Disciple of a rare calibre

Ramanuja’s Brahmasutra Bashya has come to be accepted as Ramanuja Darsana since it has established Visishtadvaita philosophy on a firm footing for posterity. But Ramanuja as acharya openly attributed the success of this effort to his disciple Kooresa who laboured along with him to complete the text, said Sri L. Sampathkumar in a discourse. Ramanuja knew that if he had access to the ancient document Bodayana Vritti, a rare exegetical treatise on Vyasa’s

Brahmasutra that incorporates the insights of great
thinkers of the past, it would make his Bashya indisputable. Ramanuja learnt that this text was in the royal library in a state in Kashmir. Ramanuja and Kooresa undertook the arduous journey to Kashmir and they got permission from the local king to access the archives in the royal library. But the pundits in the court were jealous of Ramanuja’s scholarship and did not allow the text to be borrowed. Neither could the acharya take notes or references. He could merely have a look at the text for a brief period. Kooresa had the rare gift of committing to his memory whatever is seen, read or heard which could be recalled without any fault. So when Kooresa read the treatise along with Ramanuja, it was as good as having the entire text in
their possession. This revived Ramanuja’s hopes and it
was decided that Ramanuja would dictate the contents
of the Bashya while Kooresa would write it. Ramanuja
gave Kooresa the freedom to correct him if there was a
lapse in his interpretation of the text. Kooresa declined this idea since he was a mere disciple and deemed his acharya as infallible. How could he correct his acharya on any ground? It was agreed that he would merely stop writing if there was any slip and this happened when Ramanuja was engaged in the discussion of the Atma swaroopa. Ramanuja walked out in anger and later realised his mistake and
apologised. But Kooresa’s sishya-bhava could not brook this gesture of the acharya. He prostrated at Ramanuja’s feet in the spirit of respect and total surrender and the work was completed.