Ramanuja

(11th c.) Southern Indian philosopher
who was the greatest exponent of the
philosophical position known as
Vishishthadvaita (“qualified nondualism”) Vedanta, and the most important
figure in the Shrivaishnava religious
community. Ramanuja lived most of his
life at the temple-town of Shrirangam
in the state of Tamil Nadu, in service of
the temple’s resident deity, Ranganatha,
a form of Vishnu. Ramanuja was convinced that Brahman, or Supreme
Reality, was a personal deity rather than
an impersonal abstract principle, and he
was also convinced that devotion
(bhakti) was the most important form of
religious practice. Vishishthadvaita
Vedanta, his philosophical position,
stressed both of these convictions.
According to Ramanuja, in his essential
nature God is completely transcendent
and free from imperfections. The world
develops from God through a process of
evolution, an idea adapted from the
Samkhya philosophical school. The
world is thus similar to God, since it
proceeds from him, but also different,
since matter is unconscious and
insentient. In the same way, human
beings are similar in nature to God,
because they have him as their source,
though unlike God they are subject to
ignorance and suffering. For Ramanuja
and his followers, God is not identical
to human selves or to the world, all of
which are perceived as having real and
independent existence. The differences in capacity between God and
human beings makes devotion the
most effective means to gain final liberation (moksha) of the soul, a liberation that is conceived of as eternal
communion with God. For further
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Ramanand Sagar
information see Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore (eds.), A
Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, 1957;
and John B. Carman, The Theology of
Ramanuja, 1974.