ଶ୍ରୀ ରଙ୍ଗ ଗଦ୍ଯମ୍

One of the three prose pieces by Ramanuja, this one addressed to Ranganatha at Srirangam and prefaced by a verse in which a later hand salutes Ramanuja as the knower of the truth of matter, of soul, and of what is above them both. The prose is built as his prose is built: a single sentence gathering the Lord's qualities into one enormous compound — knowledge, strength, lordship, valour, power and splendour, then good disposition, tenderness, gentleness, uprightness, kinship, evenness, compassion, sweetness, depth, generosity, skill, firmness, courage — before it comes at last to its verb. What it asks for is narrow and exact: the state of a servant, born of the love that comes of experiencing him. It says it knows no other way.