रामानुजीये विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

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น

PL480-SA 9.2-444 16775

IN MEMORY

OF THE VISIT OF

THEIR IMPERIAL MAJESTIES

King George V and Queen Mary

CROWNED IN DEHLI, INDIA,

EMPEROR & EMPRESS OF INDIA

ON THE 12TH December 1913.

Frontispiece

Advent.

CONTENTS.

A. GOVINDACARYA SVĀMIN.

Subject-matter.

WORKS BY THE AUTHOR

…

MEMORIAL TO THEIR IMPERIAL

MAJESTIES

PREFACE

CORRIGENDA

…

I. [Instruments of Knowledge (Pramāņa)] PERCEPTION (Pratyaksha)

II. INFERENCE (Anumāna) III. THE WORD (Śabda)

…

IV. [Objects of Knowledge (Pra- meya)] MATTER (Prakrti).

V. TIME (Kala)

…

VI. SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE (Nitya-

Vibhuti)

…

VII. ATTRIBUTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

Pages.

xxi

xxiii — xxiv

116

…

117

137

…

—

155

169

…

170

175

(Dharma-bhūta-Jñāna)… 98

VIII. THE SOUL (Jiva)

IX. GOD (Iśvara)

…

138

X. NON-SUBSTANCE (A-dravya) 156

CONCLUSION

N. B.-The Scheme of Transliteration is that adopt- ed by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (JRAS,) except sh. Brahma-sūtras= Vedanta-sutras. It or He are both used for God and Soul. And She also, were it used, would, for Samskṛt, mean the same. The gender is incon- sequential.

PREFACE.

THE appearance of this work was adumbrated

in the Artha-Pafcaka or The “Five Truths”, in the pages of the JRAS (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society), p. 565, July 1910. It was to have appeared in the same Journal, but for paucity of space for a work extending over more than 45 pages. It was decided therefore to bring out an independent edition in India, which, as a book of reference for all time on the Viśishţâ-‘dvaita Philosophy and Religion, is expected to be more accommodating to the general reader than if it appeared in an academic Journal inaccessible to all. Being an academic work itself, the printing of it in propria forma demanded by the exigencies of Sarhskṛta orthography, was made possible by the Meykandan Press, under the supervision of its intelligent pro- prietor Mr. J. N. Ramanathan, of Madras, under- taking to meet all the requirements incidental to such a work. It is hoped the readers will find the justness of my remarks when they may come to examine it for themselves.

In the shape of introduction to the work, very little need be written, it seeme to me, inasmuch

as scholars are more in need of original matter than attempts made at theses for which there seems at present no warranty. But if a popular introduction were yet deemed necessary, my work called the Vade Mecum of Vedanta affords an appropriate pourparler to the Yatindra-Mata-Dipika, the work which, with this preface, makes its debut into the arena of Indology. The necessity also for such preliminaries is as far as possible obviated by the copious foot-notes which will be found sprinkled in sufficient profusion, in almost every page, not only to elucidate the abstruse subject-matter but as well to reduce to the utmost minimum the jejune nature which is a sine qua non of all academic studies, the Oriental in a large measure. The desideratum for a separate glossary of technical terms which by necessity teem in all works of an academic nature, is met by the scheme, adopted in this work, of inditing all such terms side by side their English, in brackets or otherwise. Facilities for comprehension are better afforded, I trust, by this mode than if they had to be procured by constant references to glossary at the sacrifice of time, with mental poise liable to be ruffled by such a process of glossarial interference, at every step of a perusal. Strictest fidelity to the original Samskṛta might, it is feared, have led to the English rendering being found stiff and in places lacking, peradventure, in clarity. But this is due more to the

PREFACE

iii

technical nature of the subject than to any perfunc- toriness on the part of the translator, who is conscious of having done his best. The subject itself is rigid, and invites the mental concentration of the student, not the surface-skimming of the light reader.

With regard to the author of Yatindra-Mata: Dipikā, Śrinivāsa, we learn from the invocatory verses (left untranslated), where mention of Maha- “cārya in the preliminary of Advent I, synonymously referred to again as Ghana-guru-vara in the Colophon is made, that he, (viz., Śrinivasa) is the immediate disciple of Doḍday-arya, which is the colloquial of Mahâ-“ārya which is the same as Mahâ-“cārya. There is a succession of apostles of the Rāmānuja School beginning from Dāśarathi or Mudaliy-āṇḍān, Śri-Rāmānuja’s sister’s son, famed as of the Kandadai descent. To this stem belong all the Mahâ-“cāryas, a branch-an important one-settl- ing down at Ghatikâ-‘cala, otherwise known as Chola simhapuram (vulgarised as Sholinghur,—a station on the Railway track linking Bangalur and Madras), which is referred to by Srinivasa, the author of Yatindra-Mata-Dipikā, as Ghatikâ-“dri, in his invocatory verse to the work. This place is a noted shrine, very ancient as having been sung by the archaic Azhvārs or Draviḍa Saints

See (my) Life of Ramanuja etc.

in their Tamil Works the Prabandhas-Nrsimha, one of the Ten Avatāras of Vishnu being the presid- ing Deity of the place. One of the Maha-“cāryas is noted in history as Canda-maruta Mahâ-“cärys by reason of a great polemical work called Canda- māruta (= hurricane) having been written by him on an anterior work the Śata-dushani of a similar charact- er, composed by the great Vedanta-“cārya [1268 A.C. born], who is the contemporary of Madhava or Vidya- ranya [1331 A.C. elected for Srigeri pontificate, in the now Mysore State]. The author mentions (in the Con- clusion-Chapter) both these works among others as those on which he bases his compendium of Viśishta- ‘dvaita Vedānta, viz., the Yatindra-Mata-Dipikā. Hence it may be reasonably conjectured that Śrinivasa is the immediate disciple of Ghatika-‘cala Candamaruta Mahâ-“carya. This Mahâ-“carya is a contemporary of Appaya-Dikshita, who is a com- mentator on Vedanta-“carya’s works. A tradition in currency further confirms this contemporaneity, which may be cited here, in almost the words kindly supplied me by my valued friend Śri M. T. Nara- simha-iyangar, B.A., M.R.AS., Professor in the Central College, Bangalūr:-

“These two authors, Mahâ-“cārya and Appaya- Dikshita were close friends, both being the

Vide (my) Lives of Saints.

PREFACE

unparalleled Vidvāns of the age; and they used to discuss philosophical questions very often, with a view to try their own skill in argument. Both were admirers of Vedanta-“carya, whose works they commented largely. Appaya-Dik- shita, as is well-known to all Sarhskṛt scholars, was a staunch devotee of Śiva, in spite of his having devoted his time to writing commentaries on the Viśishţâ-“dvaitic works of Vedanta-“carya, and he wanted to construe the term Nārāyaṇa as applicable to his favourite deity Śiva. Maha- “cārya, seeing that his friend attempted a point (for argument) that could not at all be maintain- ed on grammatical basis (at most) waited for an opportunity to test the truth of his friend’s conviction on the point in question. Once when they were both getting up the Alagar-malai about eight miles from Madura, (on which the temple of Sundara-bāhu or Alagar is situate, and where

Cp, the verse which is alleged to have been uttered by him in a meeting of Pandits at Käñcipura:

Makesvare va jagatām adhiśvare Janardane va jagad-antar-atmani Na vastu-bheda-pratipattir asta me Tatha-‘pi bhaktis Tarun-endu-sekhare.

The gist of the verse is that he saw no distinction between Śiva and Vishnu, yet he had a penchant for Śiva. See foot-note 238, page 116. [A. G.]vi

the famous Nupura-ganga rill runs), Maha- “carya took advantage of a position when he could extract the truth of his friend’s conviction on the disputed point from his own mouth. Among the initial steps leading to the temple of Sundara-bahu, the eighteenth step from the bottom is regarded as presided over by a bhuta (spirit) named in Tamil Karappan; and the belief was that whoever speaks untruth (or proves false) while on this step, would suffer instantaneous death. (It is for this reason that the temple-keys used to be left, during nights, on this step, without any fear of thieves touch- ing them). (Here) Mahâ-“carya took hold of his friend’s hand and making him stand there, questioned him thus:-“Tell me, my dear friend! are you really convinced that the term Nārāyaṇa can be construed as a name of Śiva? I ask you now because you cannot speak untruth here, for the sake of argument!” Then Appaya- Dikshita is said to have spoken out his own conviction to this effect: The letter N (”) in the term Narayana is in the way of such con- struction. This is my conviction.”*”

Appaya-Dikshita accedes to this confession, be- yond grammatical reasons merely, in his com- mentary on verse 35 of Ananda-lakari [Pp. 64-65.]

PREFACE

vii

This great Appaya-Dikshita’s date is correctly known as 1552-1624 A. c. as proved by various evidences such as (1) his living at Vellore, under the patronage of Chinna Bomma Bhupala, (2) his being invited to the court of the Penukonda ruler Venkata- deva (1586-1613 AC); (3) his being the Vedanta teacher of the great grammarian Bhattoji-Dikshita, edited by R. Halasyanatha Sastrin, 1908. [Vāṇī-vilāsa Press, Srirangam] thus:-

‘Veda-vibhāga-‘rtham evå ‘vatirpena sakala-Veda- tātparyâ-‘bhijñena sarvajña-śikhāmaņina bhagavatā Veda-Vyasena, Pulastya-vara-dana-labdha-devată- param-arthya-vedanena Śri-Paraśareņâ, ’nyais ca mabarshibbir Ved-opa-bṛhmanâ-‘rtham prapiteshu Śri Mahabharata-Vishnu-Purana-“dishu,

niścita. Parabrahma-bhāvasya, sadbhis sarvair apy avibhā- gena Para-Brahm-ety eva pūjitasya Sri-Nārāyaṇasya, kvacit-kone-nivishța-mantra-“rthavada-purāṇa-vaca-

na-“dileśam avalambya jivabhāvam vaktum nå ‘smaj-jihvā pravartate, tathā cen murdha ca śatadhā bhavati; Veda-Vaidika-drobo, Devata-drohaś ca jāyate. Ato Narayanah Para-Brahma-kotir ity evâ ‘asmākam siddhāntaḥ.’

The gist of this passage is that his head will shatter into hundreds of fragments if he dared to gainsay the verdict of all the great Sages Vyāsa, Parāśara etc., about Nārāyaṇa being the Great God, in all their authoritative works; that he dare not commit such heresy and blasphemy, [A. G.]

viii

(4) his antagonism with the famous poet Jagannatha Pandita or Pandita-raya, the author of Citra-mîmāṁsă- khandana, etc.

We can therefore conclude that Mahâ-“cārya (who by tradition was equally old with Appaya- Dikshita, while the Alagar-malai incident took place, as chronicled above) lived in the latter part of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries. Our author Śrinivasa therefore, who is the son of Svami- pushkariņi Govinda-“rya, servitor at the Holy Hill Venkata-giri (Tirupati)-and disciple of Maha- “cārya, may be placed at the beginning of the 17th century.

4 This author of Yatindra-Mata-Dipika had, according to the invocatory verse, a vision where he saw Venkatesa (the God of Tirupati), Devaraja (the God of Karisaila=Käñci), Nṛsithha (the God of Ghatika-“dri), along with Krshna (=Yamuna- “carya) and Yatirāja (= Rāmānuja), and that seems to be the inspiration quickening him to the com- position of an authoritative text-book, embodying in it all the quintessence of the doctrines of Visishţa- dvaita Philosophy and Religion promulgated by Śri Rāmānuja, which he fitly titles as the; YATINDRA MATA-DIPIKA or The Light of the School of Ramanuja.

As works original, then commentaries, and then theses, over against these, became multiplied,

PREFACE

and so vast as to be beyond the range of a clear conspectus of the subject-matter, necessity for com- pendia arose. Of such is the Yatindra-Mata-Dipikā, which purports to be a manual devised in order to present a lucid outline of the Visishta-‘dvaita Philosophy and Religion, based on the voluminous literature extant, most of which the author Śrini- vāsa, mentions by name in the Conclusion-Chapter. I have inserted in brackets against these works, the names of these authors.*

As handbooks were thus desiderated for original works, English renderings of such seem to be in requisition in these modern days of acute oriental research. The East and West are daily being brought into closer bonds. A memorable epoch of this process has just transpired in King George V of ‘Britain having crowned himself with his august consort Queen Mary, on Indian soil in Dehli. Rshi Paraśara, in giving an account of the kings of the future in his Vishpu-Purapa who would hold sway over India, wrote thus:-

‘Teshu’tsanneshu punaḥ Kainkilā Yavana bhüpatayo bhavishyanty a-murdhâ-‘bhiskiktāḥ, [iv. 24. 55].

The word Kainkila has never been noticed as another variant by the learned editor of Wilson’s

Some of these were kindly traced out for me by my friend Prof. M. T. Narasimhiengar, Bangalur.

Vishnu-Purana, Mr. F. Hall. To my mind it sounds very much like (Angila). Kainkila-Yavanas then (to us) are the English people. They would rule, he further tells us, without wearing the crowns (a-murdha-‘bhi- shikta). This is considered by the Hindus as unorthodox or un-normal. George V. coronating himself in India then is an event which restores to the Hindus its own notions and sentiments of what properly constituted sovereigns ought to be (ie., mūrdhâ-‘bhishikta). May not the Rshi’s prophecy point to the necessity of real crowned heads establishing themselves in India, instead of uncrowned vicegerents being permitted to fulfil royal functions? No literary work written during this Coronation epoch should hence launch out into the world without chronicling this world-event, an event conspiring to unite East and West in closer bonds of love for co-operative work in future. This is fostered by literary works of the East presented to the West in western garb. My present attempt is one more of this description.

‘Our task is to translate ancient knowledge into modern equivalents. We have to clothe the old strength in a new form. The new form without that old strength is nothing but a mockery; almost equal- ly foolish is the savage anachronism of an old- time power without fit expression. Spiritually, intel- lectually, there is no undertaking, but we must attempt it.’ [Sister Nivedita alias Margaret E. Noble].

PREFACE

Also it is significant to note that as this work is being sent out on its career, the Government of India has resolved to take practical steps to en- courage Oriental Learning, judging from the Blue Book just published of the transactions of the Con- ference of Orientalists held in Simla, last July, under the presidentship of Sir S. Harcourt Butler, C.S.I., C.I.E., Member of Council for Education.

Three Editions of the Yatindra-Mata-Dipikā have come to my knowledge:-

(1) Published by the Vedanta-Vidya-Vilasa Press, Madras, 1868, in Telugu characters.

(2) Published by the Vidya-tarangini Press, Mysore, 1896, in Telugu characters.

(3) Pūna Ananda-“śrama Series, No. 50. 1906, with a commentary by Vasudeva Śastrin, in Devanagari. Varia lectiones is almost nil, but a good editon along with English translation seems a future contin- gency. The author has divided the work into Ten Avataras, ie., Incarnations, in allusion to the fact of Vishnu’s (Nārāyaṇa’s) Ten Incarnations. Con- forming with this sentiment, have I adopted the equivalent term Advent to mean Sections or Chapters.

There are two Kārikās (versified works) treating of the same subject-matter (come to my notice), (1) Vedānta-kārika-“vali by Venkațârya, (2) Yatindra- siddhānta-sangraha by Sri-saila-“carya. [Vidya- tarangini Press, Maisir.]

xii

As I stated above, the work, being academic, is rather rigid. I would therefore recommend the read- er to begin from the Fourth Advent to the End (prameya part), and then turn back to the First Three Advents (pramāna part). In any case the copious notes supplied will, it is hoped, lead to a clear comprehension of the otherwise intricate windings of the Viśishțâ-‘dvaita Philosophy and Religion.

Finally, I have to note that this addition to the Orientalia was finished on the 2nd of February 1912, the auspicious day on which a great festival is held in Melkote Hill (Tiru-Nārāyaça-puram), thirty miles north from Maisur (Mysore), in honour of Śri Rāmānuja having discovered the Holy Image of Nārāyaṇa overgrown with jungle and ant-hills, under the asterism Punarvasu (pollox). By acci- dent or providence, it is difficult for the small wits of man to divine, Rev. J. N. Farquhar of the Y. M. C. A. Calcutta, came just now for the first time to Maisûr and in his address to the public in the Wesleyan Mission School hall, began with the preliminary that what attracted him to the place was neither woodland nor river-scene, neither Darya-Daulats nor Tippu’s Tombs, but that great Ramanuja who appeared ten centuries ago on this land giving to men a great spiritual

*See (my) Life of Ramanuja. Ch. xxix.

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xiii

message.* On the day referred to (2nd February.) the Reverend gentleman, true to his announcement, was closeted with me for nearly two hours, in con- versation connected with Sri Ramanuja, and he inci- dentally referred to the lack of the ethical conception of God in the Vedanta, but I told him that the key-note of Ramanuja’s teachings was pre-eminently that. This was the very point also, as I discovered, he had already put in print in his Primer of Hinduism, (p.42), where he says that ‘in the Vedanta Philosophy there is one fatal omission that Brahman is not con- ceived as holy; we are nowhere told that Brahman is righteousness… .Hinduism remains from first to last crippled, because the idea of God was never moralised.’ It is unfortunate Rev. Farquhar com- mitted himself thus too soon; for he would have made quite a contrary statement if he had written his Primer after his South Indian tour; for close

•

Combining this event with the coronation event and the swelling body of the Orientalia, read what Justice M. G. Ranade prophesied in 1901, viz., ‘The hand of God in History is but dimly seen by those who cannot recognize in the contact of European with Eastern thought a higher possibility for the future of both races. Already the morning dawn is upon us and we can see glimpses of the bright future reflected in our ability to know and appreciate each other’s strength and excellence. [Philosophy of Theism.]

xiv

acquaintance with Rāmānuja would have startled him by his exposition of a most ethical and loving as well as sublime and exalted, God as surpasseth all notions of similar character that may be found en- shrined in other Scriptures of Earth. Unfortunately such appellations of Deity connoting His highly ethical character, seem to have escaped his the Revd’s notice, viz., dharma, satya, punya, pāvana, pavitra, pūta, Suchi, suddha, siva, hari, kalyāņa, amale, apahata-pāpmā, beya-pratyanika, nish-kalanka antaryāmi,* Bhagavān † etc. This ethical concept is in fact the cardinal, salient, momentous feature of the Vedanta that con- stitutes Ramanuja’s evangel to mankind.

Christianity no doubt derives its conception of God from the Semitic Judaism, but it ought not to forget its fons et origo remote in the mists of ages, viz., the Aryan (or Vedic) Brahmanism. In the light of ethnographic, philologic, geologic and archæologic

This means God, immanent in nature and man, meaning thereby the Holy Guide (or Ghost, if that word is more endearing), who, as Justice Ranade puts it, is the Divine Reality regulating the purposes of law and order, beauty and benevolence, power and wisdom’.

† See the significations of this last term discussed in the pages of JRAS, for 1910, 1911, 1912, one scholar Dr. Schrader firmly holding that it means essentially holy.

PREFACE

knowledge, made available by Orientalists in this age of enlightenment and enlarged horizon, neither to gain nor glory does it redound to ignore the world-old traditions common to the Indo-European race. The outlook is now so wide that it is time the narrow bounds of Hebraism to which Christianity tenaciously clings itself, should be overleaped. The East invites all men to unite. Even as George V was crowned in India, the Universal Religion of all humanity is destined to be crowned here.* The Science of Religions by Emile Burnouf is a bracing revelation on this theme. Dr. Deussen, even without his reaching as far as Ṛāmānuja, says ’that there is not in the Bible (this venerable book being not yet quite free from Semitic realism) t; but it is in the

It is here meet to recall Sri Parthasarathi Yogi’s proposal to Dr. Miller of Madras to call his College, not Christian, but Universal Religious, College; but Dr. Miller could only heave a sigh, and no more.

† See his Indian Reminiscences. Max Muller in his Lectures on the Vedanta has shown the high ethical standard of the Vedanta, implicated in the doctrine of karma, which the Christian Church impugns to the detriment of all ethics, reducing God to the sorry predicament of a capricious, partial and cruel tyrant, violating as such all essentials of ethics. The Vedantic Deity, on the other hand, Max Muller shows, embraces the deities of any other religion.xvi

YATINDRA-MATA-DIPIKĀ

Veda’; and that ’the Vedanta in its unfalsified form, is the strongest support of pure morality.” Unless God were ethical, Vedanta could not as it doth, sermon on morality! Vain again were its teachings of the immanency of Spirit, did it not mean a life of holiness to have to spring from it!! Any other opinion betok- ens shortness of insight and slenderness of scholar- ship in South Indian lore. Even if the ethical idea were germinal in the Veda, expression in Ramanuja.

it receives its complete Even the stage to which

Even the cold light of logical Tyndall confessed to P. C. Mozoomdar that ’life came from the East once before, and it must come again.’ (1874 A.D.)

That such a world-wide Book of Ethics, the Bhagavad-Gita should have escaped the notice of such an earnest and sympathetic missionary as Rev. J. N. Farquhar a fault venial in the bygone centuries, but not in this 20th century-passeth our under- standing. Nor will Hinduism in the least counten- ance such ethics (?) of the Christian Church as eternal damnation for petty sin or eternal salvation for petty virtue; both determined, indeed, by the infinitesimal life-span of man on earth, and projecting him for the nonce, into eternity for good or worse heedless of the ends of justice! The soul (ego) itself is an ethical entity to Vedanta (not sinful as Christiany insists, though God Himself breathed it!); a fortiori, God in Vedanta is essentially, primarily and exaltedly ethical. Unless God were so, He could

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xvii

the idea developed in Jesus the Christ’s days, is still by ten centuries green. It is scientific to con- ceive the Kosmos as ceaselessly progressive; and therefore evolution need not be imagined as making an exception in the case of, Religion and Philosophy. Their progress therefore cannot be arrested at the Near East, Palestine. If the conservative of Christ be combined with the progressive of Ramanuja, in whom the germinal of the Veda finds its finale, the world is all the more a gainer. The collective reason of all religions so transmitted in history becomes the common heritage of all mankind.

As the man of the Near East (Palestine) Jesus the Christ, was found ready to direct construction when northern barbarians pounced upon and destroy- ed the classical Roman Empire, the sun of Rāmānuja rose on the horizon of the Middle East (India) to direct construction when trans-, as well as cis,-Hima- layan influences such as the Persian (Assyrian also it is said), Semitic and Buddhistic, and all their con- geners had well-nigh sublimated the classic Vedic Brāhmaṇism. In this constructive work, Rāmānuja had also to contend against absolute monism and ergo consequential non-ethical character liable to be imputed to Godhood, into which Vedism had been volatilized, landing it in nihilism; and he had also

not be an object worthy of Love; forasmuch as He is characterized as Axanda in the Vedanta.

xviii

to establish the Personality of the Godhead as stand- ing in the most intimate relationship to the Ego (soul), for the redemption of which Divinity maketh repeat- ed loving sacrifices: Ajayamano bahudhā vijāyate, i. e., Incarnations*; and in order to prepare the same Ego for sweet eternal service comporting with Its Will.

Ramanuja also found that men in his days had swerved from the unitarian conception of God, hidden under poetry, mythe or trope in the Archaic Vedas; and it was therefore his evangel to converge on to this unitarian focus the divergent lines of thought which had emerged from the Vedic source, directing them to a conception of Divinity neither polytheistic nor pantheistic, † neither deistic nor theistic, neither monistic nor dualistic, but a happy synthesis of all the essential features that gave these their names, into a monotheistic Unity (=Bhagavata Dharma), philosophic cum religious, intellectual cum emotional, a Unity of Godhood, in short, necessarily ethical and sufficient unto salvation. † Also in

Cardinal Newman held that the Christian Church borrowed this doctrine from India. God is Ananda Love (Anando-Brahma), and therefore incarnates to give and evoke Love (Esha hy evd-“nandayāti). Incarnation implies vicarious suffering. Read Purusha- Sukta and the Tandya-Maha-brāhmaṇa.

† Read Advent IX. on ‘God.”

Read Ramanuja’s Brahma-sutra-Bhashya, Gadya- traya &c.

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xix

Ramanuja may already be discovered the latest evo- lution of theistic inquiry embodied in such works, for instance, as Prof. C. Fraser’s Philosophy of Theism, in which the Three Primary Data: Ego (soul); Matter, and God are elaborately considered,-which is no other than Rāmānuja’s Three Postulates of Existence, the Tattva-Traya, articulately epitomised in the Yat- indra-Mata-Dipika. Ranade writes: As a matter of fact, both before Sankara-“cārya’s time, and after his death, the modified (Advaita) system of Rāmānuja had played a great part in Indian Philosophy, and to it may be traced the rise and progress of Vaishnava Sects throughout India, which sects have attained to a higher and truer conception of Theism than any of the other prevailing systems’. Again he says:-‘The three-fold postulates of existence (cit, acit, Iśvara of Rāmānuja) are thus seen to be distinct and yet barmonized together. All attempts to assimilate and reduce them into one absolute existence fail because they are bound to fail. At the same time they are not distinct in the sense of being disjoined parts of a mechanical whole. They are one and yet they are many.’ (i. e. Viśishta-“dvaita).

Christianity is a happy combination of Semitic and Aryan culture in the direction of religion: but

(1) ‘Hebraism and Hellenism’, in a restricted sense, according to Mathew Arnold. Semitic com- prises Islamic, Chaldic, Accadian, Egyptian, Judaic

YATINDRA-MATA-DIPIKĀ

Ramanuja later came to unify the Dravidian✶ also including the Bhagavata credo, which is par excellence

and Christian faiths. Dravidian comprises all the Turanian branches. Aryan includes Persic, Medic, Greecian, Roman, Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, Christ- ian. All the three, Aryan, Semitic and Turanian thus engirdle the World. Chaldic (Assyrian) is sus- pected to be Aryan, and Judaism also, when traced through the Essenes and Ebionites. Dr. Deussen is thus justified. [see p: xv. preface.]

(2) J. M. Kennedy in his Religions and Philosophies of the East p: 6, observes thus:-‘One cannot but marvel at the impudence and conceit of the Christian missionary who goes to, say India, after a short course of training and straightway proceeds to con- fute with specially prepared arguments the doctrines of a belief devised by a much superior class of men –a belief indeed to which Christianity itself can easily be traced.’

(3) Revd. Dr. Miller of Madras asked the British Christians to bear in mind that God was at work in India long before any missionary, Catholic or Protest- ant, set his foot there.

*Dravidian includes the two branches Vaishnava and Śaiva. The Dramida- or Dravida-Bhashya on the Brahma-Sutras, referred to both by Sankara and Ramanuja, seems to be an ancient commentary, by its very name Dramida of Dramida-“cārya. Anterior to Ramanuja and posterior to Sankara, procrustean

PREFACE

xxi

concerned with the closest personality of Divinity. There is thus a Holy Trinity realised in Ramanuja, which fuses all the world-faiths into a Universal system. The Theosophical Society also, which sits en- throned in India, in Madras too, where Rámānuja’s work largely lay, stript of all its occultism and esotericism-coupled with other Vedantic movements, may be taken as the most obvious evidence proving the fulfilment of Ramanuja’s work. Ramanuja’s work is like what Bacon wrote:-‘All partitions of knowledge should be accepted, rather for lines to mark and distinguish than for sections to divide and separate, so that the continuance and entirety of knowledge be preserved.’

Under such auspices, the riches are presented to the world, contained in the Compendium,-the YATINDRA-MATA-DIPIKĀ.

Veda-Gṛham,

Maisūr (Mysore), South India.

2nd Febry., 1912.

ALKONDAVILLI

GOVINDA-“CARYA SVAMIN,

M.R.A.S, M.R.S.A, ETC.

methods seem to have been prevalent; but Ramānuja gave true proportions by showing how the radical conceptions of God involved in such terms as Śiva, Hiranyagarbha, Indra, Agni etc., were all implicated in the comprehensive term Nārāyaṇa. See Advent IX on ’ God.’

CORRIGENDA

xxiii

CORRIGENDA.

PAGE

LINE

FOR

READ

he is

astu

asti

viii

Karisaila

Kariśaila

editon

edition

8 12

(the further

(the further).

Inference,

Inference

Samskara

178

dor-mant

dormant

perception

23 22

differences

-Sangraha

add after line 16

perception,

differences

-Samgraha

Because antithe-

sis is wanting

36 17-18-19 because…wanting (because….want-

ing)

Kalatyayaya……

Kalatyaya pa……

Kratu,

Kratu’,

intended,

intended.

59 23

parisapkhyā

Jyotish tomam

Pankaja

63 heading…knowledge

parisaṁkhyā

Jyotishṭomam

Pakkaja

knowledge; Matter

xxiv

PAGE LINE

FOR

CORRIGENDA

READ

Four-Yugas

Each Manu has

for his time-meas-

ure 71 Four-Yugas

koti

110

sangamam

samgamam

III

Udgita

Udgitha

115

Māyāvadins

Māyāvādins

116

118

123

125

126

2222 =

Soul,

Bhaskara Śaivâcaryas

Soul

Bhaskara

Śaivacāryas

etc

&c.

128

abide

Jaimini……oiya

&c’.

abides

ete

Jaiminiya…shano

129

mantrāśrayaś

mantra"srayas

130

Sriman—

Śriman-

133

delvered

delivered

145 19

cognizer

cognized

151

bypostatize

bypostatizes

154

(Easternal

156

non-substance

157

Isvara

158

aad

162

(gallnut)

167

Sixteen

(as Eternal

Non-substance

isvara

and

(gallnut),

Twenty-four

GLORY TO RĀMĀNUJA

YATĪNDRA’-MATA-DĪPIKĀ

THE LIGHT OF RĀMĀNUJA’S SCHOOL.