- Lived:
- c. 1017–1137 CE (the traditional 120-year lifespan is a hagiographer's flourish) · Śrīperumbūdūr and Śrīrangam, Tamil country, South India
- Tradition:
- Vedānta — Viśiṣṭādvaita ("qualified non-dualism"); the philosophical founder of Śrīvaiṣṇava devotional theism
- The Big Idea:
- God is real, the world is real, and the world relates to God as your body relates to you — so everything is one with the divine without anything being an illusion, and the highest goal is not to dissolve into God but to love him.
- In their words:
- "I, who am nothing, who have no other refuge, take refuge at your feet." (from his Surrender Hymn, plainly rendered)
- If you remember one thing:
- When Śaṅkara's philosophy said the world and the personal God are ultimately appearance, Rāmānuja answered with rigorous arguments that love is not a stage to be outgrown — it is the point.