Page 10 - Ramanuja and Equality Book.pmd
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EQUALITY, as practiced and taught

                             by Ramanuja


       The core philosophy of Equality – all beings have the
       same eternal relationship with the Supreme Being

       The core philosophy of Vedic literature is that ALL beings are equal
       in the eyes of Universal Supreme Power. Ramanuja established
       the  philosophical  foundation  of  equality  after  thorough  study
       and analysis of scriptures under great teachers. The crux of the
       philosophy is this –
          •  All  beings  have  the  SAME  relationship  (connectivity)  to
              God and are equal - as every being has God within it

          •  Every being  that we perceive -  human  (of  any gender,
              race, caste, creed, religion, etc.), animals, plants, insects,
              bacteria,  basically  all  flora  and  fauna  -  even  inanimate
              objects like mountains, water, stones etc. - every one of
              them has a soul, and God is present as the inner soul of
              each soul

          •  Just as the physical human body is the body of the soul
              inside it, the soul is the body of God
          •  All things and beings are simply different limbs of the
              same  Universal  Body  that  is  God. This  is  Ramanuja’s
              distillation  from  Vedic  literature  and  known  as  the
              ‘sareera-sareeri bhava’ (body-soul relationship, all limbs
              of the same Universal Body).
          •  Just as the right hand in our body will not do anything to
              harm any other part of the body, similarly we should not
              do anything that can hurt any other limb of the Universal
              Body that is God.  Harming  any other person, or living
              being, or an object in nature is like one part of our body
              harming another part of our body.
       This wonderful distillation of Universal truth provides the core
       platform for equality. After all, no one would consider the right


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