Ramanujacharya – Biography - ebooks - ISKCON desire tree

absence renders this world useless and its history achronological record of nonsense. By providing anotherglimpse into the ways that pure devotees transform the livesof materialistic people and alter the course of history,Naimisaranya Prabhu has done great service to all Englishreaders, especially Vaisnavas and aspiring Vaisnavas.Without such information, people tend to doubt or forgetthat another plane, beyond the mundane, exists and evencontrols the destiny of that mundane plane. In the examplesthey set in their lives, however, saintly persons help us tosee the path to Krsna consciousness. "Example is better thanprecept" The philosophy of Krsna consciousness remainsinaccessible except by the mercy of the pure devotees whosebehavior gives three dimensions to such philosophy.Only the hearts of unfortunate persons will not meltupon reading or hearing this moving depletion of the life ofSrila Ramanujacarya. The nectarean subject matter and thecompetent rendering by Naimisaranya Prabhu combine toproduce genuine spiritual effects within the mind. I hopeNaimisaranya Prabhu will continue producing suchilluminating accounts of the lives of great devotees.-Jagadisa GosvamiFOREWORDIt is the desire of all teachers working in ourgurukulas to give the children an acute awareness of thegreat Vaisnava tradition that they will inherit wheninitiated into our sampradaya. We hear frequently that theKrsna Consciousness movement is propounding the highest formof religion found anywhere in the world, but, living in thewestern culture, we sometimes find it hard to be constantlyaware of the true position of Vaisnavism. In the WestVaisnavas are frequently looked upon as strange fanaticsenacting bizarre rituals or some residual leftover from thehippy days of the sixties and early seventies. Therefore itis very important that all devotees, and the children inparticular, become conversant with the centuries oldreligious tradition that our movement today represents.It was for these reasons I felt it imperative tostart a course on the history of Vaisnavism when I beganteaching a class of older boys at the Bhaktivedanta VillageGurukula in California. From studying Srila Prabhupada'sbooks I was aware that Ramanuja was one of the greatVaisnava acaryas, but I knew little of his life andteachings. Therefore I set about researching the subject,using various books that I was able to obtain from India andthe university libraries in Los Angeles. At this point I3