<\/p>\n
When RN returned, he saw the house was empty and his wife’s nervousness. RK
\ntried to explain by beginning, “That woman is too proud.” When he understood
\nwhat had happened he just ran out of the house trying to find MP and wife.
\nFailing that, he came back and just said, “You’ve had your third chance.” She
\nstarted weeping and pleaded, “Please forgive me. I am a foolish woman. It is
\nso difficult to overcome my nature. You must protect me, otherwise how will I
\nlive? If you leave me, I’ll jump in the well!” He said, “Don’t contaminate
\nour well. I am going to the temple now. Just compose yourself – we’ll talk
\nabout this another time.”<\/p>\n
RN went to the temple and arranged for one brahmin to go to his house and take
\nprasadam. That brahmin felt very reluctant, because he knew well RK’s
\nreputation as a shrew. Standing outside the door, he announced himself as a
\nbrahmin and told RK that he’d come only on RN’s order. But she said, “Oh, I
\nam too confused right now to cook anything. Can you not please go somewhere
\nelse?” Relieved, the brahmin left, but because he didn’t want to be further
\nentangled in Ramanuja’s household troubles, he loitered in a stinky land where
\npoop was passed.<\/p>\n
When that brahmin didn’t return, RN could guess what had happened. He went
\nsearching for him and found him in the stinky lane. This time he sent the
\nbrahmin back with a new sari, bangles, fruits and flowers. His story was, “I
\nforgot to tell you last time that I have come from your home town. Your
\nfather has sent me here to tell you your brother is getting married. These
\nthings are for you. Just take them and I will go.” “No, no!” she said,
\nsuddenly brightening. “I will cook for you. You please come in!” After
\nserving him nicely, she said, “Please go to the temple and inform my husband
\nthat I have fed you. Ask him to send me home so that I can attend my
\nbrother’s marriage.” RN returned home, showing happiness at his wife’s
\nbehavior. He sent her to her father’s home, telling her he’d also come after
\na few days. After she was gone, he took sannyasa from Vadiraja, Who said, “I
\nam known as Varadaraja (king of benedictors). Now you will be known as
\nYatiraja.” Varadaraja told KP to put RN up in an old monastery.<\/p>\n
After 3 days, 600 Vaisnavas had moved into that monastery. RN sent a note to
\nSailapurna that he should help RN’s cousin-brother Govinda (now a known as
\nShivacharya). YP’s mother saw RN one day and told YP to go surrender to him.
\n“Advaitism is useless”, she said. “You were always confused.” YP said, “Only
\nin time will I do that.” That night Varadaraja came to him in a dream, or so
\nYP thought until VR showed him the whole universe. “I am brahman”, VR
\ndeclared. “Why are you doing all this?” asked YP. “Because you won’t follow
\nyour mother. You just go ahead and do it. I will help you from within your
\nheart.”<\/p>\n
Next morning, YP had a kind of nervous attack. “I’m a lizard!” He cried
\naloud, and ran to RN in a disheveled state. RN fell at his feet. YP began
\nputting questions to him: “Why do you put on this tilaka? Why do you worship
\nshilas? Why did Varadaraja show His universal form to me? Where is all this
\nin sastra?”<\/p>\n
RN called KP and asked him to explain the Vaisnava-siddhanta to YP. YP cried,
\n“I am an offender! Where can I take shelter?” He went back to his mother and
\nsaid, “I touched his feet. Now I shall circumambulate the earth to be
\nrelieved of my offenses.” His mother said, “You are still confused – you just
\ncircumambulate RN.” So YP went back to RN and did that, and RN gave him
\ninitiation as Govinda dasa Swami; he told him to write a book on tridandi
\nsannyasa.<\/p>\n
Through his chief priest, Sri Ranganatha called Mahapurna and told him that
\nsomehow or other RN must come to SR. Ranganatha told his temple dancer, Sri
\nRanga Purna, to go to Kanchi and please Vadiraja. “I can go without
\nentertainment for a few days, but I cannot go on without RN. Ask Varadaraja
\nto release RN from His service and allow him to come to Sri Rangam.”<\/p>\n
SRP went to Kanchi and danced for VR for 3 days straight. The Deity asked him
\nwhy he was doing this. “If You want me to stop, You’ve got to give me what I
\nwant.” “What? You can’t force Me.” “No, how can I force? I’ll just go on
\ndancing.” “Alright, I’ll give you anything except Laxmi.” But when he asked
\nfor RN the Lord adamantly refused. SRP returned, and Lord Ranganatha
\ncommented, “This Varadaraja is too proud.”<\/p>\n
Back in Kanchi, KP, who had been teaching RN, thought he should go to MP and
\nlearn more. KP asked VR, who replied “How can you ask Me for this?” KP said,
\n“You just give RN two forms that he can stay and yet go.” And KP told RN
\nafterwards, “Yes, now you may go and stay.” When RN walked into the Sri
\nRangam temple, Ranganatha took 4 steps in his direction.<\/p>\n
RN called the Lord Ranganatha, and Ranganatha called him Mannatha (“My lord.”)<\/p>\n
RN took instructions from MP. MP told him to get a mantra from Gosthipurna.
\nGP put RN off 18 times. Finally RN got initiation into the secret mantra.
\nImmediately afterwards he climbed up to the top of the Nrsingha temple and
\nshouted “Om Namo Narayanaya”, asking everyone to chant it. Some of GP’s
\ndisciples stopped him and said, “Your are going to hell, but before that, you
\nshould see GP.” GP was MAD! But then he was pleased, because he actually
\nunderstood RN’s real purpose. He then gave him Charanaopaya initiation (B.g.
\n18.66 initiation).<\/p>\n
Ramanuja’s Gurus<\/p>\n
Vartmapradarsaka-guru: Kanchipurna
\nDiksa- and siksa-guru: Mahapurna
\nMantra-diksa-guru: Gosthipurna
\nDivyaprabandha-siksa-guru: Maladhara
\nSiksa-guru for confidential truths: Sri Rangapurna
\nRamayana-siksa-guru: Sailapurna (RN’s uncle)<\/p>\n
Sri Rangam was flooded with devotees. RN sent some devotees to Kalahasti to
\ncorrect his brother Govinda. G now had matted locks, wore ashes, and was
\ndaily engaged in gathering flowers for puja of Siva. Sailapurna stopped
\nGovinda while he was bringing water for puja and asked him, “What’s the use of
\npouring cold water on a hot head?” SP also wrote some verses and dropped them
\nat a place where Govinda walked. G picked up the leaf and a conversation
\nensued between them, spoken in cryptic terms, over the proper object of
\nworship. After that, SP used to give class near the tree where G would pick
\nhis flowers for worship. SP would deliberately preach KC very loudly; one
\nday, just before G climbed the tree, he asked SP, “Are you so sure that no-one
\nelse is worshippable?” SP answered, “Natra samsaya” thrice. Hearing the class
\nup in the tree, he cried aloud, “I’ve wasted my life!” when SP said that one
\nwastes his life by not serving Visnu. G fell out of the tree. On the spot,
\nSP initiated him.<\/p>\n
The Saivites came running up as G was going with SP back to Sri Rangam. “Where
\nare you going? You’re our acarya!” G said, “Look, just forget about me now.”
\nThey turned to SP: “What did you do to him?” Then to G: “Did they hex you,
\nthese Vaisnavas?” G: “Go ask Lord Siva.” So for 3 days they fasted. Siva
\nappeared in their dreams and said, “He’s not my servant, he’s a servant of the
\nSupreme Lord Visnu, and so am I.” Siva then quoted sastra to support Visnu’s
\nsupremacy, but concluded, “You can’t understand. RN is the amsa of Sesa, and
\nG is the amsa of Garuda. Let him go and leave him be. I’ll take care of you.
\nYou are confused, as are all my devotees. I only wanted his association, but
\nnow RN is calling him away. It’s alright, don’t worry.”<\/p>\n
When Maladhara was teaching RN the Divyaprabandhas, RN would interrupt to
\ncorrect his explanations. So MD stopped the class. When Gosthipurna heard
\nthat, he asked MD why he’d stopped teaching RN, and MD said, “Oh, he has his
\nown meanings for the Divyaprabandhas.” GP asked, “Tell me these explanations
\nof his.” When he heard them, he was in ecstasy. “Only YA himself knows these
\nmeanings!” he exclaimed. When class thereafter resumed, MD forgot some
\nexplanations; RN spoke at length on them for 3 days.<\/p>\n
RN went to Rangapurna’s house to get secret instructions. RN made milk for
\nRP, like a servant in the kitchen. When he tasted it, RP exclaimed “Only YA
\ncan make milk like this!” RN would massage, clean, wash and do all menial
\nservices for RP. One day RP called RN a robber: “You’ve come to steal!” RN
\nsaid, “I am serving, not asking for anything.” In this way he went on for 30
\ndays. On 31st day RP said, “I am so pleased with you I must give you this
\nsecret knowledge of the 5th process of devotional service, called upadya –
\ntaking shelter of the guru.” RP lectured for 7 days on upadya, establishing
\nit as the most important process of devotional service.<\/p>\n
When RN returned from RP’s place, he called for a big meeting and proclaimed a
\nstrict schedule for Deity worship. In the course of 24 hours each day, 1000
\nclasses on sastra were held at the temple. 12000 disciples were fed daily; a
\ncanal of ghee flowed to the kitchen. Nobody came to Sri Rangam without
\nwearing tilaka.<\/p>\n
One Yajnamurti from Kasi collected religionists opposed to Vaisnavism and
\narrived at Rangaksetra with 68 disciples and 1000 bullock carts of books. RN
\ngave him nice accommodation. On stage before everyone they argued. RN asked
\nin the beginning, what will you do if I defeat you – I’ll take your feet on my
\nhead and wear tilaka. But what will YOU do if I defeat you? RN said, “You
\nwon’t defeat me. But if you do, I’ll stop writing.” The debate raged for 17
\ndays, and RN was almost defeated. That night he went to Lord Ranganatha and
\ncomplained – is this what you want? Lord said – don’t worry, he’ll surrender.
\nThe next morning RN came to the debate stage brimming with confidence. This
\nrattled YM so much he capitulated. He became Devaraja Muni and was also known
\nas Mannatha. RN would send people to him to become disciples. But though he
\nwas put in a big matha building by RN himself, he finally broke that building
\nto dust. He wrote two important literatures: Jnana-sara (essence of knowledge
\nabout Krsna) and Prameya-sara (taking shelter of lotus feet of spiritual
\nmaster).<\/p>\n
RN went to Tirupati and lived by the Alwar Tank, but he didn’t want to go up
\nto the top of the mountain. Sailapurna told him not to stay longer than 3
\ndays unless he had service; otherwise he should go back to preach. SP
\ninstructed RN for 1 year; at the end, SP gave RN Govinda (SP’s disciple). But
\njust outside Rangaksetra Govinda got sick from separation from his spiritual
\nmaster and ran back to Tirupati; however, SP told him, “We don’t feed cows
\nthat have been sold.” Govinda used to make SP’s bed and lay in it to test it;
\nwhen RN expressed surprise at this, G said, “Yes, let me go to hell, but it
\nmust be good for my spiritual master.”<\/p>\n
RN went up to Kasmir and acquired an old text of Vedanta-sutra; though someone
\nstole it, his disciple Kuresa had memorized it.<\/p>\n
A priest bribed a brahmin to put poison in RN’s bhiksa (RN went to 7 different
\nhouses daily for begging alms). But when the wife gave it over, she was
\nlooking at the ground, and so RN looked and saw “visha” was written there. He
\nstopped begging and thus stopped eating. Gosthipurna came to see him; in the
\nhot sands of the Kaveri riverback, RN paid obeisances, but since KP didn’t say
\nanything, RN didn’t get up for one hour. After that one disciple jumped under
\nRN to protect him from the sand. GP said, “This man will be your cook, for he
\nputs your well-being before his own.” Later that priest put poison in
\ncaranamrta for RN; RN could tell because the priest’s hand was shaking when he
\nspooned it out. RN said, “Oh so first you put poison in my food, now you’re
\ntrying my drink. But this time I’ll take it, for it is the Lord’s footwash.
\nAnd watch – I won’t die. I am a snake – you can’t kill a snake by giving him
\npoison.” He drank and split.<\/p>\n
He cruised around India to establish pancharatra. But Lord Jagannatha said,
\n“Not here.” RN said, “It’s gotta be.” He called in the pandits and defeated
\nthem; told them I’m sending for Sri Vaisnava brahmins to show you how to do
\npuja. Balaram threw him to Kurmaksetra. But inbetween time he was sent to
\nMayapur where he saw Lord Caitanya.<\/p>\n
Saivites argued that Srinivasa of Tirupati is actually Siva; RN came and
\ndefeated them. They said, “Show practically.” The king was p.o.’d but RN
\nsaid, bring weapons to offer; the next morning, they saw Lord had accepted
\nconch and disc. The Saivites accused, “He’s a yogi”, but the king said,
\n“Look, if you had any power, you could done that too, if it was true. And even
\nif it is true, it just means RN is better than you.” He told them not to live
\nwithin 3000 miles around his kingdom, and prevented the establishment of any
\nother Deity for 14 miles around Tirupati.<\/p>\n
Dhanurdasa and wife story.<\/p>\n
While taking bath, he used to put his arm around Dhanurdasa; but they
\ncriticized. RN tore up their kaupins; stealers came through tiles of roof.<\/p>\n
Chola King Chidambaram, a Saivite, ruled that all scholars had to sign “Nobody
\nis above Siva.” One of his ministers was a blooped disciple of Kuresa, and he
\nsaid “Just get RN and K to sign, then everybody will sign.” When soldiers
\ncame to Sri Rangam to fetch RN, K disguised himself as sannyasi and said, “I
\nam RN”, MP said “I’m his guru”, K’s daughter said, “I’m his sister.” Kuresa
\nwrote “The Krosadi is above Siva.” Meanwhile, to bewilder the Chola king, the
\nBrahmanas sent a prostitute who did the hunchy-punchy with him for 3 days;
\nthey could take off with the Govinda Devaraja Deity.<\/p>\n
RN had to run away. On a mountain, they saw hunters dancing around a fire. A
\nboy was sent to check them out – “Hey, these are Vaisnava bro’s!” A disciple
\nof Kanchipurna had preached to them.<\/p>\n
After that they met a woman named Shailaachala-ambha in a remote village; she
\nhad taken initiation 10 yrs earlier in Sri Rangam. After meeting RN she went
\non a fast demanding that her Buddhist husband should surrender to RN. 10,000
\nBuddhists came to debate with him; from behind a curtain he answered all their
\nquestions in a Sesa form. One disciple looked behind the curtain and was
\nblinded for 10 days.<\/p>\n
Thus the local king became RN’s disciple: Vitthalanath. RN here excavated the
\nSampat Kumar Deity.<\/p>\n
On the way back to Sri Rangam, Mahapurna (who had been blinded with Kuresa)
\ndied. Kuresa was stopped from returning to Sri Rangam by Chola king’s
\nsoldiers who didn’t want RN’s disciples at that temple; the local brahmanas
\nwere working with the soldiers for this goal. Hearing all this, RN prayed to
\nNarasimha – “Kill that demon!” The Chola king was preparing to raze RN’s
\nmatha when his throat got infested with worms; krimikantha. RN told Kuresa
\nto pray to Varadaraja for the return of his sight; K prayed that his
\nex-disciple goes where he goes. So RN prayed to VR, “Give him sight”, and it
\nhappened. Back in SR, K asked Sri Ranganatha to go to Vaikuntha; Lord said
\nyes and all those related to you and those related to them. RN was in ecstasy
\nbecause he is related also as guru.<\/p>\n
RN gave disciples final instructions. Take shelter of my disciple Parasara
\nBhatta for siddhanta; everything is in my books.<\/p>\n
In Caitanya-lila he returned as Ananta Brahmana; did pancharatric
\nworship to Laxmi Narayana; was friend of Vallabha-misra. He attended the
\nmarriage of LC with Laxmipriya; he remembered everything of his identity and
\nthe Lord’s; he went mad, breaking up marriage ceremony by chanting Gaura
\nGaura. The marriage celebrants took him back to his house and kept him
\ninside; there he jumped, and his hands came throughout the grass roof.
\nIn that ecstasy, he went back home, back to Godhead.<\/p>\n
\nVisistadvaita philosophy compared to Acintya-bheda-abheda:<\/p>\n
Visistadvaita: Abbt:<\/p>\n
Supreme truth is Visnu, Krsna avatara Krsna is ST, Visnu form of that<\/p>\n
Vaikuntha is supreme, Goloka part Goloka supreme, Vaikuntha part<\/p>\n
Bhokta, bhogyam, Prerita are different Bhokta, Bhogya energies of Prerita<\/p>\n
Brahman (vastu) has Visesa, which are Bheda-abheda is acintya
\ncit and acit: RN refuted bhedabheda as
\nmonism.<\/p>\n
Cit-acit form body of Lord, who is the Internal, External, Marginal
\nSupreme Soul (objection: how is something
\nhappening that is not in accordance with
\nLord’s Own desire; their answer – lila)<\/p>\n
Jnana and Karma are processes by which Don’t touch Jnana, Karma for anything
\nwe take favors of Lord; by Prappati we
\ngive service.<\/p>\n
Brahman does not transform into living Lord’s energies transform, but Lord
\nentity or material energy is always the same (touchstone)
\n\u001a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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