Sri Ramanujacharya's appearance day is on the fifth day during the bright fortnight in the month of Chaitra (chaitra śukla panchami tithī).Most of the vaishnava acharyas took birth in South India except Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Some acharyas also appeared in Assam who preached there but it was not so successful. Acharyas like Shankar dev, Madhav dev, Damodar dev, Haridev who preached Bhagavat-dharm in Assam but remained confined in the Assam only but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became famous in North India, He went to Vrindavan, He spread the message in South India and other parts of India as well. All other acharyas appeared in South India including Shankaracharya.

Sri Ramanujacharya, appeared in the village Sri Perambadur, which is about 13 krośa (26 miles) on the western side of Madras (present day Chennai). His father's name was Keshavacharya Dikṣit who was a prominent Brahmin vaishnava and mother's name was Sri Kantimati, the younger sister of Sri Sailapurṇa. Sri Sailapurṇa was one prominent disciple of the renowned Sri Yamunacharya of Sri Sampradaya. The childhood name of Sri Ramanujacharya was Sri Lakshman. Sri Sailapurna went to see child Lakshmana when he took birth. He saw some extraordinary features in him resembling the great personality. All became pleased to see the child.

There is a thought prevalent there that he was an incarnation of Sri Lakshmaṇa (a younger brother of Lord Rama). Later he was renowned as Sri Ramanaujacharya. Ramnujcharya got married at the age of 16 by the order of his father Sri Keshavacharya but his mind was absorbed in the worship of the Lord. He exhibited some transcendental powers which cannot be seen in an ordinary person. He had a disciple named Kuresa who has dedicated his life to the service of his guru. With a desire to compile Sribhāṣya, Sri Ramanujacharya went to Sharadapitha in Kashmir along with his disciple Kuresa to bring Bodhāyana-vṛtti. Bodhāyana-vṛtti is a bhasya written by Bodhayan Risi which combines Uttar-mimansa of Vedavyas Risi and Purva-mimansa of Jaimini Risi. As per Sri Shankaracharya the Purva-mīmāṁsās by Sri Jaimini Muni and Uttar-mīmāṁsās (vedānta) by Sri Vedavyāsa Muni are two independent scriptures. As per Sri Ramanujacharya both these together comprise a single scripture. The only one mīmāṁsās (investigation) started by the Purva-mīmāṁsās (prior inquiry) of Jaimini Muni was complete with Uttar-mīmāṁsās (posterior inquiry) of Vedavyasa Muni. After a careful contemplation on Purva-mīmāṁsās when one understands the karma and the fleeting results of the karma, the inquiry into Brahman arises. Bodhayana Risi and others had given explanations to both the mīmāṁsās considering them to be a single scripture.

They prayed Sharadadevi for her blessings and requested the personnel there to give them Bodhāyana-vṛtti. Though the followers of the kevalādvaita-vad (absolute non-duality) in the Sharadapitha were reluctant to give the Bodhāyana-vṛtti, by the grace of Sri Sharadadevi, Sri Ramanujacharya obtained that and escaped from there. Later the followers of kevalādvaita realized that Ramanujacharya had taken away it and now he would refute the mayavad philosophy so they ran after them swiftly for a month and snatched the literature from Sri Ramanujacharya. But Kuresa who had a remarkable retentive memory had gone through that literature every night for one month and memorized the entire literature by then. Can any ordinary person do that? We store everything in computer but here he stored everything in his heart. Based on that Sri Ramanujacharya had compiled Sribhaṣya and established Vishisht-advaita-vad (qualified monism or qualified non-dualism philosophy). Sri Ramanuja-sampraday is one of the four most prominent vaishnava sampradays. It is written in Padmapurana,

sampradaya vihina je mantras te nishphala matah,
atah kalau bavisyanti catvarah sampradayinah,
sri-bramha-rudra-sanakah vaisnavah kiti-pavanah.

(Any mantra that does not come in disciplic succession is considered to be fruitless. Therefore, four divine individuals will appear in the age of Kali to found disciplic schools. The founders of these four Vaisnava sampradayas are Laksmi or Sri, Brahma, Rudra and Sanaka Rishi.)

If the mantra you get is not from the bonafide preceptorial channels then the mantra will have no effect. Sampradaya does not mean sectarianism, narrowness. What is the meaning of sampradaya? Sampradaya means divine knowledge is retained intact and is coming through a bonafide preceptorial channel. Sampradaya means the channel through which Samyak-pradkta-gyan (divine knowledge) descents. It starts from the Lord. As the divine knowledge is descending, its sanctity is retained. Ordinary people take the meaning of Sampraday to be a sectarian ideology. This is called prostitution of language. If you go the River Ganges and take a dip into it, you get the benefit of ablution in to it. If you go to any other river and do ablution, you will not get the benefit of bathing in Ganges. Similarly the divine knowledge also comes through a perceptorial channel which starts from Supreme Lord. The mantra not taken from the right channel is fruitless; one may practices it for millions and millions of years but he will not get any fruit as there is no life in it.

There is one example given in this regard. During Vraja-mandal Parikrama, one Brahmachari was bitten by a dog at Nandagaon. He then had to be taken to Mathura for giving injections. He and the Brahmachari who was supposed to take him there both were upset as they will miss a few days in Parikrama. That time they came to know that Shroti Maharaj, a disciple of Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad knew the mantra by which the poison of the dog-bite can be removed. He learnt that mantra before coming to Math.

The Brahmachari then went to him and prayed him, “You please remove the poison otherwise two of us will miss the Parikrama. You have the capability to do it.”

“No I do not do it now. I used to do it before coming to the Math. Now we all should chant Krishna-mantra. We should not use those mantras now.”

“It is our prayers to you to use that mantra to take out the poison otherwise we three-four of us will miss the Parikrama.

After repeated requests he agreed to do it. He asked to bring planking, a clay pot, sand etc. I have heard it before that in that process he throws the sand in air while chanting the mantras and that time the clay pot starts rotating automatically without any machine. What will science say about this? He did this for an about one and half hour and then said that the poison got removed by then. After that Brahmachari got cured, everyone requested him to teach them that technique. In reply to which Shroti Maharaj told them, “This teaching is not for you; you do not require this kind of teaching. This is for some material benefit. This is not useful for attaining the Supreme Lord. This does not yield everlasting fruits. You do not have to waste your time for this. I had learnt it before coming to Math. And to learn this there is a Guru-parampara (a proper succession). One has to learn this through that particular succession only by performing penance. One will have to develop firm faith in the mantra and then after through the succession this mantra will go the masters who have attained perfection in this knowledge and will yield the desired fruit. It will not be fruitful just by mere recitation. I did penance by accepting the proper channel that time. But that knowledge is not required now. Now we have accepted Krishna-mantra so we should do penance for getting the desired result in this. This is the panacea for all the deceases. We should not unnecessarily spend time for temporary benefits. It will lead to diversion which is not good for us. This is not for our eternal welfare. The snake charmer also recite mantra to control the snake and sometimes they make mistakes also in reciting the mantra but then too their recitation yields the desired result because of their taking shelter at the proper channel from where that mantra is originating. If someone recite that mantra properly without any mistakes but not taking shelter at the proper channel then that recitation will not yield the desired result. They will not be able to control the snakes by such recitation and will die because of their poisonous bites. Only those who take shelter at the proper channel can get the desired fruits. Similarly Krishna-mantra also comes in the disciplic succession. There are four bonafide successions—Sri, Brahma, Rudra and Sanak (Chatuhsan or Kumar).

Prameya Ratnavali mentions the names of Madhya-yuga Acharya of each of the bonafide lineage; for ‘Sri’ Ramanujacharya, for ‘Brahma’ Madhvacharya, for ‘Rudra’ Vishnuswami and for ‘Chatuhsan’ Nimbarkacharya. So one will not get any benefit if he takes mantra outside any of these four lineages. We belong to Brahma-madhva-gaudiya sampraday. As Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Lord Himself and the Gaudiya lineage would have been originated from Him but to establish the ideal of following the scriptures, He accepted mantra from Iswarpuri Pad who belonged to Madhva Sampraday. Krishna also took mantra from Sandipani Muni and Lord Rama from Vashistha Risi. Being the master of all, They are not required to take mantra from anyone; They Themselves could be the origin of Their own lineage but to establish an ideal that accepting a spiritual master is inevitable for spiritual ameliorations They accept mantra in a bonafide succession.

That time in South India, the Shaivas (followers of Lord Shiva) were hostile towards the Vaishnavas. Kulottunga I (1098 A.D.), the king of the Chola province was also the follower of Lord Shiva and was hostile towards the vaiṣṇavas, had resolved to pluck out the eyes of Sri Ramanuja. Knowing this Kuresa, whose life was dedicated to the service of his guru, came to the assembly of the king in the garb of Sri Ramanujacharya. There they entered in the discussion on the topic, “Who is topmost amongst Shiva and Krishna? In the discussion Kuresa said that “Kak is greater than Shiva”. The word ‘kak’ has two meanings; one is a kind of measurement and the other is crow. The king got angry on listening this and ordered his soldiers to pluck his eyes. And thus Kuresa lost his eyes. Such was the devotion he had towards his Gurudev, Sri Ramanujacharya. Later by the grace of Lord Sri Varadaraja (Lord Narayaṇa) he got divine eyes. Meanwhile the king died with an intense suffering from a bruise in the throat.

Ramanuja studied Vedant and other scriptures from Yadavaprakash who was the believer of Mayavadi School of thoughts in which ‘so aham’ and ‘aham brahmasmi’ mantras are being practiced. Ramanuja went to Yadavaprakash with a service attitude and offered him various services while discussing different topics of the scriptures. Amongst the topic they discussed one topic was on ‘satyam gyanam anantam brahma’—Brahman is Absolute Truth, Absolute Knowledge and Infinite. According to Yadavaprakash this statement cannot be true based on the argument that it cannot be said simultaneously that a cow has got horn, broken horn or cannot have horn. All the three situations cannot coexist. Based on this argument they say that the Absolute Truth, Absolute Knowledge and Infinite aspects cannot coexist simultaneously. According to their ideology, Brahman is nirgun—without any qualities. In reply to their such arguments, Ramanujacharya replied, “If you do not consider the Supreme Lord to be the Absolute Truth then there will be a question on His eternal existence. You yourself say that ‘brahma satya jagat mithya’—The Brahman is true (having real and eternal existence) while this cosmic manifestation is illusory. The Brahman is full of Knowledge, Limitless and Infinite. The word ‘nirgun’ used for Brahman indicate that He does not possess the three primeval qualities of this material world; He possesses qualities which are beyond this world. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught Vasudev Sarvabhaum, ‘brihatvat bringha iti brahma’—Brahman is the creator and maintainer of all,

yato va imani bhūtani jayante
yena jatani jivanti
yat prayantyabhisamvisanti
tad vijijṣasasva tad eva brahma
(Taittiriya Upaniṣad 3.1.1)

(The Supreme Brahman is the origin and shelter of all living beings. When there is creation, He brings them forth from their original state, and at the time of annihilation, He devours them. After creation, everything rests in His omnipotence, and after annihilation, everything again returns to rest in Him.)

The Brahman is not ordinary matter which does not have any value. It is full of Knowledge.

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvam yaj jñanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti
bhagavan iti sabdyate
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.11)

Knower of the truth call that non-dual, Absolute Knowledge-tattva—the Absolute Truth. This non-dual Knowledge is referred to by the words Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan.

The Jiva cannot know Him by his finite mind or intellect. It is Infinite, Limitless. On listening Ramanujacharya’s such explanation, Yadavaprakash got astonished; he could not say anything in reply to what he heard.

Another time when Ramanujacharya was massaging oil on Yadavaprakash’s body, Yadavaprakash commentated on two Shlokas of Chhandogya Upaniṣad in one of which had a word ‘kapyāsaṁ’ which indicates that the eyes of Krishna are as beautiful as lotus (Pundarik-nayan). Yadavaprakash, explaining the meaning of ‘kapyāsaṁ’ compared the Lord’s lotus like eyes to the evacuation organ of a monkey as one meaning of ‘kapy’ is monkey. Listening to the comparison of the most beautiful eyes of Supreme Lord with the excretory organ of the monkey the extremely agonized Ramanujacharya shed tears incessantly. Few drops of the tears fell on the body of Yadavaprakash. He was astounded to see that Ramanuja is crying with a heavy heart. When the āchārya asked the reason for Ramanuja's sadness, he said that he was deeply hurt by listening to the perverted meaning of the word 'kapyāsaṁ'. He explained, "The word ka means water. As per kaṁ pibati iti kapiḥ - meaning that which absorbs or dries water—the word kapi indicates Sun. As per 'asa dhātu vikasane, na tu upaveśane' the word āsa means fully opened or blossomed. 'Puṇḍarīka' means lotus. The two eyes of the radiant face of Supreme Lord are thus as beautiful as the lotus that is blossomed by the Sun." Even though Yadavaprakash was astonished by listening to the narration of his disciple Ramanuja, he became angry and censured Ramanuja. Initially, though, Yadavaprakash was a guru of the Śankara lineage of kevalādvaita (pure non-duality) and had aversion to Ramanuja, he understood that Ramajuna is not an ordinary person and later he became his disciple.

It is like Mahaprabhu’s asking Mukund Das, the devotee from Srikhand, that is his son, Raghunandan is his father or he is the father of Raghunandan? In reply to which Mukund Das says that though Raghunandan is a child, he is his father as the devotion they have is from him only. Similarly, Yadavaprakash also got the knowledge, “Though Ramajuna is my disciple; he is my Guru. I am not the Guru.” He got happy realizing that Ramanuja is endowed with transcendental powers.

Between 1118-1120 A.D. the king of that period who was a follower of Jainism, the Ballalrao and many other followers of Buddhism became disciples of Ramanujacharya. Ramanuja performed his earthly pastimes for one hundred and twenty one years. He stayed mainly at Ranganath-dham.

There is an important teaching in Ramanuja-sampraday that as Vaishnavas are very dear to Supreme Lord, by serving Vaishnavas all the obstacles get removed and one gets devotion to Supreme Lord. There are many examples which substantiates this fact.

Once Ramanuja along with his disciples went to one place for propagating their teachings. There were two of his disciples living in that place. One of them was a very rich person and the other was very poor. Ramajuna along with all his disciples first went to the rich person’s house. When the person saw his Gurudev along with so many of his disciples, he got afraid and went inside his house and did not come out. Ramanujacharya understood, “He has got afraid of seeing so many devotees at his place and he does not have inclination for serving Vaishnavas so there is no need to stay here.”

He told his other disciples, “We will go to the house of the other devotee. We will take some rest there and will go back. You will not get food there. Today you all will have to fast. We will not stay here.”

They all went there. The name of his poor disciple was Varadarya. As they reached there, Ramanuja started calling, “Varadarya, Varadarya”. When he did not get any reply to his calls, he asked, “Is anybody there in the house?” in reply to which he heard three claps. He thought about the meaning of those claps. That time he saw a torn woman cloth hanging outside. Varadarya had gone to do bhiksha (going door to door to get things to maintain their livelihood). His wife did not know that her Gurudev would come to her house anytime. She had only one cloth which she already had washed after bath and kept hanging outside to dry so she could not able to come out and her husband had also gone to bag. She clapped so Gurudev and God brothers do not go without being served by them. Understanding the indication of the claps, the all-knowing Sri Ramanujacharya threw one uttarīya inside the house. The wife of Varadarya wore that cloth, came in front of her Gurudev and offered obeissances while crying in ecstasy. Even in her dream she never thought that her Gurudev would come to their house. She started weeping in an extremely distressful state as no proper seat was available there to offer to her Gurudev. Seeing this Sri Ramanujacharya consoled her by saying, "What can be a better seating place than the natural God given beautiful grass under the shade of a tree?" Being ordered by Sri Ramanujacharya all the devotees sat under the trees and he sat on a torn āsan (seat) provided by the lady. Sri Ramanujacharya had earlier told his disciples that Varadarya is extremely poor that he cannot make arrangements for their food. Varadarya's wife was extremely worried about how she could make arrangements for the afternoon meals of her Gurudev and her godbrothers.

Varadarya's wife was extremely beautiful and chaste lady. Attracted by her beauty one rich merchant tried to allure her several times before to get her company. But due to her high chastity and devoutness to her husband the merchant could not have even the sight of her. "Husband is not home and the vaiṣṇavas will leave without eating" thinking her misfortune thus she made up her mind to sell her body which is only made of blood and flesh.

She arrived at the house of that rich merchant in order to collect the ingredients for the service of the vaiṣṇavas. Seeing her all of a sudden the astonished merchant inquired the cause of her arrival. She replied that she wanted necessary ingredients for the service of her gurudev and other vaiṣṇavas who had come to their house and that in return she would offer her body to him. She promised that she would come again after the dusk to fulfil his desire. The greatly pleased merchant had sent the ingredients twice the amount she requested.

She prepared many delicious items from those ingredients. In the house of the brāhmin Varadarya one Nārāyaṇ Śālagram was worshipped daily. Varadarya's wife offered many delicacies to the Lord, pleased her gurudev and vaiṣṇavas by serving them the prasād remnant of the Lord and herself waited fasting till the arrival of her husband. After prasād Sri Ramanuja and other vaiṣṇavas rested under the trees in the afternoon. Varadarya returned with the bag he carried for begging alms and was astonished to see them. He offered prostrated obeisances to his guru and cried incessantly in an overjoyed state. For a long time he was extremely eager for the darśan of Gurudeva but never even thought in a dream that Gurudev himself would come along with his other disciples to the house of such a poverty stricken person like him. He had only few grains of rice in his bag that he collected from begging alms. The grieved Varadarya entered the house and was astonished to see various types of delicacies and remaining ingredients. He enquired his wife about how she could collect so much. When she requested him to honour prasād first he said that his mind became restless and that he cannot take even a morsel of food before he knew from where she accumulated the necessary items. Upon his repeated questioning she fell at his feet and started crying. She revealed her guilt and begged for his forgiveness. Varadarya was dumbstruck listening such impossible words from his chaste wife and honoured prasād with lot of gravity. After he finished his meals she took his remnants. Before leaving from that place, the all-knowing Sri Ramanuja told Varadarya and his wife to give the remnant Nārāyaṇa prasād to the person who had given the ingredients for the offering.

In order to keep her promise Varadarya's wife fell at his feet and requested his permission to leave. Both of them cried in separation to each other. After some time Varadarya became composed and boldly said, "I am extremely poor. I cannot even sumptuously feed you two times a day, cannot give you clothes to wear, leave aside giving you ornaments. I know how many enticements the merchant, to whom you sold your body, played earlier to attract your grace on him. But he could not even get a sight of yours. That very person has sold her body for the service of guru and vaiṣṇavas. I don't believe that any person in this universe has the capacity to touch even the tip of your hair. You go fearlessly."

When Varadāry's wife reached the merchant's place he was extremely pleased and astonished. She told him that she would fulfil his desire but requested him to honour the prasād first that was prepared using the items sent by him for the service of Lord Nārāyaṇa, guru and the vaiṣṇavas. When the merchant agreed she offered him the remnant prasād of her gurudeva. So that was not only the prasad of narayan but it was Maha-Maha prasad. Such is the wonderful nature of prasād that as soon as the merchant honored it his consciousness was transformed and the mind's pollution was expelled. The merchant, who was burning in the flames of repentance, started crying loudly falling at the feet of Varadarya's wife. With an aggrieved heart he said, "You are not an ordinary but a celestial woman. I am not even destined for hell. I desired to enjoy a chaste and saintly woman like you. In spite of my countless attempts and allurements I could not even get a sight of you, leave aside your physical association. And today that very person has come to sell her own body in lieu of just rice, pulses and vegetables. Please tell me who had come to your house."

When the merchant heard about the arrival of Sri Ramanujacharya. The merchant fell at the feet of Varadarya and his wife and begged forgiveness for his offenses. He requested them to to take him to Ramanujacharya. They immediately left in search of him. They found him. The merchant requested Ramanujacharya to give him mantra. He took dīkṣa from Sri Ramanujacharya and served Varadarya and his wife till they lived. Can an ordinary person can do that? But by honoring prasad of Ramanujacharya, the heart of the merchant changed, that is the power of Ramanujacharya. There are many more such incidences.

A similar type of incident took place at our Math. There was a lady named ‘Kusum Kumari Devi’ who used to live in Bangladesh which was included in India at that time. Once Srila Gurumaharaj went to Bangladesh for preaching. There he used to stay in the house of a wealthy person. Gurudev did not want to stay in the house of poor person with so many devotees because he thought it would become a burden on them to arrange for their stay and for Prasadam. Though he used to visit the house of such devotees for a few hours. There Kusum Kumari Devi who was poor met Srila Gurudeva and invited him along with his companions to her house. Gurudev agreed to go but asked her on how she will arrange for the Prasadam for so many devotees to which she replied that it would not be a problem. She had strong inclination for serving Guru and Vaishnavas. She had a house and she told Gurudev that she would vacate it for their (Guruji and his companions) stay. Though Gurudev was hesitating but by her repeated requests he ultimately agreed to it. So Srila Gurudev along with his associates went to her house and stayed there. She served them so nicely that even wealthy persons will not be able to render such service. She served from morning, day time till night. All were astonished to see her service. All were wondering that such a poor person who cannot afford her own food—how can she arrange such nice service for so many people! When Gurudev decided to leave she did not let him go. She made Gurudev and his servitors stay in her house for seven days. After seven days when Gurumaharaj and his associates left she gave ‘pranami’ (a type of monetary service) to him.

Later it was revealed that she had sold her only house to a person to serve Gurudeva. She told the person to allow her Gurudeva and his associates to stay in the house for seven days. After that he could take possession of the house. So, when Gurudev and his associates left she also left the house and became a beggar on a street. So she sold her everything in order to serve Gurumaharaj. When Gurumaharaj heard about it he was deeply pained. When Gurumaharaj asked her later why she did such a thing, she said that she was not sure whether her Gurudeva and his associates will ever come to her place or whether she will ever be able to serve them. That is why when she got the chance to serve she did it fully to her heart’s satisfaction. She did not care what will happen to her after that or that whether she will survive after selling her only asset. Gurumaharaj was astounded to hear her reply that she sold her only asset to serve Guru, Vaishnava.

Gurumaharaj arranged for her stay in Yogapith Mandir, the appearance place of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu where she performed bhajan. Tears would come to Gurumaharaj’s eyes whenever he would speak about her. Once Srila Gurudev asked her to read Gita to which she replied that she doesn’t feel bliss by reading Gita because there the name of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is not mentioned. She had so much love for Sri Chaitanya Deva. Whenever Srila Gurumaharaj took her name, tears came to his eyes. She lived for the rest of her life at the appearance place of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Mayapur and left her body there.