The Canon / Foundational / Yoga & Tantra
Foundational · c.1100
Sri Bhashya
Yogic & TantricSri Bhashya is Ramanuja's major commentary on the Brahma Sutras and the foundational text of Vishishtadvaita, qualified nondualism. Its central claim is that reality is one but differentiated: individual souls and the material world are genuinely real and form the body of the supreme Brahman, identified with the personal God.
Against the strict nondualism of Shankara, the commentary argues through close scriptural reasoning that the self is truly distinct yet wholly dependent on God. The fitting response is therefore loving surrender answered by divine grace, not the dissolution of the self into a featureless absolute.
The work dignified the path of devotion with the full apparatus of philosophy, grounding a stream in which the seeker relates to a living Ultimate rather than vanishing into it. Its model of grace meeting effort echoes through later devotional and New Thought reliance on a benevolent Source.
Practices it teaches
Kainkarya — Loving Service & Seeing the Lord in All
Kainkarya is loving service to the Lord — and, fully unfolded, service to His devotees as well. It rests on seshatva: the recognition that the soul belongs wholly to the Lord (the soul is sesha, existing for the…
Bhakti Yoga — Continuous Loving Meditation (Upasana / Dhruva-Smriti)
For Ramanuja (1017-1137 CE), the founder of Vishishtadvaita ("qualified non-dualism"), the highest path to the Divine is bhakti yoga: not a passing feeling but a continuous, loving meditation on the Lord.
Prapatti / Sharanagati — Self-Surrender to the Lord
Prapatti (also sharanagati — "taking refuge") is the act of total self-surrender to the Lord at His feet, trusting Him as one's sole protector and means of liberation.
Lineage
The author
RamanujaQualified nondualism (Vishishtadvaita) and devotional grace
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