schools of Vedantic thought. The nation is now passing through a

crisis and if it is to emerge out of it safe and secure in the matter of

philosophic thought and religious contemplation all asthikas should take to

the study of unity and deliberately forget diversity even when it is shown

to them by interested persons.

 

"Without prejudice to the observance of each, it is possible to have common

viewpoints emphasised in common meetingsSankara and Ramanuja have by having

a common Jayanthi for themselves, shown that their desire is not in favour

of difference and differentiation but in favour of unity and synthesis."

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