Ramanujacharya – Biography - ebooks - ISKCON desire tree

Out of great affection, Yatiraja gave his cousin thename Mananatha, meaning the controller of the mind, a nameused by his own disciples to address him. Thinking himselfunworthy to bear the same name as his preceptor, Govindarefused to accept this name. So Ramanuja translated it intothe Tamil equivalent, 'Emperumanan', or Embar for short.Later on when Ramanuja founded an asrama in Jagannatha Puri,he called it the Embar Math in honor of his cousin.JOURNEY TO KASHMIRWhile Ramanujacarya was teaching his disciples at SriRangam, he frequently recalled the promise he had madebefore the body of Yamunacarya to present an authenticVaisnava commentary on the Vedanta-sutras, which wouldnullify the misleading mayavadi interpretations.One day, recalling his vow, he said to the assemblyof disciples, "I have made a promise to Yamunacarya that Iwould write the Sri-bhasya commentary, but until now I havedone nothing to keep my vow. Before attempting such a task,it is essential that I study the Bodhayana-vrrti, written bythe sage Bodhayana, but this is such a rare book that I havebeen unable to locate a single copy of it anywhere in thispart of the country. However, I have heard that one copy ofthis work is preserved with great care at Sarada-pitha inKashmir. Therefore I am proposing to go there, taking withme only Kuresa, so that I can make a study of Bodhayana'steachings and then present a true explanation of theVedanta-sutras.Thus it was that a few days later Ramanuja and Kuresaset off for the far north of India. After travelling forthree months, they arrived at Sarada-pitha in Kashmir. ThereYatiraja held long philosophical discussions with the localpanditas, who were amazed by his knowledge of the scripturesand the depth of his wisdom. Thus they treated him as anhonored guest.However, when he inquired from them about theBodhayana-vrtti, they were reluctant to let him see thisbook. Being themselves impersonalists, they realized that ifYatiraja were able to absorb Bodhayana's philosophicalconclusions, he would be in a position to completely destroytheir false mayavada doctrines with his forceful Vaisnavapresentation. Thinking in this way, they said to him, "It istrue that the book you mentioned was here until recently,but unfortunately it has been eaten by worms and is nowcompletely destroyed."KURESA'S WONDERFUL ABILITYRamanujacarya was dismayed to hear this, thinking allhis labor in travelling so far had been for nothing.77