the exponent of the Visishtadvaita philosophy - ebooks - ISKCON ...

—
'^
CH. V.
HIS BIRTH AND STUDIES.
thinking ; and his cogitations landed him in vice inasmuch as
he believed that Rd/nisLnuja was a rival, who would any daybe
his superior in learning, subversive of his philosophy of
advaita (monism) ; in short an oddity who may injure his re- i/
putationas the teacher in the land, and a possible revolntionisb
whom it was expedient to put an end to.
Thus thinking, he called together those disciples who wei-e L-
after his ways and said "
: Look, all of you do quietly subscribe
to my views, but this RS-manuja alone is adverse and perverse,
and entertains opinions opposed to mine. He is likely to
become our declared enemy. Can you devise some means by
which to do away with him ?" They suggested many ways of
disposal, but none of them recommended itself to Tadava, as
it meant sinning, for which Sfi/stras declared that one must
expiate and suffer ; and secondly in whatever way Bslmanuja
was to be done away with, that must be above suspicion.
After much consultation and deliberation, they pitched upon a
plot, viz., to invite Ram&nuja back into their fold, treat him as
their best friend—as one without whom they could not live
and then they would start on a holy pUgrimage to
V4r§,na8i
( Benares) and there drown Bam4nuja in the Ganga (Ganges)
river, near Manikarnik£l-gha.t— the ostensible object being
pilgrimage, the real one being E,fi,mS,nuja's death—death
which, taking place in the Holy Ganga, would be counted as
an affair of merit, which they thought would not involve the
actors in sin ! What travesty of spiritual ethics, by Tadava !!
A veritable whited sepnlchi-e he must have been.'
Into a hellish conspiracy such as this then, TMava and
his accomplices entered, even as Duryodhana did as regards
Dharmaputra and his brothers, whom he had contrived to kill
in a wax-house. They therefore invited ReLmdnuja to join
them as without him they said they felt uncongenial, and
begged of him to prosecute his studies as he willed, undisturbed.
Some time passed thus.
1 Probably Yadava's moral (ira- of the world, wh{ch thus seems to
moral) sense took refage in his pan- provide no strong motive -for
theistic theory of M&ya, or illusion strenuous effort after holiness.