Upanishads/Divya Prabhandham and Ramanuja

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srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

 

dear devotees,

 

A couple of devotees had asked for information on (a) why Ramanuja

has not written a commentary on the upanishads, and (b) why he

hasn't quoted from the divya prabhandham.

 

I request learned members to post on this topic and add to the

following.

 

Vedarta Sangraha, even though it is not an official commentary on

the upanishads, is widely believed to be, and accepted as the

interpretations of the key upanishads by svAmi Ramanuja. In fact,

Ramanuja deals with key upanishad vAkyAs in vEdArta samgraha, in the

context of His expounding VisistAdvaita.

 

Ramanuja did not explicitly quote the divya prabhandham in any of

His commentaries for the obvious reason - It was not then accepted

by those outside of our religion as a pramANa.

 

Our AchAryAs say very clearly that the divya prabhandham was the

inspiration behind svAmi Ramanuja's thoughts on vEdAnta. In fact, on

the very important and key question of the nature of the soul, the

nammAzhvAr pAsuram "adiyEn uLLan udal uLLan" played a key role. Our

elders say that Ramanuja derived his crystal clear understanding of

the nature of the soul from this pAsuram only.

 

In the sampradAyam, there are several anubhavams on key pAsurams

that svAmi Ramanuja had taught His immediate disciples, and those

are documented in various works.

 

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jeeayar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,

 

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,

varadhan