Yoga - Sankara v. Ramanuja

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Sankara v. Ramanuja

Dave ©¿©¬

2005-07-28, 8:58 am

Howdy!

I am currently reading a book titled:

"Consciousness and Reality
An Indian Approach to Metaphysics"

By: Father Chethimattam
(a professor at Dharmaram college in Bangalore, India)

Right now I'm trying to figure out what discipline Sankara was working out
of and where Ramanuja was coming from.

--
Namaste

Dave ©¿©
"Ego sum quis ego sum quod ut est quicumque ego sum"

http://www.howdydave.com

anon

2005-07-28, 6:00 pm

"Dave ©¿©¬" <dave@_nospam_howdydave.com> wrote in message
news:M5_Fe.2892$j21.331@news01.roc.ny...
> Howdy!
>
> I am currently reading a book titled:
>
> "Consciousness and Reality
> An Indian Approach to Metaphysics"
>
> By: Father Chethimattam
> (a professor at Dharmaram college in Bangalore, India)
>
> Right now I'm trying to figure out what discipline Sankara was working out
> of and where Ramanuja was coming from.
>

Shankara was highly influenced by buddhism, especially the yogacara school
of asanga etc, even though his lineage claims to be vedic.

ramanuja was the more traditional theistic vedic monk, who found shankara's
buddhistic-vedantic ideas too much to digest.

Dave ©¿©¬

2005-07-29, 5:56 pm

"anon" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:z62dnaa24Ope_3TfRVn-oA@pghconnect.com...
>
> "Dave ©¿©¬" <dave@_nospam_howdydave.com> wrote in message
> news:M5_Fe.2892$j21.331@news01.roc.ny...
out[vbcol=seagreen]
>
> Shankara was highly influenced by buddhism, especially the yogacara school
> of asanga etc, even though his lineage claims to be vedic.
>
> ramanuja was the more traditional theistic vedic monk, who found
shankara's
> buddhistic-vedantic ideas too much to digest.
>
>
Howdy!

Ahhh... makes sense....
Ramanuja was a bit indignant about the attempt to undermine the foundation
of "the orthadox way."

--
Namaste

Dave ©¿©
"Ego sum quis ego sum quod ut est quicumque ego sum"

http://www.howdydave.com

Ashtanga Yogi

2005-08-04, 10:53 pm

Dave =A9=BF=A9=AC wrote:
> "anon" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:z62dnaa24Ope_3TfRVn-oA@pghconnect.com...
> out
ool[vbcol=seagreen]
> shankara's
> Howdy!
>
> Ahhh... makes sense....
> Ramanuja was a bit indignant about the attempt to undermine the foundation
> of "the orthadox way."
>

IMO Ramanuja was way more unorthodox than anyone else.
He was first to fight against social differences like
caste system, gender bias etc. While he was studying
under a Advaita Guru (Sankara's philosophy), he had few
debates with his guru which enraged his Guru as Ramanuja
was arguing against established set of philosophies/beliefs.
As a result the Guru plotted to kill Ramanuja. The plot
failed. After that he joined under a Guru who a was Shudra
by caste. A brahmin getting educated under a Shudra is not
something that was common. It didn't go well with Ramanuja's
wife and he parted ways taking Sanyasa. It should be noted
that the first Advaita teacher joined under Ramanuja later.
Once he went to another teacher to learn a sacred mantra.
The teacher tested his patience and made him come back many
times before he gave it. When he gave the mantra, he told that
he should not reveal it to anyone without making sure the guy
will guard the mantra as a secret. Next day, Ramanuja called
everyone and chanted the mantra loudly from a roof top of a
temple. This enraged the teacher. Ramanuja said, it is ok
for me to land up in hell if people benifit from chanting the
mantra. The teacher was touched by his selfless attitude. He
was in exile for many years in Mysore and there abouts. There
he took the help of many lower caste people to build a temple.
After that he arguged that the lower caste people should be
let inside the temple. Lot of people protested it. After
much debate, the king of that region agreed that the lower
caste people would be let inside the temple for 3 days a year.
In contrast to Ramanuja, Sankara did believe in caste system.
Ramanuja otoh viewed caste discrimination as an orthodox garbage
which doesn't lead one's soul towards salvation, in fact let's it
down. Considering the established views of social and philosohical
tradition and dogmas, Ramanuja did take a very diffuclt route
and achieved success.