Abstract

The ontology of Rāmānuja, as expressed in his Gītābhāṣya and other works, centres on the doctrine of coordinate predication, expressed through the metaphor of the self-body relationship. This metaphor, employed to define the ontological status of God, the individual selves and the world, also serves as a strategy for reconciling apparently conflicting passages in the Bhagavadgītā and other authoritative texts of Vedānta. The view emerging from a close reading of Rāmānuja’s writings is one of universal realism grounded in the reality and unity of divine consciousness