A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c20.24

c20.24

A younger contemporary of Rāmānuja was Nimbārka, a scholarly Bhāgavata Telugu Brahmin from Nimbāpura in Bellary district who spent most of his time in Brindāvan in Northern India. In religion he accepted the doctrine of surrender (prapatti) and translated it into a total devotion to Krishna and Rādhā. For him Rādhā is not merely the favourite mistress of Krishna but his eternal consort who lives with him for ever in Goloka, the highest heaven. Philosophically, he accepted the position that God, the soul, and the world were identical yet distinct, the position described as bhedā-bheda. Nimbārka thus became the founder of a new sect allied to, but distinct from, that of Rāmānuja. He expounded his views in a commentary on the Vedāntasūtras and in another work called Siddhāntaratna or Daśaśloki.