Sripad Ramanujacaryas Appearance day -23-3-07

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Sripad Ramanujacarya. In the year 1017 A.D. Sripad Ramanujacarya, a partial incarnation of LordAnanta Shesha and Laxman appeared on the 'sasthi', sixth lunar mansion of thelight fortnight in the month of Chaitra, (April-May). He made his appearance inSouth India, Tundiradesha, at Sriperumbudur, about half way between Kancipuramand Madras. His fathers' name was Asuri Keshava Somayaji, also known asSarvakratu Diksitar, who it is believed was either an advaitin, or a smarta.His mother was Kantimati, the grand daughter of the great VaisnavacaryaYamunacarya. Sri Ramanuja was given the name Ilaya Perumal, by his parents andwas trained in the various studies of the Alwar saints of South Indian. Hiseducation was mostly given by his father a pandit of the time. When he wasfifteen he was taken to Kancipuram, where he and his cousin

Govinda were sentto study under the Advaitin Acarya Yadava Prakash. As the years went by andRamanujas' maturity advanced. Many times there were philosophical clashes between he and his 'advaitin' teacher to the point when Yadava prakashmade arrangements for Ramanuja to be killed. Still unperturbed he preached whatbecame his "new" philosophy the Vaisnava philosophy of 'Visisthadvaita', orqualified oneness. Sripad Ramanujacarya directed his new philosophy todefeating the monistic views of Sankara. Instead of leaving understandings assome kind of impersonalistic blank, this is 'maya' or this is 'avidya',Ramanuja gave relationships to everything, that is, everything has arelationship to the Lord. He qualified everything. Sripad Ramanujacarya givessome nice points on referring to the acceptance of, or usage of 'avidya'.Though Sripad Ramanujacarya uses the word "ajnan" rather

than 'avidya', themeaning is the same, ignorance. Being a personalistic worshipper of Sri LaksmiNarayana, Ramanujacarya tackles everything as a personalist would. He pointsout the existence of 'ajnan' (ignorance) as a positive entity and as being directly perceived in such perceptions as "I am ignorant", "I do not knowmyself or others". This really refers to having lack of understanding ofsomething due to not having any, or insufficient knowledge of what it is. Soin Ramanujacarya's philosophy he simply throws the blame back on the perceiver,not on the subject that the infinitesimal perceiver is trying with his limitedsenses to perceive, like the 'mayavadis' do. He suggests that maybe we are notseeing things fully or in the right perspective. The 'mayavadis' simply try to blame the knife for stabbing the man to death,neglecting the chance that someone may have been

holding the knife, and maybeeven with some intent to do something, either consciously or not. Once I observed one of my children, my then two year old, fall from the swingand clambering to stand up rebuked the swing, you're naughty swing. But theswing actually wasn't at fault, dare I say it was my child for not beingco-ordinated. Sri Ramanuja clarifies one rather interesting point as well. He said that ifignorance is a perceivable thing (entity or specific item), then that cannot beignorance for it is known. Ignorance can only refer to that which is unknown,or that which one is ignorant of. Also if ignorance is unknown, how can onehave ignorance standing on it's own to be perceived, one would not know? If itis argued that 'ajnan' or ignorance is 'a-visada-swarupa' (Indistinctknowledge), then again Sripad Ramanujacarya gives a good point that this isonly to the

fact that there is lack of distinct knowledge as to what it is.Even if their, (the 'mayavadis') philosophy of positive ignorance is admitted,it must be somehow related to something and that something must be known, whichin its self is knowledge. In that way, if 'jnan' (knowledge) of any givensubject such as the material world, or the Lord were there, the 'mayavadi'philosopher would have something to relate to. But they don't, therefore they are known as 'mayavadis' or 'ajnanavadis' due to theirignorance. This is understood by the Vaisnavacaryas who are in full knowledge.The opposite to black being white, the opposite to ignorance being knowledge. Sripad Ramanujacarya clears up the theory of illusion as set by theSankarites in the following way by saying that if one knows what is truth, onemay, for a short period, be subject to illusion by which normal things

appeardifferent to what they should be. But it cannot be said that illusion has nocause other than illusion itself, or is unknown or just appears for no reason.Ramanuja goes on to say that if illusion were an inexpressible of anunidentifiable thing, again when or where would one even known it was illusionfor one would be in illusion and would have nothing to compare with as real. According to the 'avidya', 'advaitistic' philosophy of Sankara, the dreamstate, the wakeful state, and the state of self are all unreal and illusory.But according to Ramanujacarya there is a real character in all these threestates. Even dreams are not illusion entirely. During the waking state the selfis awake, and it contacts the objects of the senses externally through the mindand senses. In the dream state, the self becomes detached from the externalworld of the senses and their objects. The mind,

however, experiences asuccession of images presented from the memory without really any necessity oflogic or reason. Originally the objects were seen or touched, smelt or heardthrough the senses, and the mind stores the information. The mind acts in thisway, that's its function, so definitely it cannot be called illusion or unrealfor it is just a reflection of reality that the mind has come in contact with. Sankara says that in the case of sleep one is the witness of 'avidya'(ignorance). After waking, one says, "I slept well, I was pure spiritualconsciousness, free from all material conditioning, and a witness to 'avidya'."Sripad Ramanujacarya however sheds a deeper light on this subject. He says thatperson who was sleeping is not only pure spiritual consciousness, but is aspirit soul, eternal servant of the Lord, and that pure spiritual consciousnessis an attribute of the

soul by which the soul can be perceived('swarupopadhi'). So by this we can see that if the soul (self) did not remainconscious in sleep, then how could he then remember upon waking that he hadbeen sleeping, or had slept well? Thus there would be a gap in his life, notknowing he had done anything what to speak of sleep, so what is this witness to'avidya'. This is not a fact, for the soul has a sense of permanentconsciousness carried by memory which tells him that he has done something orgive the sense of fulfilment knowing he has taken rest for a set period. More..... Once Ramanuja was walking along with his 5 top sannyasi disciples. Stopping bya pond, he took some prasadam and threw half of it in the water for the fish.Then he got up to walk on. Just then the fish who had taken the prasadamassumed four-handed forms and rose up in the air, returning

home, back toGodhead. The 5 sannyasis stopped and begand to disrobe. Ramanuja turned andasked them why they were not following. They said, "We are thunder- struck.Please explain what we have just seen. Otherwise, how can we follow behind youin this condition?" Ramanuja answered, "You've seen the power of takingmaha-prasadam." They answered, "But we are taking your maha-prasadam daily,and this is not happening to us." Ramanuja said, "These creatures have no freewill, and therefore make no offense. So they get full benefit at once. Butyou with your free will and human intelligence make offenses, and thus youhinder your own progress." Another time Ramanuja was talking with his sannyasi disciples, and they asked him how they would ever be able tounderstand the deep philosophy he had written. He said,

"What I have writtenultimately means simply one thing - prapatti (surrender)." But they continuedto argue that they would not be able to fully comprehend his writings. Then hetold a sannyasi disciple to bring one deaf and dumb tailor who was just walkingby. When the man came, Ramanuja asked them all to leave him alone with thisman. So they got up and left, but one disciple looked into the room from awindow outside. Ramanuja stood up and motioned to the man to touch his feet.The tailor made full dandavats and began to tremble and cry in ecstacy as hetouched Ramanujas lotus feet. When the disciples returned, they were amazed tosee this man's ecstacy, symptomatic of the highest transcendental realization.They asked, "How could such a thing like this happen to him." Ramanujaanswered, "He touched my feet in full surrender. Although he

cannot understand one word of philosophy, being deaf and dumb, hehas attained all perfection." On another occassion someone asked Ramaujacaryawho was more attached, the householder in Krishna consciousness or thesannyasis in the mutt. So he set out to reveal the truth. That night he entered with a few of hisclose associates into one of his renounced householder disciples homes. He thenbegan to clean them out of everything that they owned. To the point that seeingthe wife laying asleep with her gold earings and mangal sutram he began toremove them from her. The husband saw that Ramanuja was doing this and remained laying there. Thewife also stured and then in shock that someone was there with her let out ascream, and the "transcendental theif" was gone. The husband then said to thewife, why did you disturb them, it was our

gurudev, and he certainly must havehad a higher plan - you should have rolled over to allow him to take the otherear-ring. Hearing the response filtering back over the next few days Ramanujaset his next plan. "Go to the mutt where the sannyasis live and in theirashram take their cloth and hide it". And so one disciple took to the ashramand while the sannyasis were all at their Sri Bhasya class the disciple beganto take parts of their kaupins, and tear strips from their Vesthis (dhotis) asif kaupins had been made, and generally swap things around. When they returned there was like all hell had let loose, "Where is mykaupin?Who has torn the end off my vesthis to make kaupin?Where is myanga-vaastra, has someone stolen it to make underwear?" and so on. On of hissayings was that the Vaishnava should be like salt; in the middle

salt, in theinterim salt, and on the exterior salt - in this way he encouraged honestyamong his disciples. Ramanujacharya, just before leaving his body, gave 74final instructions, all about serving Vaishnavas. For instance, one shouldfeed them nice preparations and make them so happy they smile; one shouldmassage their legs until they fall asleep; one should walk with them to the endof the village, and then nine steps beyond, and then faint due to intenseseparation at leaving the Vaishnavas......... His main instructions were twoin number: surrender to guru, and serve the Vaishnavas. CHANT HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE AND BE

HAPPY Your humble servant radhabhava gaur das

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