The world's second tallest statue in sitting pose of Ramanuja was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India at Hyderabad recently. Which one of the following statements correctly represents the teachings of Ramanuja?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (a) The best means of salvation was devotion.
Ramanuja taught that devotion (bhakti) to Vishnu, with surrender to Him, is the best way to reach salvation. His school, vishishtadvaita, is a devotional form of Vedanta.
- ✓ (a) NCERT: according to Ramanuja the best means of attaining salvation was intense devotion to Vishnu, whose grace lets the devotee reach the bliss of union with Him.
- ✗ (c) The route of knowledge and reasoning about Brahman is Shankara's advaita, which Ramanuja challenged; his own path stressed bhakti and surrender.
- ✗ (d) Ramanuja's texts as summarised in NCERT stress bhakti and surrender to the divine, not meditation, as the path to liberation.
Remember · Ramanuja (11th century, Tamil Nadu): vishishtadvaita, Vishnu-bhakti and surrender as the way to salvation, in contrast to Shankara's advaita and path of knowledge.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 4 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 7 · Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Chapter 4 “Ramanuja developed the school of vishishtadvaita vedanta, which sees the world and individual souls as real, and emphasises bhakti and surrender to the divine as the path to liberation.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·