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Yatindramatadipika – A Work On Visishtadvaita In Hinduism

Yatindramatadipika is a work part of scriptures in Hinduism and it is dedicated to Visishtadvaita. It was written by Srinivasacharya or Srinivasadasa of Tirupati, who lived at the beginning of the 9th century CE. Yatindramatadipika is a prakarana grantha expounding the main tenets of the school of philosophy called Visishtadvaita (qualified monism) of Sri Ramanujacharya. It is also called Sarrirakaparibhasha, meaning the technical exposition of the nature of the embodied self. In the colophon of a manuscript of this work, the author speaks of himself as the son of Govindacharya.

The work aims at expounding three topics, namely, metaphysics (tattva), theory of ethics (hita) and four basic aims of Hindu life (purushartha). Its pivotal doctrine is that the Supreme Reality is non-dual, but is at the same time qualified by chit (self) and achit (the world), the latter two forming the body of God.

Prapatti (complete surrender to God) is the essence of bhakti (devotion), which is said to be the only means of liberation. An individual self is both substance and attribute. The sources of authority are Upanishads, Pancharatra texts and Alwars utterances. The line of teachers is traced to ancient times from Bodhayana, Tanka, Dramida, Guhadeva, Kapardi, Bharuci, and others, who are said to have maintained an independent way of interpreting Upanishads.

In 1900, Yatindramatadipika, with a commentary entitled Prakasha by Vasudeva Shastri Abhyankar, was published from Anand Ashram, Pune, and in 1934 CE, its second edition was also issued by the same publishers. An English translation by Sri Govindacharya was published in 1909 CE from Mysore. Another English rendering by Swami Adidevananda was published in 1949 CE (second edition, 1967) by Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai.