The story

Before he was Yatiraja, he was a householder scholar of Kanchi — Ilaya Perumal, student of Yadava Prakasa, quiet worshipper of Deva Perumal (Sri Varadaraja) of Kanchipuram. His turning from household life to sannyasa is recorded in the Guruparamparai tradition with unusual tenderness, because it was not an ordinary renunciation.

According to the Sri Vaishnava Guruparamparai account of emperumAnAr, it was before Deva Perumal himself — at the Varadaraja temple in Kanchipuram — that Bhagavad Ramanuja received the sannyasa ashrama. He was invested with the tridanda, the triple staff of the Sri Vaishnava sannyasi, which is held in the tradition to represent the surrender of manas, vak, and kaya — mind, speech, and body — entirely to Sriman Narayana. The single staff of the Smarta renunciate signifies the merger of the self in an impersonal absolute; the triple staff of the Sri Vaishnava signifies the triple offering of a servant who keeps his self only that he may place it, again and again, at the Lord's feet.

It is here, the Guruparamparai records, that Deva Perumal gave him two sacred titles: Yatiraja — "king of those who strive," lord of the yatis — and Ramanuja Muni. The title was not honorific flattery; it was an appointment. From that day the Sri Vaishnava sannyasa lineage would look to him as its sovereign teacher, and when he later took up residence at Srirangam — summoned there, as the hagiographies tell, by the longing of Sri Ranganatha's devotees after the passing of Alavandar — the title was confirmed by the whole community of seekers who gathered at the Lord's feet.

Alkondavilli Govindacharya's 1906 biography, drawing on the same traditional sources, notes that from his sannyasa onward every act of Ramanuja was the act of a king — not a worldly king, but a king of yatis: gathering the community, setting the temple rites in order, defending the Vishishtadvaita darshana, and opening sharanagati to all castes and conditions. The name Yatiraja therefore carries three weights together: the day of his sannyasa, the authority given by Sri Varadaraja, and the lifelong reign of service that followed.

Contemplation

The naama Yatiraja reframes kingship for the devotee. A yati is one who strives; to be king of such strivers is not to command them but to serve them most deeply. Bhagavad Ramanuja's three gifts are visible in this one title: compassion (for a true king carries his people), kainkaryam (for his crown is the tridanda — a badge of offering, not of rule), and sharanagati (for he himself is a sannyasi at Deva Perumal's feet, holding nothing back). Chant this naama 108 times, and let the Lord himself be the king of your own striving.