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Madhwa and Dwaita

Dr. M. V. Kamath

My dear Gauri,

In this letter, Gauri, I am going to tell you about Madhwa, with whom you should be familiar because it was in Udupi (home of your grandfather) that Madhwa established his eight mutts (monasteries) as well as the famous Krishna temple.

Madhwas was born in A.D. 1238, a little more than a hundred years after the passing away of Ramanuja. He was earlier known as Ananda Thirtha and studied under a teacher named Achyuthapreksha. Like Ramanuja, Madhwa, too, first studied adwaita but this did not satisfy the student. Just as Ramanuja repudiated his teacher, so did Madhwa. But in this case the teacher gave in to his shishya- disciple. Madhwa’s philosophy is known as dwaita-dualism.

What does dwaita mean? Madhwa held that God or the Supreme Being is the one and only independent substance (swatantra). All else, he said, such as prakrit, purusha, kaala karma and swabhava were paratantra. The latter depended upon the Lord.

Madhwa recognized what are known as the five difference s (panchabhedas) between God (paramatman) and man (jeevatman); between God and matter (jada); between man and matter; between one individual soul and another; and between one matter and another. Madhwa would not agree with Sankara that the world, was an illusion. He held that the world was real, not illusory at all. Madhwa-conceded that Vishnu was supreme (sarvottama) but he did not oppose the worship of Siva and other deities as Ramanuja did; only Madhwa considered them lesser Gods.

Madhwa took a realistic view of the material world. It exists, therefore, it is. But the material world exists as something dependent upon the Supreme. It is the theatre for the eternal struggle of man to discover his own self and dedicate it to the Supreme. He is therefore obliged to perform his duties, both secular and spiritual, in a spirit of dedication and thus try to make his way to self-realisation. Now, Gauri, I am aware that I am using words and phrases such as "spiritualism" and "self-realisation" without actually defining them. What does self-realisation" mean, really? How does one "realise" oneself? If I ask you: "Who are you?", you will probably answer, "I am Gauri"! And, of course, you would be right! But what is Gauri? A name? A face? A body? A relationship? You are, for example, the daughter of Suresh and Nalini. But are you anything more than that? When philosophers speak of “self-realisation” what they mean is the human beings’ eternal quest to find out who they really are!

Madhwa said every soul has an individuality. You are an individual. I am one. Every self has its own individuality. Madhwa’s ideal was not the liquidation of our individual personality, but its enrichment. Madhwa also argued that the universe consists of both good and evil and to say that everything around us is good is to practice self-deception.

Madhwa laid the foundation for his interpretation of the Vedanta and his successors built on it. The first one to do so was a saint-scholar named Akshyobhya Tirtha. He engaged himself in a debate with another scholar named Vidhyaranya and won the argument. What he propounded was thereafter considered a new way of looking at the problems of man and his soul and therefore a new dharshana. His arguments were compiled in what came to be known as sarvadarshana sangraha.

In due course Akshyobhya Thirtha was followed by Jaya Tirtha(1365-1388) and Shri Vyasaraya (1478-1539). As Professor B.N.K. Sarma has pointed out, these two elaborated the dwaita system “to the highest pitch of technical perfection of the scholastic devices of Nyaya-Vaisheshika logic…”

Though Madhwa himself was a product of coastal Karnataka, the greatest critical exponents of his philosophy lived in northern Karnataka in places like Erogola and Meakhed. The dwaita philosophy gave birth to the Dasa movement about which I have written to you earlier.

It is interesting to note that the three great masters of Hindu philosophy came to be born between the 9th and the 13th centuries which where years of great mental and spiritual development in Karnataka- indeed, in all of India. There were, of course, saints and savants in other parts of India but none of them gave intellectual stimulus to Hinduism as did Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa. In that sense they are unique.

There must be good reason why certain people are born in a certain place at a certain time. Have you ever asked yourself why this happens? We tend to think each person is the product of his time and place and that the Prophet Mohammad could only have been born in Arabia and not, say, in Japan, and a Mahatma Gandhi could only have been born in India in the second half of the 19th century. That does not entirely answer our question and if you have any answer, let me know! I would then think that you are a very wise girl!

Your loving 

Ajja.