There have been born numerous preceptors all over the world guiding thoughts and actions of thinkers and commoners alike. On the one hand, fundamental questions about existence itself – of origins and purpose, and of laws of nature – have occupied the minds of great thinkers for millennia. On the other, overcoming the miseries and challenges that life virtually guarantees everyone, and finding true, lasting happiness have been sought after by every intelligent being since ever. Philosophers, and their schools, reflecting on the questions of existence have professed answers about their view of the truth which have, as a matter of fact, had little bearing on the question about happiness. Similarly, 'religionists' have always arisen to propound belief systems as formulas to overcome miseries and to find happiness, offering little by way of answers to fundamental questions of existence. This dichotomy between philosophy and religion is universally acknowledged to have been bridged most successfully by Sanātana Dharma, where the belief systems taught to overcome miseries and for finding happiness have invariably had their basis on a rigorous fundamental philosophy of existence. It relied on the central Upaniṣatic thought that the answer lies in understanding the true nature of the spirit - the soul or the atman - and in achieving alignment with it. It teaches that this perfect alignment - famously called Mokṣa - is the ultimate goal, but leaves it for extraordinary minds to figure out practical ways for everyone to achieve it.
Several great preceptors of Sanātana Dharma before Rāmānuja have attempted to strike this alignment - either by professing accordance with the Vedas and Upaniṣats, or by fixating on logical speculation and allowing for disagreement with parts of the scriptures thought inconsistent. The result was a spectrum of philosophers ranging from claiming that there is nothing beyond the world we see, to those claiming that everything we perceive is non-existent, to even those claiming that there is nothing that exists! While these thoughts have had phenomenal positive influences on humanity's thinking, none of these actually achieved the sought alignment said above. These thoughts have had little influence on how the commoner should view one's everyday living. Nor did these teach one about how to make a connection between what one did every day and how it leads to one's Mokṣa. The result was one’s living with the burden of this disconnect, or worse yet, living in direct contradiction, under the influence of religionists drawing from inadequate reading of the scriptures and playing on the weaknesses of the commoner, promising happiness or fulfilment of desires by a set of specific religious activities or cult worship.
Rāmānuja, however, changed this firstly by rigorously expounding the philosophy of the Vedas and formally winning over philosophers and influencers of thought to his side. There is no greater evidence to this than the fact that all the great preceptors of Sanātana Dharma that have appeared over these 1000 years after Rāmānuja have held up his thought with supreme respect, some offering alternate views perhaps only in minor theological aspects. Rāmānuja's system achieved this through perfect alignment of philosophy and spirituality, with such wonderful naturalness and beauty shining through, that even the worst skeptic to this day is sure to exclaim – "Yes, this has got to be the truth!" While Rāmānuja drew upon an existing, weighty, Vedic tradition, its practice was most certainly limited to very special individuals, unable to launch itself as a life-style for everyone. The simple reason here would be that a rather good understanding of the sophisticated philosophy was prerequisite to the spirituality or the religion that was to be built on it. This left the commoner stay excluded and the philosophers stay largely exclusive, with neither realizing true spiritual progress.
Secondly, Rāmānuja made the philosophy accessible by digesting it to the very last bit and by having it propagated in such a way that its naturalness comes out first. To the inquisitive minds bothered by questions of existence as well as to the commonest person bothered by everyday constraints and miseries, he put in place a system that offers a perfect solution by way of a complete and natural philosophy appealing to both the heart and the mind. On the practical side, he set up modes of social living that was in perfect alignment with the underlying world-view he taught. He had his followers – a vast majority of them being common people – live in the here and now as they would in the state of liberation. The ever-relevant, well-prescribed, general set of thoughts and actions enabled – and continues to enable – one and all to increasingly experience with immediate effect, the professed goal of Mokṣa.
In Rāmānuja's system, every thought one thinks, every action one does, every emotion one feels, and every attribute of everyone had a purpose to serve towards Mokṣa. This unity of purpose was supplemented with the teaching that the cause for misery is merely a misalignment of one's thoughts, emotions or actions with one's true nature, and that a desire to fix this is all that one needs to do. His system actively advocated this life-style with no one in society being denied a part. Rāmānuja, a brilliant psychologist and social reformer as well, set up institutions that arranged for this to continue on for centuries to come, as we still see today. This arrangement made again with the focus on the ātman (the soul), was gloriously successful in eradicating feelings of inequality in respect among the various perceived strata of society. Rāmānuja was uniquely successful here in that his tradition admonishes any thought of inequality of respect as unorthodox!
