Ramanuja
Ramanuja (1077–1157) was a celebrated philosopher and saint of South India. He was the founder of the philosophical school known as Vishitad-vaita, or special nondualism. His highest ideal was the love of God (bhakti), as well as the knowledge that all creatures and all inanimate creatures are alike “forms of God.”
Ramanuja's views are often set off against those of Shankara. Ramanuja thought the divinity was endowed with attributes. Shankara viewed the ultimate reality or Brahman as completely beyond characteristics or characterization. Shankara's Brahman was an inert, transcendental reality; Ramanuja believed in a “qualified Brahman” — that is, a personal god endowed with attributes to comprehend souls as things.
Ramanuja's guru felt threatened that his student developed his own view of the Sanskrit scriptures to challenge his own. The guru is said to have arranged to lure Ramanuja on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Benares so he could be killed. But Ramanuja was miraculously saved, and eventually his guru bowed at his feet and accepted Ramanuja as his teacher.
In a passage entitled “How God Is Regarded by the Ignorant and by the Wise,” Ramanuja wrote, “high-minded believers worship God by paying homage to him … by performing the sacrifice called jnana.” What does that mean? God is worshipped as the one underlying the individual plurality of things.
Ramanuja, the greatest bhakti theologian so far, enumerates six prerequisites for someone embarking on the bhaktimarga: a bhakta has to observe certain dietary rules; show complete disregard for worldly objects; continue all religious activities faithfully; perform puja or purification; behave virtuously; and be free from depression.
