Ramanujacharya – Biography - ebooks - ISKCON desire tree

orn in south India, he had travelled throughout thenorthern regions of the country without finding anyone whocould rival his abilities in argument. On returning to southIndia he heard of the fame of Ramanujacarya, the renownedVaisnava who was so expert at refuting impersonalistphilosophy. Therefore he hastened to Sri Rangam, followed bya cart filled with the books he always took with him.Appearing before Ramanuja, Yajnamurti immediatelychallenged him to a debate. At this Yatiraja merely smiled,saying, "0 Mahatma, what is the value of this mentalwrangling? I will accept defeat at your hands, for you are ascholar without second. Victory follows you everywhere.""If you acknowledge your defeat," rejoinedYajnamurti, "then you must accept the flawless doctrine ofmonism and give up forever the false ideas of theVaisnavas".Of course this was something that Ramanuja couldnever accept, and so he protested, "It is mayavadis such asyourself who are filled with illusion. According to suchspeculators all arguments and reasonings of the mind aresimply aspects of maya, so how is your own doctrine freefrom illusion?""Whatever exists in time and space is illusion," saidYajnamurti, "and both of these must be transcended beforeone can reach the real truth. You accept a form of God astruth, but actually all forms are nothing but illusion."In this way the great debate began and for seventeendays it continued, as neither of the two scholars seemedable to finally defeat the other. At the end of theseventeenth day, when Yatiraja still found it impossible tonullify all of his opponent's clever arguments and establishthe supremacy of Lord Visnu, he felt very disappointed atheart.Returning to the asrama that evening, he went beforethe Deity and began to pray with folded hands, "0 Lord, thetruth that is revealed in all the scriptures has becomecovered by the cloud of mayavada arguments. By cleverlyjuggling words these impersonalist present arguments whichare bewildering even to great mahatmas. 0 Supreme One, forhow long will You allow Your children to be thus kept fromthe shade of Your lotus feet?"When he had finished his prayer, Ramanuja began toshed tears. That night the Lord appeared to him in a dreamand told him, "Do not be anxious. Before long the full gloryof devotional service will be revealed to the world throughyou."YAJNAMURTI'S CONVERSIONThe next morning when he arose and recalled theinstructions the Lord had given him in the dream, Yatirajafelt great joy. When he had finished all his morning duties,65