Today is Ramanuja Jayanti
Sangeeta Venkatesh | May 7, 2011, 12.00am IST | TIMES OF INDIA: [...] Ramanuja was deeply influenced by the 12 alwars or Vaishnavite poet-saints, who were immersed in bhakti or devotion towards Narayana. Through bhakti, Ramanujacharya advocated saranagati or total surrender to God. Indeed, Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita advises Arjuna to rise above the lesser dharmas or duties which keep the soul bound to matter. He urges Arjuna to ‘surrender all unto me and I shall free you from fears, bondage and sorrows’. The act of surrender is termed as saranagati, which forms the nucleus of the vishistha advaita philosophy, and is referred to as the prapatti yoga. In deference to Yamunacharya’s wishes, Ramanujacharya wrote the Sribhashya, a commentary on the Brahmasutras, Gita Bhashya, Saranagati Gadyam, among many other works. He travelled all over India and standardised the liturgy at many temples including the Sri Venkateshwara temple at Tirupati, and the Cheluvanarayana temple at Melkote, Karnataka, where he spent a major part of his life.
source: TIMES OF INDIA
