Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Re: VisishtAdvaitA

From the Bhakti List Archives

Mani Varadarajan • July 15, 1999 


Murali Kadambi wrote:
> However just as Sankara's philosophy can also been called mAyA vAda and
> Madhwa's has been variously called bhEda vAda and tattva vAda, I wonder
> what vAda, RAmAuja' philosophy is called?  may be sareerAtma-brahma
> vAda?  I don't know.

I have seen Ramanuja's system described as 'saviSesha-brahma-vAda',
(one that teaches that Ultimate Reality as attributes), or simply
'viSishtAdvaita-vAda'.

The term viSishtAdvaita is first seen in the works of Sudarsana
Suri and Vedanta Desika (13th-14th centuries), and even there only 
in their secondary works.

Mani