On the life and works of Rāmānuja, 1017-1137, Vaishnavite leader and propagator of the Viśishtādvaita school in Hindu philosophy.

Srimad Bhagavad Gita is now widely recognised as a scriptural text of worldwide importance. Sri Ramanuja is one of the noted commentators on the Vedanta Sutras of Badarayana and the Bhagavad Gita. This has brought him recognition as one of the greatest exponents of Vedanta from the Vaishnava point of view. Swami Adidevananda, one of the distinguished scholarly monks of the Ramakrishna Order who retained his inherent Sri Vaishnava heritage, has translated the original verses and Sri Ramanuja’s commentary into English. This book is of special importance because it is the only English translation now available with the original Sanskrit commentary as well. The book opens with meditation on the Gita followed by the Gitartha-sangraha of Sri Yamunacharya with English translation. Swami Tapasyananda, who was a scholarly monk with deep devotional temperament and one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order, has written a scholarly introduction to this work.

Rare and blessed is the occasion when a saint, an illumined soul, Swami Ramakrishnananda, a direct-disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, undertakes the task of writing a biography of an Acharya, a world-teacher, Sri Ramanuja. No writer, however erudite and accomplished, can bring to his work that revealing insight which a saint does by virtue of his illumination. From this point of view, the biography of Sri Ramanuja in Bengali, authored by Swami Ramakrishnananda, is a unique work. Whether one belongs to the ranks of orthodox followers or to those of the heterodox, going through the pages of this book, one would surely feel the devotional fervour the author had for Sri Ramanuja. The book was translated into English by Swami Buddhananda, Interspersed with more than 150 colour photographs, annotated with many additional notes, and additional material appended, this new edition of the book, brought out to commemorate Sri Ramanuja’s 1000th Birth Year, will surely communicate the transforming power of the great life of a mighty and magnanimous world-teacher written by an illustrious apostle of another great world-teacher.

Can the comparison of two theologians vastly separated in space and time help contemporary theologians to think better? This book compares two preeminent theologians, Sri Ramanuja of the Hindu tradition and Friedrich Schleiermacher of the Christian tradition. Each argues that God sustains the universe at every moment of its existence, but they work out the divine sustenance in very different ways.

This is the first attempt to understand Ramanuja in the context of his religious and philosophical tradition. It is the only work which establishes his indebtedness to his immediate predecessor Yamuna and which identifies his actual opponents. It is accordingly a contribution to the wider history of classical Indian thought and not just a consideration of a single individual and his tradition.