Ramanuja, humility personified
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The essence of Sri Ramanuja's teaching is equality. Reflections on the philosophy of the Acharya whose Jayanti was celebrated on Sunday last.
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AN INCARNATION of the thousand-hooded Adi Sesha, Sri Ramanuja represents the culmination of Vedantic philosophy. This saintly Son of Sriperumbudur lived a life of a century and more (the Acharya is said to have lived for 120 years) devoted to the service of God in utter simplicity and humility. Ramanuja differed from other men of religion who merely theorised. His concerns were both social and spiritual.
Ramanuja's is a philosophy in consonance with the socio-psychical and ethico-spiritual life of man. Service and humility marked his practice and teaching. His spiritual concerns were dictated by his perception of the equality of all men and the potential of all, to enter the celestial abode which is a continuum of the life on earth.
Ramanuja firmly believed in the Upanishad doctrine of God permeating everything and residing in the heart of man as inner controller and director. The happy choice of the analogy of the body-soul illustrates his perception of the relation between God and man and - between `here and hereafter.' The Sarira-Sariri `bhava' as the analogy is called, places all creations as part of the cosmic body of God and just as there is an equality among the limbs, there is an equality among all souls (jiva). The seeming divisions of `varna' and `ashrama' are not mandatory classifications but functional systems.
Sri Ramanuja was a great lover of mankind and insisted that service to mankind was service to God.
Sri Ramanuja regretted his being a Brahmin when the orthodoxy prevented him from prostrating at the feet of Kanchipurna, a Vaisya devotee of Lord Varadaraja. He believed that Kanchipurna's service to God and His devotees raised him across the rungs of the religious ladder to the status of a Mahatma.
The psychical limitations and the social taboos were washed away by the flood of Ramanuja's divine love. The ethico-spiritual aspect of Sri Ramanuja's life is seen in his seeking the secret knowledge of the redeeming `Tirumantra.' He was imparted that knowledge by Goshti Purna on the condition that he should never reveal it to anyone else because it is difficult to find a worthy person. Sri Ramanuja, after learning the secret, proceeded to Srirangam and as he walked past the temple of Soumyanarayana, a strange feeling of compassion welled up in his heart. He wondered why the knowledge should not be made public, so that all those who were fit to receive it could attain Moksha. He climbed up the tower of the temple and yelled out to all those who had the desire for Moksha to listen to him and benefit from the proclamation of the Tirumantra and its secret. Goshti Purna who saw in Ramanuja's action the flood of God's mercy embraced him and called him his own master — `Emberumanar.' This incident is crucial to the understanding of Visishtadvaita as an ethico-spiritual philosophy. And it gets illustrated in one of the daily activities of Sri Ramanuja. When he was in Srirangam, Ramanuja used to take bath in the Cauvery and walk back to his ashram, leaning on the shoulders of his Brahmin disciples, Kuresa and Mudaliyandan. He used to wrap the hands of these two with wet cloth while leaning on them. But one day, as he leaned on Urangavilli's shoulders, he dispensed with the wet cloth. Shocked, people asked him how he could make this insulting difference.
Sri Ramanuja said that it was a recognition of merit rather than an act of indulgence. Urangavilli had no egotism in him and no attachment and had given up all his belongings to join the Dasas, the Acharya explained.
Numerous instances can be cited to show Sri Ramanuja's perception of all men as equal without reference to their birth or status. They all belong to one category, the servants of God - the Dasas or the Bhagavatas.
Sri Ramanuja's life is a message for all time. It anticipates and answers questions that may be thrown up by the evolving human society. So Sri Ramanuja is eternally relevant. His life is an exemplification of a truly great life that practised and preached communal harmony, religious tolerance, social unity, national oneness and individual peace.
Conversion, fanaticism, fundamentalism and oppression go against his philosophy. It is appropriate that Sri Ramanuja's philosophy was known in his time as `Yatindra Mata.' Today, is being called Vaishnavism. It is perhaps the most satisfactory way of naming his school of thought.
The word `Vishnu' etymologically means one who is in everything, everywhere and at all times. Sri Ramanuja's philosophy is with everyone, in all transactions of life and in all the facets. To follow in his footsteps is to tread the path of peace and contentment.
R. ANANTHAN and
M. MURALIDHARAN
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