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Life
In a life scholars now think lasted barely thirty years, he wrote commentaries systematic enough to define Hindu philosophy for the next twelve centuries, all built on one claim: the self and the absolute are not two things.
Against Shankara's claim that the self and the absolute are strictly identical with nothing left over, he argued they are one but qualified — a single reality that still leaves real room for a soul to love, and be loved by, its God.
Connection
Adi Shankara Advaita answered by Vishishtadvaita Ramanuja — Ramanuja's Sri Bhashya was written as a direct, sustained answer to Shankara's Advaita reading of the Brahma Sutras two or three centuries earlier, arguing that Brahman really contains souls and matter rather than standing alone as undifferentiated reality.
Ideas
Words
“Brahman is real; the world is appearance; the individual self is nothing but Brahman.”
“A person is not liberated by mere words, without perceiving the truth; liberation cannot come by any other means than direct realization.”
“The individual soul is a part of the Supreme, as a spark is of fire, distinct yet dependent, never separate and never identical.”
“Devotion is not a single act but a continuous stream of remembrance, unbroken like a flow of oil, directed toward the Supreme Person.”
Key Moments
c. 720s CE
Debates Mandana Mishra
c. 740s CE
Establishes four monastic centers
c. 1100 CE
Writes the Sri Bhashya
c. 1120s CE
Becomes head priest at Srirangam
Works
Brahma Sutra Bhashya
Sri Bhashya