Talk:The Ācāryas: Shri Rāmānujāchārya (1017 – 1137 CE)

By Vishal Agarwal

Rāmānujācārya risks going to Naraka for the sake of others

Śrī Rāmānujācārya was a great Saint who lived in South India from 1017–1137 C.E. Once, he learned that a teacher named Goṣṭhipūrṇa knew a powerful secret mantra with which one can really please Bhagavān Viṣṇu and ask for several boons in return. Śrī Rāmānujācārya approached the teacher and requested to be taught the mantra. The teacher agreed, but on one condition – that he must keep the mantra secret and should not teach it to anyone else. Śrī Rāmānujācārya agreed to this condition.

Guru Goṣṭhipūrṇa then taught him the sacred Vaiṣṇava mantra “Oṃ Namo Nārāyaṇāya”. However, thinking that such a liberation-granting mantra must not be hidden from the masses, Rāmānuja climbed the top of the Thirukkoṭṭiyūr temple in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and started preaching it to all.

Guru Goṣṭhipūrṇa was very angry at this act of disobedience and scolded Rāmānuja, saying that he will surely go to Naraka for disobeying his Guru. Rāmānuja replied that if his going to Naraka could give liberation to many others, he would not mind residing there.

The words of Rāmānuja moved his Guru to tears. The Guru embraced his student and said that he alone had understood the true meaning of the mantra.

In the spiritual tradition of Śrī Rāmānuja, another great saint named Piḷḷai Lokācārya (1205–1311) was born a century later. So pleased was Bhagavān Viṣṇu with him that He blessed the saint, saying that whosoever associates with Lokācārya will also come to Viṣṇu with him. So compassionate was Piḷḷai Lokācārya that thereafter, he would touch even ants lovingly and would gaze at plants for a long time so that even the souls of these living beings would go to Bhagavān Viṣṇu.

Rāmānujācārya teaches the importance of faith to his students

Some street urchins were playing a game on a sandy stretch of a sidewalk. They fashioned a maṇḍira on the sand, and crafted a mūrti of Bhagavān Viṣṇu inside it. Then, the kids conducted a pūjā with great faith and love. After the pūjā was over, the kids picked small amounts of sand and offered it as prasāda to passers-by. But most passers-by merely laughed at the kids’ game and threw the sand away mockingly.

However, when Śrī Rāmānuja walked by and saw the kids’ maṇḍira and their devotion, he prostrated on the street and bowed to the sand mūrti and the maṇḍira. His disciples were amused and asked him, “They were just playing a game. Why did you take the trouble to prostrate to their sculpture?”

Rāmānuja said, “Bhagavān dwells wherever there is innocence, faith, and devotion. Did you not see these qualities in the eyes of the kids? They genuinely believed and saw Bhagavān in their sand mūrti. And therefore, Viṣṇu indeed exists in the mūrti, and I bowed to Him.”

Dhanurdāsa finds the most beautiful eyes

Śrī Rāmānujācārya once saw a strange incident – a man was walking backwards while holding an umbrella over his beloved. The saint asked the man the reason for this inappropriate behaviour. The man replied, “I worship beauty. Even while walking with this woman, I do not want to waste a single moment by not seeing the beauty of her lovely eyes.”

Rāmānuja thought, “I wish that his infatuation for beauty were directed towards Viṣṇu, the most beautiful one! If that happens, this man would attain great spiritual heights.” Therefore, the saint said, “If you worship beauty, then come today evening to the Raṅganāthasvāmy temple in Śrīraṅgam at the time of the ārati.”

The man was reluctant to go to the temple, but his beloved said, “Perhaps a misfortune would befall you if you do not obey the command of a holy man. So just go for today.” The man showed up at the required time in the temple, and he was overwhelmed when he saw the beauty of the lamps being waved around the Deity. He was moved by the beauty of the prayers being chanted by the devotees and by the faith in their eyes.

His transformation occurred there and then. He gave up his wrong ways and became a true devotee of Viṣṇu. His name is recorded as Dhanurdāsa. Dhanurdāsa married his beloved with the blessings of Rāmānujācārya, and they both settled down in the temple city of Śrīraṅgam, where the couple spent their lives in the worship of Bhagavān.

Indeed, the realization that Bhagavān is the most beautiful one made Dhanurdāsa lose all arrogance and other negative traits, as well as his love for worldly beauty, which was no match for the beauty of Bhagavān.

When Śrī Rāmānuja became old, he needed support to walk. Every morning, he would take a bath in the river Kāverī and then return to the temple, leaning on the shoulders of Dhanurdāsa. This annoyed some of his followers who said, “Dhanurdāsa was a foolish person in the past. Moreover, he is not born in a great family of brāhmaṇas. Why don’t you lean on the shoulder of one of the more prominent of your disciples?”

Rāmānuja replied, “Knowledge, birth in a great family, and wealth can make one arrogant. Dhanurdāsa does not have any of these three types of arrogance. The Kāverī river’s water can only clean my external body. But the man’s heart and mind can only be cleaned by the touch of a person like Dhanurdāsa, who has no arrogance of wealth, knowledge, or birth in an elitist family.”