Ananyopāyatva — Bhagavān Alone as the Means
Ananyopāyatva (from ananya = not-other, upāya = means or method, -tva = the quality of) designates one of the foundational dispositions of a true prapanna: the firm understanding and internalised conviction that Bhagavān alone is the upāya — the sole, effective, and ultimate means (sādhana) — for the soul's liberation. No karma yoga, jñāna yoga, bhakti yoga, austerity, pilgrimage, or ritual, when treated as independently efficacious alongside Bhagavān, constitutes an acceptable co-means.
This principle must be carefully distinguished from a rejection of sādhana altogether. The Viśiṣṭādvaita tradition does not counsel inaction. Rather, it insists on a precise understanding of causation: when a jīva performs any act of worship, recitation, or service, the liberative efficacy of those acts flows entirely from Bhagavān's grace, not from the acts themselves as independent causes. The prapanna who truly embodies ananyopāyatva performs acts of devotion and service but attributes their value entirely to Bhagavān and holds Bhagavān — not the acts — as the upāya.
In the Mumukṣuppadi, Piḷḷai Lokācārya contrasts ananyopāyatva with the error of upāyāntara — resorting to 'other means.' The one who adopts upāyāntara is like a sick person who, while under the care of a supremely competent physician, secretly procures medicines from elsewhere — thereby insulting the physician and muddying the treatment. The prapanna, by contrast, has recognised that Bhagavān's grace is infinitely more capable than any human contrivance and reposes entirely in it.
Ananyopāyatva is related to but distinct from ananyopēyatva (exclusive orientation toward Bhagavān as goal). Upāya concerns the means; upēya concerns the goal. Together they form the two poles of a complete prapatti: having no other means and desiring no other end. Both dispositions, when held simultaneously, constitute the mind of the prapanna in its fullness — surrendered in method and surrendered in aspiration.