By Brijbasi das
Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu Himself states the following in “Navadvipa-dhama-mahatmya” (16.54): “From Ramanuja I take two essential principles – unalloyed devotion and service to the devotees of the Lord.” To provide some knowledge of the Sri-sampradaya to the residents of Bengal Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura translated some verses from the section of “Prapannamrta” where Ramanuja instructs his followers and then published them in his “Sajjana-tosani” (Vol.7, numbers 3 and 4, June-July 1895) under a title “Ramanuja Swamir Upadesh”, “Instructions of Ramanuja Swami”. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur quoted some of these verses in his book “Brahmana and Vais.n.ava”. In honor of Srila Ramanujacarya’s 1000th anniversary celebrations we present here some of his instructions with the English translation of Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Bengali translation-cum-explanation.