Madhva & Dvaita Vedanta

vedanta is a very significant and popular school of thought or tradition within the larger religious tradition of hinduism or sanatana dharma outside of the indian context the advaita school or non-dualistic school of vedanta is probably the most famous but as we've seen in previous episodes this is by no means the whole of the tradition in another good showcase of how diverse religions can be even within specific schools of thought or traditions of a religion like hinduism there can be such differences of opinion that they can be seen as being the complete polar opposites of each other yes we have now reached the third and final part in our trilogy about the main schools of vedanta we've gone from the absolute monism or non-dualism of shankara to the absolute dualism of mother [Music] the school associated with madhava often known as mothvacharya the acharya being an honorific title meaning something like teacher is usually referred to as dwight de vedanta which can roughly be translated as the vedanta of dualism it heavily challenged the doctrines of its non-dualistic leaning predecessors and came to have an enormous impact and influence on hinduism before we get into it i think it's good to have a bit of a recap first as always i of course recommend that you watch the previous episodes in this series to get a fuller grasp of the context in which this conversation takes place but let's summarize what we've learned so far vedanta is essentially a exegetical scholarly tradition within hinduism primarily concerned with interpreting the vedas specifically the upanishads as well as other texts like the brahmasutras and the bhagavad-gita and as this tradition started to grow a couple of centuries into the common era various schools and interpretations arose different scholars who interpreted these textual sources in different ways the upanishads and brahma sutras which is kind of a commentary on the first as well as the vedantic scholars are concerned with a few key concepts there is first the brahman the ultimate reality the absolute or the one the source of all things including the different gods secondly there is the atman or the self both in terms of our individual selves but also in the sense of a pure transcendent absolute or universal self the reality of pure subjectivity and while all the scholars of vedanta dealt with these themes and concepts they interpreted them and their relationship differently the first example of a systematized school of vedanta is associated with the figure shankara who likely lived in the 8th century his school known as advaita vedanta was monistic brahman a reality entirely without attributes is the only thing that is all things are in fact brahman forming a total oneness and all experience or appearance of multiplicity or of things including the self being other than the brahman is the result of avidya ignorance and maya illusion the second figure that we have explored ramanuja didn't like this at all and spent much of his life refuting shankara school to him advaitha robbed god or vishnu of his rightful attributes and thus neglected rituals and devotional worship or bhakti ramanuja whose school is known as vishista dwight vedanta instead proposed that brahman is identical to the god visnu with all of his attributes and rejected the attributeless brahman of shankara the human worshipper needs god to be different from himself in order to worship him and receive his saving grace however he still held fast to a qualified form of monism by stating that all things are brahman or vishnu but we are like parts of his body he being the soul that moves the body so it's both a kind of non-dualism but one that still upholds a certain level of difference between god and human and the importance of devotion bhakti for reaching liberation and it is into this debate that madhva is born and lives his life he was born in the late 13th century close to the city of udupi in the modern state of karnataka in southwestern india he grows up and lives in an environment that is incredibly diverse in terms of religion and intellectual thought not only were there various schools of scholarly hinduism like the different movements of vedanta already mentioned but also other groups like the shaivites worshippers of shiva jains the atheistic chadovakas and many more even the muslims would have made their way into the region at this time in other words this was a pluralistic environment full of discussion and debate something that likely influenced the later career of madhva he was born into a brahmana or priestly family and thus early in his life engaged in studying the vedas and later vedanta under a teacher that was inclined specifically to shankara's advaita interpretation but madhwa eventually left this master due to heavily disagreeing with the advaitha interpretation of the upanishads we see this happen a few times in his life madhva studying under a teacher of vedanta but breaking with him due to disagreement and instead eventually led his own path and developed a new school of interpretation the events of madhva's life follow a similar pattern to other hydrographical accounts of other sages he became a sannyasin or renunciant ascetic during his teenage years and was exceptionally intellectually gifted after studying and developing his own philosophy he traveled and debated scholars from various different schools of thought and defeated them he's said to have opened a few mathhas or monasteries and there formed a community around him that would grow into great prominence madhva much like ramanuja before him was heavily concerned with refuting the advaita interpretation of vedanta instead leading his followers to a pure devotional worship of vishnu which according to him was the only way to liberation he saw himself as having a great responsibility to lead people to god through correct interpretation worship and social order indeed it appears that madhva actually saw himself as an avatar or incarnation of the wind god value who is the son of visnu thus serving an important role as an intermediary or guide for the people to reach god this mission was not only theological and ontological but also social indeed atheist scholar deepak sharma says quote madhvacharya's theology is thus founded on the importance of taratamiya hierarchy as evidenced in the prevailing systems of varna class and jyati cast the centrality of social structure for madvacaria and maintenance of the status quo may be a reaction to the diversity and menace of rival gnostica or non-vedic traditions in medieval karnataka any good vedantic scholar madhva wrote a number of important works the most important of these is probably you guessed it a commentary on the brahma sutra as well as commentaries on the bhagavad-gita and a various different upanishads what is interesting about madhva is that he not only wrote his great major commentary on the brahma sutras his great basia but also three separate commentaries on it which was quite unusual and he also wrote independent treatises where he argued against the schools of shankara's advaita or ramanuja vishishtadvaita and presenting his own ideas which would become known as dwight davidant or dualistic vedanta so what are these arguments about and what are the features of madhva's own thought well as i said earlier all of vedanta is essentially occupied with the same themes but they interpret them and their relationships in different ways and we can zoom out and look at the indigenous religions of india generally and come to a similar conclusion whether we are talking about many of the various hindu traditions or jainism or buddhism they all have a few things in common name the ideas about samsara the cycle of rebirths that all life forms go through as well as karma the force that determines the nature of that rebirth also common to the indic religions is a common final goal to be released from the wheel of samsara to end one cycle of rebirth and reach final liberation which is known in hinduism as moksha so it's important to remember when we talk about these different schools of vedanta that they are all essentially concerned with the same goal of reaching ultimate liberation or moksha and all the different theological and ontological practical differences are simply different ways of finding the correct or at least most effective way of reaching that liberation so for example very famously shankara's advaita vedanta had proposed that it was janana yoga or more properly pronounced gyana yoga which is the yoga of knowledge that was the prime way to reach moksha right to know to to reach knowledge of one's own identity the self's identity with the brahman everything is the brahman and to reach liberation according to shankara and the non-dualistic school of advaitha is to realize and come to the the full knowledge of one's identity with the one brahman rituals and deity worship while not neglected entirely become secondary in advaita at best they are steps on the way to the actual solution reaching the knowledge that there is only one thing brahman and ourself or atman is identical to that brahman it is this concept that people like ramanuja and especially madhva was completely appalled by this was the entirely wrong interpretation according to them two madhva the and athman are not identical not at all in fact they are entirely separated and the only way to reach moksha is through devoted worship of god in the form of vishnu like in the case with ramanuja it's difficult to talk about madhva and his school of dwight vedanta without making constant comparisons to the other schools this is because madhava's writings and his well all of his ideas are really in direct response to those other schools and because of that they are often best understood in relation to those other schools this is the way that we can understand his ideas better by situating his ideas within that wider debate and discussion the three main schools of vedanta advaita vishishta dwaita and dwighta can be seen as existing on a spectrum where advaita and dwighta are each on opposite sides of that spectrum in terms of ontology advaita teaches that all that is is the attributeless brahman i am brahman you are the brahmana the cat is the brahmana this conversation even is brahman and all our experience of multiplicity or other than brahman is only the result of superimposition or aviasa and ultimately not real just like we mistake a rope to be a snake mothva's ontology is the very opposite of this the common name of the school duitta meaning to or duel suggests his position the world to madhwa is entirely dependent on god or vishnu who is identical to brahman he essentially divides reality into two fundamental categories things that are dependent and things that are independent the only thing that is independent is vishnu and everything else is dependent on him sustained by him and created by him quote the lord vishnu is the only independent thing this god is not the attributeless brahman of advaita vedanta it is saguna brahman brahman with attributes entirely vishnu is a personal god with exalted attributes fitting of a god not some impersonal abstract reality thus in duitta vedanta brahman is not the reality of all things like in writers like shankara brahman in the form of vishnu with attributes is a god that is different from ourselves and the created world so we have reached the entirely other side of the spectrum by this point rather than being the ultimate reality and true essence of all things brahman or vishnu is here transcendent and a force outside of ourselves to which we must turn in worship quote as stated in the paramasruti the wise recognize that the universe is known and protected by vishnu therefore it or the universe is proclaimed to be real but hadi alone is supreme this brings madhav a lot closer to what many would consider a classical monotheism but his theology is also quite different in some ways from religions like christianity to mother god is the efficient or instrumental cause of all things but not their material cause this is philosophical jargon to say that vishnu did not create the world ex nihilo or from nothing he didn't create the matter and stuff which makes up everything rather the material stuff known as pradakriti has always existed as such and vishnu only forms this matter and causes this matter to become specific things this is a little more similar to the demiurge or craftsmen in plato's timaeus additionally there are other principles that are also eternal aside from god such as time or kala but his main point still stands vishnu is the supreme lord who is the only independent reality and all other dependent reality is dependent on him thus different from him and as he alluded to in the quote before it is ultimately real the world around us is entirely real to madhva it is not maya or illusion based on ignorance or superimposition but a true reality that can be known directly through perception this can be seen especially in madhva's epistemology or theory of knowledge the vedantans and all other schools of hindu thoughts are heavily concerned with what is known as the pramanas the means of true knowledge but they disagreed on what it constituted what is it that can give us true knowledge of the world as it is or especially of the brahman and the atma as we saw in the episode on shankara and advaita he believed that the only true pramana or means of knowledge when it comes to the ibrahman was scripture in other words the vedas on upanishads because our common view of the world is essentially based on ignorance and misunderstanding we cannot trust our senses or deductions to tell us anything about the ultimately real instead we must rely on revealed and inspired scripture to guide us but madhva is significantly more inclusive when it comes to what counts as a pramana to madhva there are primarily a few different means of knowledge or pramanas kevala which is direct knowledge of an object as it is and then there is ano pramana which is indirect knowledge and the instruments with which direct knowledge is reached and these instruments are divided into three main categories firstly there is pratyaksha which is essentially sense perception all of our senses including the thinking mind experiences real objects in the world outside ourselves and can deduce truth claims about them the self or soul of the individual known as both atman and as the jiva are entirely separated from brahman ontologically but they still have a connection to madhva the soul is like a mirror image of the brahman or vishnu so it contains indirect traces of god but in a more real sense they are of course not the same thing other than platyaksha or perception the pramanas include anumana or defect-less inference in other words of making logical deductions based on one's perception like claiming that where there is smoke there is fire for example very famous example from indian philosophy and lastly there is agama or scripture scripture is a central means of knowledge to madhava just as it was for shankara both the shruti or reveal text like the vedas but also smirthi or human written but divinely inspired texts like the puranas mahabharata bhagavad-gita and the brahma-sutras but as you can see madhwa includes many other pramanas as well and he seems to actually prioritize pratyaksha or perception as the most important followed by scripture which really shows you how much of a realist he was you can have direct true knowledge of reality by simply experiencing it as it is there is no illusion or superimposition involved here but things are of course a lot more complicated than this as well mothvacharya's ontology and epistemology are very hierarchical and every branch or category also has a number of sub-branches and it just goes on like that for a long time we're not going to get into the complexities of mothva's many different categories and hierarchies today instead focusing on his main arguments and the general statements that he makes but if you're interested in studying this deeper then check out the literature or sources in the description of this episode so we've already established how madhva differs from other thinkers like shankara in some very fundamental ways god or brahman is full of infinite attributes he is a personal god who is different from the world and sustains the world the world itself is not maya or illusion it is absolutely real and can be known directly through things like sense perception thus even though madhwa and shankara are reading the exact same sources like the upanishads and the brahmasutras they are coming to very very different conclusions and all this comes from mothva's essential focus on worship and devotion known as bhakti just like ramanuja before him madhva belonged to the vaishnavite tradition of devotional worship to the god vishnu in particular as well as his avatars and incarnations like krishna and rama shankara and the advaitans don't belong to this tradition in the same way which is what allows them to put a lower emphasis on devotion but as a vaisnavait madhava cannot accept this position all these ideas that he has is aimed at the ultimate goal to allow the person to have a proper view of the world of god and their relationship to each other so that he can respond properly to his position in that reality and reach moksha or liberation but what is that response and what is the role of the human being well in a way we've already answered that question the role of the human being in this whole scheme is to devote his or herself to vishnu and worship him quote bhakti devotion comes from knowledge of the greatness of god and is the strongest in all circumstances when compared to others moksha is achieved by this and in no other manner just like basically all other thinkers in hinduism mother is primarily concerned with reaching liberation or moksha to be freed from these cycle of rebirths or samsara and as we saw earlier different schools of vedanta interpreted how this goal is achieved in different ways so shankara's advaita vedanta said that it is gyana yoga the yoga of knowledge of knowing one's own identity with the brahman and the brahmanas all encompassing nature as the only reality that exists but madhva as we've seen was quite clear on the matter that it is only bhakti yoga or the yoga of devotion that ultimately leads to liberation he doesn't say that bhakti is the only important thing though the other yogas like karma yoga and gyana yoga are still important steps on the way what begins with karma yoga the yoga of actions and rituals gyana yoga that of knowledge is a required step to reach true devotion one must have proper knowledge about the nature of god and the self and the relationship as being separate for example to be able to properly devote oneself to worship but at the end of the day these are only prerequisites that lead to the end goal and the only true way of being liberated which is bhakti bhakti is devoted worship of god in this case vishnu in pure love and adoration praying to god making offerings all the things that come with devotional practice that is the only way to liberation and even then it's not like the human being has control over when moksha arrives it isn't the case where one is devoted enough to god that there's some kind of point one reaches when there is sudden liberation instead all the devotional practices only prepare the practitioner to receive the grace or prasada of vishnu it is ultimately god who decides when the person reaches liberation further emphasizing the ultimate power of god over all things once this has been reached the jiva can leave a blissful existence without rebirth in a heavenly world that in itself has various different grades and stations in relation to closeness to vishnu perhaps it is here that the great teacher madhva himself resides not only did he of course reach moksha according to dwight the tradition but as we saw earlier he was also considered the very avatar of the god value indeed according to the hagiographies madhva never actually died but it is said that he simply disappeared one day vanished to never be seen again a fitting end perhaps to a figure that is as mysterious and charismatic as he was mad was interpretation of vedanta which became known primarily as dwight vedanta became a significant intellectual force in hinduism his huge focus on devotional worship of a personal god that stood above creation was very attractive to a lot of people and he managed to challenge the great schools of previous figures like shankara and ramanuja originally madhvas vedanta was pretty confined to the region where he lived and was born in karnataka but eventually it also spread all across india and today has also spread really all across the world and has influenced various different movements even contemporary ones like the hare krishna movement he and ramanuras have tended to appeal more to the general masses and hindu practitioners due to their interpretation of a personal god who can be worshipped much more so than the heavy and scholarly thought of shankara but all of these schools as well as various other ones that we haven't talked about in this series make up the diverse tapestry that is vedanta and hinduism through these episodes we have seen how varied ideas can be even within the same philosophical tradition and that it is useless to make the kind of generalizations that many people tend to make when talking about a religion like hinduism or sanatana dharma even though this was the last episode in this trilogy there is a lot more to explore of course and we will continue to dive deeper into the many fascinating religious traditions and intellectual currents in india in future episodes i'll see you next time [Music] foreign

Channel: Let's Talk Religion

Views: 84,467

Keywords: Madhva, Madhvacharya, Dvaita, Dvaita Vedanta, Vedanta, Dualistic vedanta, Dualism, Advaita, Advaita Vedanta, Shankara, Adi Shankara, Shankaracharya, Vaishnavism, Vishnu, Hinduism, Hindu philosophy, Indian philosophy, Eastern wisdom, eastern religion, religion in india, India, religion, Ramanuja, spirituality, indian spirituality, Non-dualism

Id: 7I4Y6J8WALM

Length: 24min 2sec (1442 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 06 2022