Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I
- 1 The background to the divine body in Teilhard de Chardin
- 2 The background to the divine body in Rāmānuja
- 3 The body of Christ in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin
- 4 The body of Brahman in the writings of Rāmānuja
- PART II
- Appendix I Composition and publication dates of papers by Teilhard de Chardin cited in this work
- Appendix II Teilhard de Chardin on the Mass
- Glossary of Indian terms
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
2 - The background to the divine body in Rāmānuja
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I
- 1 The background to the divine body in Teilhard de Chardin
- 2 The background to the divine body in Rāmānuja
- 3 The body of Christ in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin
- 4 The body of Brahman in the writings of Rāmānuja
- PART II
- Appendix I Composition and publication dates of papers by Teilhard de Chardin cited in this work
- Appendix II Teilhard de Chardin on the Mass
- Glossary of Indian terms
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
When we turn to Rāmānuja, we are entering another world altogether from the one inhabited by Teilhard de Chardin. Rāmānuja lived in India during the eleventh century CE, and the influences upon his thought were derived from the spiritual traditions he valued and incorporated within the authoritative lineage of Śrīvaisnavism.
Rāmānuja was a Vedāntin: he worked within the long-established oral tradition of providing expository commentaries on those religious texts believed to be part of Vedic knowledge or śruti (literally ‘that which is heard’). He would have been trained in the knowledge of the Upanisads, and one of his major works was a commentary on the Brahma-sūtras (or Vedānta-sūtras, as they are sometimes called). All his work was based on the teachings of earlier spiritual teachers, so that in one sense it was purely traditional. Ramakrishnananda, a biographer of Rāmānuja, makes the point very strongly:
We should not think that Rāmānuja developed any new philosophy, and he makes no claim of originality. He was the culmination of the movement that started from the Vedas and was nourished by the Āvārs, Nāthamuni and Yāmunacharya … In his exposition of the Vedānta, he claims merely to follow the doctrines of Bodhayana, Tanka, Dramida, Guhadeva, Kapardin and Bharuci.
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- Information
- The Body DivineThe Symbol of the Body in the Works of Teilhard de Chardin and Ramanuja, pp. 30 - 44Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991