** Vedanta Desika, Hindu poet ( b. 1269 )

" ( Kamasika Ashtakam by Vedanta Desika )

* Thenkalai iyengars follow Manavala Mamunigal and Pillai Lokacharya, while the Vadakalai Iyengars follow Vedanta Desika.

Vadakalais are followers of Ramanuja and Vedanta Desika.

Vedanta Desika, the Vaishnavite Acharya and philosopher, founded the Vadakalai sampradaya based on the Sanskritic tradition.

The Vadakalai Guru Shri Vedanta Desika emphasises the practise of the three yogas in his work Rahasya Trayasarah, where he describes Karma and Jnana yogas to be pre-requisites of Bhakti yoga.

This verse is originally from the Pañcarātra Agamas but is now popularly prefixed to the Hayagrīva Stotram of the 13th century poet-philosopher Vedanta Desika.

They are traditionally followers of Ramanuja and Vedanta Desika.

on Vedanta Desika and his writings

Vedanta Desika ( Swami Desikan, Swami Vedanta Desikan, Thoopul Nigamaantha Desikan ) ( 1269 – 1370 ) was a Sri Vaishnava Guru.

In the case Swami Vedanta Desika, certain oblique biographical references are available internally in his works, for example in the Prologue to his Sankalpa Suryodayam.

Prathivadi Bhayankaram Annan ( 1300 – 1400 ), a junior contemporary of Swami Desika and a disciple of Kumara Varadhacharya ( son of Swamy Vedanta Desika ) gives some details about Vedanta Desika's parentage, education etc.

The birth of Vedanta Desika was in the Kali yuga year 4370, which corresponds to 1268 AD in the Tamil Year Vibhava, month Purattaasi, on the Dasami day of Sukla Paksha, a Wednesday, in the constellation of Sravanam ( the same as that of Lord of Tirumalai ). He was born in Thooppul, near Tiruttangaa ( Himavanam ) adjacent to the temple of Deepa Prakaasar in Kanchipuram, the birthplace of Poigai Alwar.

In glorifying this Aacharya there is a very big shrine dedicated for Vedanta Desika in Srivilliputtur and a separate festival for 10 days is being celebrated till today in the name of " Sri Gotha Sthuthi Uthsavam " in Srivilliputtur.

Swami Vedanta Desika was the brightest star in the firmament of Visishtadvaita next only to Bhagavad Ramanuja.

To inspire his fellows, Vedanta Desika composed the poem " abhIti stava ".

Then, having defeated the formidable horse archers of the enemy, he reinstalled the idols in Srirangam, and invited back Vedanta Desika.

Vedanta Desika returned with his family, and composed a poem in praise of this accomplishment.

" It is good to note that, Sri Kumara Varadhacharya was a great scholar and has also composed " Pillai Anthathi " in Tamil and " Sri Desika Managalam " in Sanskrit, on Swamy Vedanta Desika.

Vilanjsolai Pillai has praised Pillai Lokacharya's work Sri Vachana Booshanam by singing " Saptha Kaathai " and Sri Vedanta Desikan sung " Lokacharya Panchaasat " in praise of Sri Pillai Lokacharya.

Another major stream of influence was Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh ( 1887-1963 ) and his many disciples including, among others, Swami Vishnu-devananda-founder of International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres ; Swami Satyananda-of the Bihar School of Yoga ; and Swami Satchidananda-of Integral Yoga.

Adi Shankara ( 788 CE-820 CE ), founder of Advaita Vedanta, with disciples.

According to the International Nath Order of the Nath Sampradaya, the Avadhuta Gita is a text of Advaita Vedanta sung by Dattatreya and recorded by his disciples Swami and Kartika.

Notable disciples of Swami Vijnanananda include Pravrajika Mokshaprana, second president of Sri Sarada Math, Swami Atmasthananda, fifteenth president of the Ramakrishna Mission, and Swami Swahananda, spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

Indian discussion of reincarnation enters the historical record from about the 6th century BCE, with the development of the Advaita Vedanta tradition in the early Upanishads ( around the middle of the first millennium BCE ), Gautama Buddha ( 623-543 BCE ) as well as Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism.

Maharishi Ayur Veda has been variously characterized as emerging from, and consistently reflecting, the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, representing the entirety of the Ayurvedic tradition, and as a system that restores the ancient Ayurvedic texts of India to a more holistic perspective.

* Vedanta ( also called Uttara Mimamsa ), the Upanishadic tradition, with emphasis on Vedic philosophy.

For example, in the tradition of Vedanta, the author of the Sutra was Veda Vyasa and the commentators were Adi Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva ( each of whom eventually set up sub-schools within Vedanta ).

Advaita Vedanta ( Sanskrit a, not ; dvaita, dual ) is a nondual tradition from India a central tenet of Hinduism.

The Siddha Yoga tradition draws its teachings from the yogic philosophy of Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, and the Maharashtran poet-saints.

The review stated that " Swami Prabhavananda has written a charming and authoritative book on the spiritual heritage of India, by which he means that heritage in consonance with the Vedic tradition and its culmination in Vedanta " ( p. 376 ).

He is seen by Śrīvaiṣṇavas as the most important teacher ( ācārya ) of their tradition who followed Nathamuni and Yamunacharya, and by Hindus in general as the leading expounder of Viśiṣṭādvaita, one of the classical interpretations of the dominant Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.

Thus he laid out the foundation for Tatvavaada or Dvaita tradition of Vedanta refuting all the previous commentaries on Brahma Sutras.

Self Knowledge is a major topic in the ancient wisdom tradition Vedanta, and is acquired after the student makes certain preparations, such as the practice of austerities, cultivating calm, freeing oneself from cravings and aversion, and then performs the ātma-vicāra, or self-enquiry.

Shankaracharya, ( IAST: Śaṅkarācārya, Shankara acharya ) is a commonly used title of heads of monasteries called mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition.

The followers of the Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha claim that he established a fifth matha in Kanchipuram, but this is disputed by the other four mathas and the larger Advaita Vedanta tradition.

He writes: " a careful analysis of Vajrayana Buddhist cosmogony, specifically as presented in the Atiyoga tradition of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, which presents itself as the culmination of all Buddhist teachings, reveals a theory of a transcendent ground of being and a process of creation that bear remarkable similarities with views presented in Vedanta and Neoplatonic Western Christian theories of creation.

# Vedanta or Uttara Mimāṃsā, the Upaniṣadic tradition.

He is the author of the ( सर ् वदर ् शनसङ ् रह ), a compendium of different philosophical schools of Hindu thought and Pañcadaśī, an important text in the Advaita Vedanta tradition.

Balsekar taught from the tradition of Advaita Vedanta nondualism.

The 19th-century German Sanskritist Theodore Goldstücker was one of the early figures to notice the similarities between Spinoza's religious conceptions and the Vedanta tradition of India, writing that Spinoza's thought was "... a western system of philosophy which occupies a foremost rank amongst the philosophies of all nations and ages, and which is so exact a representation of the ideas of the Vedanta, that we might have suspected its founder to have borrowed the fundamental principles of his system from the Hindus, did his biography not satisfy us that he was wholly unacquainted with their doctrines ... We mean the philosophy of Spinoza, a man whose very life is a picture of that moral purity and intellectual indifference to the transitory charms of this world, which is the constant longing of the true Vedanta philosopher ... comparing the fundamental ideas of both we should have no difficulty in proving that, had Spinoza been a Hindu, his system would in all probability mark a last phase of the Vedanta philosophy.