The Three Gadyas
Rāmānuja composed three Sanskrit prose hymns (gadya-trayam):
- Śaraṇāgati Gadyam — his personal act of surrender to Śrīman Nārāyaṇa
- Śrīraṅga Gadyam — surrender to the Lord of Śrīraṅgam specifically
- Śrī Vaikuṇṭha Gadyam — a vision of Vaikuṇṭham and the prayer to attain it
The Śaraṇāgati Gadyam
The Śaraṇāgati Gadyam is held to have been composed at the feet of Raṅganātha when Rāmānuja formally performed his own prapatti. The text:
- Invokes Śrī first (śrīmate śrīraṅganāyakāya namaḥ)
- Confesses the absolute helplessness of the jīva
- Acknowledges all five aṅgas (limbs) of prapatti
- Prays for the grace to perform kainkarya eternally in Vaikuṇṭham
Personal and Universal
What makes this work uniquely powerful is that it is simultaneously Rāmānuja's personal prayer AND the universal prayer of every Sri Vaishnava. When a Sri Vaishnava recites it, they are using Rāmānuja's own words — as if borrowing the great ācārya's adhikāra (qualification) to approach the Lord. This is itself an expression of ācārya-niṣṭhā — relying on the ācārya's relationship with the Lord.
The gadya-trayam is recited on Ekādaśī days and on Rāmānuja's thirunakṣatram (birth star commemoration).