Schools of Vedanta
विशिष्टाद्वैत
Vishishtadvaita Vedanta
Viśiṣṭādvaita
In simple words
Ramanuja's view is that God is like the soul and everything else — all souls and the whole world — is like God's body. They are real and truly depend on God, and liberation means living in loving relationship with God forever.
Overview
Vishishtadvaita holds that Brahman is one, but a one that is internally differentiated: conscious selves (chit) and non-conscious matter (achit) are real and form the "body" of Brahman, who is their inner controller. Brahman is identified with Vishnu-Narayana, a personal God endowed with infinite auspicious qualities, not a featureless absolute. The world is a real transformation of Brahman's body, not an illusion. Bondage is the self's karma-caused contraction of its knowledge; liberation is the self's restoration to its natural state, in which it enjoys God eternally while remaining distinct. The path centres on devotion (bhakti) understood as loving, continuous meditation, and on surrender (prapatti) with reliance on God's grace.
Scholar’s note
The body-soul relation (sharira-shariri bhava) and the grammatical principle of samanadhikaranya (co-ordinate predication) are central tools. After Ramanuja the tradition divided into Vadakalai and Tenkalai lineages, differing notably on the role of the soul's effort in prapatti.Core questions
- ?How can Brahman be one if selves and the world are real?
- ?What is the relation between the soul and God?
- ?Is liberation earned by devotion or given by grace?
- ?What is God like?
How it sees
- What problem is it trying to solve?
- How can the Upanishads teach both that Brahman is one and that God, souls and the world are real — and how does the soul reach God?
- What does it consider real?
- Brahman as Vishnu-Narayana is real, and so are conscious selves and non-conscious matter, which are inseparable attributes or the body of Brahman.
- What is valid knowledge?
- Perception, inference and scripture (shabda). All cognition is held to be of something real; there is no cognition of an undifferentiated object.
- What is the Self?
- The self (jiva) is an eternal, atomic, conscious knower whose essence is knowledge and bliss; it is a real mode of Brahman and wholly dependent on him.
- What causes bondage?
- Beginningless karma, which contracts the self's knowledge and binds it to bodies; this is a real condition, not an illusion.
- What is liberation?
- The self's natural knowledge and bliss are restored and it enjoys communion with and service to God in Vaikuntha, remaining distinct from him.
- What is the path?
- Knowledge and action as auxiliaries to bhakti, understood as continuous loving meditation; or prapatti, complete surrender to God, whose grace is decisive.
Core concepts
Primary texts
- Sri Bhashya (Ramanuja)Ramanuja's commentary on the Brahma Sutras, the foundational text of Vishishtadvaita, 'qualified non-dualism'.Source not yet ingested
- Vedartha SangrahaAn independent prose treatise in which Ramanuja sets out how the Upanishads, read as a whole, teach Vishishtadvaita.Source not yet ingested
- Gita Bhashya (Ramanuja)Ramanuja's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, reading it as teaching devotion to a personal God, supported by knowledge and action.Source not yet ingested
- Brahma SutrasA collection of terse aphorisms that systematises the teaching of the Upanishads about Brahman and defends it against rival schools.Source not yet ingested
- Bhagavad GitaA 700-verse dialogue in which Krishna counsels the warrior Arjuna, who has collapsed in despair on the battlefield, on action, the Self and devotion.Full text available
Major thinkers
Where it disagrees
With Advaita Vedanta · maya and the featureless Brahman
Ramanuja argues that ignorance cannot have a locus in pure consciousness and that scripture describes Brahman with qualities.
With Dvaita Vedanta · unity of Brahman
Dvaita rejects the body-soul model as blurring the difference between God and souls.
Related traditions
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