Chapter Six: The Rasika Lineage of Rama Worship

Agradas writes that Paramahamsa Shukadeva first instructed Paramahamsa Purushottamacharya in the Rama mantra:

Through Shukadeva’s grace, disciplined in the vow of celibacy, Purushottama received it; his disciple Narottama attained the path of liberation.

The Rama mantra then passed successively through Purushottamacharya, Gangadharacharya, and other great persons until it reached Ramananda Svami.

These are scriptural arguments. There is also historical evidence. A Muslim saint named Maulana Rashid lived in Kashi at the same time as Ramananda. He wrote a Persian book entitled Tadhkirat al-Fuqarā, chiefly about Muslim faqirs but also praising well-known Hindu saints. Describing Ramananda’s extraordinary spiritual power, he explicitly calls him an acharya of the original Sri Sampradaya. He states that Sita was the founding teacher of the path; she first taught the doctrine to divine-natured Hanuman; and through Anjaneya the mantra spread. It is therefore called the Sri Sampradaya, and its initiatory formula the Rama-taraka.¹

Two branches of the Sri Sampradaya

One lineage of the Rama mantra-king was revealed through Janaki, denoted by the word śrī; the other through Lakshmi, also denoted by śrī. That Janaki is designated by this word is supported by the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha-kāṇḍa 113.22 and Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa 44, where she is described as the primal Power and sovereign even of all forms of Sri. Agradas likewise writes in his exposition of the eight-syllable mantra, “The word śrī denotes Bhagavati Sita.”

Both branches are therefore called the Sri Sampradaya: Sri is the founding teacher of each, and both uphold qualified nondualism.

The Mahārāmāyaṇa gives this further lineage:

1. Sri Rama; 2. Sri Sita; 3. Sri Hanuman; 4. Sri Brahma; 5. Sri Vasishtha; 6. Sri Parashara; 7. Sri Vyasa; 8. Sri Shukadeva; 9. Sri Purushottamacharya; 10. Sri Gangadharacharya—