Sri Madvacharya

Sri Madvacharya, the founder of Dvaita school of philosophy, was born in the village of Pejarka, near Udupi in Karnataka state in 1238 AD.  He was born to Narayana Nadillaya and Vedavati, a pious couple devoted to Lord Vishnu.  They named the child Vasudeva and he also grew up as a very pious child. He also showed extraordinary mental abilities and physical powers from his childhood. When his father repeated previous day’s lesson he usually complained why he was teaching the same thing as previous day.  Once his teacher found him not paying attention to his teaching.  When the teacher scolded him for not paying attention, he replied that he was not interested in learning Vedic hymns part by part. The teacher dared him to recite the whole hymn and he recited the hymn in full with flawless intonation and won the appreciation of his teacher. He was a good sportsman skilled in swimming, wrestling and weight lifting. 

Even from his early childhood he was devoted to Lord Vishnu.  At the age of eight he sought his father’s consent to become a sanyasi. When his father hesitated because he was the only son, he assured his father that he will wait until another son was born to his parents. Shortly thereafter a second son was born and father reluctantly gave his consent.  Then his mother said “No”, but latter had to say “Yes” when faced with the alternative of his running away from home.  Then he took sanyasa from Sri Achyuthapreksha, who gave him a new name Purnaprajna. 

Sri Achyuthapreksha belonged to an Advaitic order and had his math in Ananteswar shrine and he had a hard time teaching young Purnaprajna, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita on monistic lines. Purnaprajna argued hard and impressed his guru with his dualistic interpretation of the scriptures. He was a skilful debater and his guru got converted to his views. After changing to Dvaita, Achyuthapreksha changed his name also to Purushottama Tirtha.  He also appointed Purnaprajna as his successor with the name Ananda Tirtha.  Ananda Tirtha  thereupon began to preach his Dvaita philosophy according to which the world is real, the individual souls are different from Brahman, and Vishnu is the Highest Entity in the universe. Many pundits and scholars of other schools who challenged him to a debate got defeated by his keen and irrefutable logic.  Ananda Tirtha, in order to propagate his faith undertook a pilgrimage to various shrines in South India where he debated and won over opponents of other schools in the different places. Upon his return to Udupi, he wrote the commentary on Bhagavad Gita, Gita Bhashya, his first work. His guru now called him by a new name Madhva, meaning “honey bringer”, by which name he became famous.

Soon after, Sri Madhvacharya made a pilgrimage to the North and went to Allahabad, Dwaraka, Benares, Delhi and other places and reached the famous Badrikshetra. He composed the Madhavabhashya, commentary on Brahmasutras at this place and went further north all alone to the depths of Himalayas, where Sri Vedavyasa is said to have his abode. On his return journey Sri Madhvacharya came to the banks of Godavari and had debates with two eminent scholarly pundits Shobana Bhatta and Samasastry belonging to Advaitic school. The Pundits were defeated in the debate and they became his disciples taking up Sanyasa.  Shobana Bhatta became the famous Padmanabha Tirtha, followed his master and was greatly devoted to him and later succeeded Sri Madvacharya.  Samasastry became Narahari Tirtha and joined him later as per his orders.

After his return to Udipi, Sri Madhvacharya began writing various works establishing the new system of philosophy which has come to be called Dvaita Vedanta.  He wrote commentaries on the ten principal Upanishads, ten special treatises called Prakaranas, the Gita Tatparya and other works during this period. It is during this period he noticed from the shores of Malpe, a coastal village near Udupi a ship in distress, in the Arabian Sea. He used his saffron cloth to guide the ship safely to shore.  The thankful captain of the ship offered Sri Madvacharya anything he wanted from the ship. He only took a small mound of Gopi Chandan from the ship. When he broke it there was a statue of Sri Krishna. 

With this idol of Sri Krishna he established the Krishna temple in Udupi.  He also established eight mathas, called Ashta Matha in Udupi, the heads of which preside over the worship of Sri Krishna in the temple by rotation. The maths are Palimaru matha, Adamaru matha, Krishnapura matha, Puttige matha, Shirur matha, Sodhe matha, Kaniyooru matha, and Pejavara matha.  The system of rotation continues even today at Udupi. Change takes place once in two years and change-over is celebrated as Paryaya festival.

Sri Madhvacharya undertook a second tour of North India. He met many Muslim rulers like Ghyasuddin Balban and conversed with them in Urdu. Ghyasuddin Balban was so impressed that he offered a part of his Kingdom as jaghir if Sri Madhvacharya would stay in his kingdom.  Sri Madvacharya politely declined his offer and proceeded with his tour.  After returning from North India he spent the rest of his life in Udupi, occasionally visiting a place called Vishnumangala near Udupi.  During one of his visits he entered into a debate with a reputed champion of the Advaita school by name Trivikramapanditacharya. The debate between them seems to have extended to fifteen days and in the end Trivikramapanditacharya admitted defeat and became his disciple embracing Dvaita philosophy. 

Trivikramapanditacharya became devoted to Sri Madvacharya and wrote the commentary known as Tatvapradipa on the Brahmasutra Bhashya of  Sri Madhvacharya. At his request Sri Madhvacharya wrote a metrical commentary on the Brahmasutras which is famous as Anuvyakhyana. The end for Sri Madvacharya is said to have come in his eightieth year suddenly.  While he was teaching the Aitareya Upanishad Bhashya to his disciples, he seems to have suddenly disappeared from the sight of disciples in a shower of flowers. 

Sri Madhvacharya is considered to be the third avatar of Mukya Prana, Vayu, the earlier two being Hanumanji and Bhima, the Pandava prince. Like Bhima, he could eat and digest enormous quantity of food without being affected, while at the same time he could fast for days without showing any sign of tiredness. One incident attributed to him in this respect runs as follows. Once when Sri Madvacharya was travelling through the Goa region, a Brahmin by name Sankara wanted to test him. So he invited him to his place and offered 4000 banana fruits which Sri Madvacharya ate completely besides drinking 30 vessels of milk, reminiscent of Bhima’s exploits. Seeing his special superhuman powers the local king wanted Sri Madvacharya to stay in his place.  When he refused, the king tried to detain him by locking him in the local temple.  Sri Madvacharya became invisible to the king and left the place with his disciples.

Another famous miracle attributed to him is “walking on water”.  While returning from Badrinath, he and his disciples had to cross River Ganges. There were no boats to cross the river. He left his disciples and walked into water and reached the other bank.  The Muslim king at the other bank was surprised to see him crossing the full river without boat and without getting the clothes wet. The king recognized the greatness of Sri Madvacharya and he immediately arranged for boats to get the disciples across the river. 

Sri Madhvacharya has written in all thirty seven works, and they are collectively called Sarvamula. Four of his works are on Brahmasutras, two on Bhagavad Gita, ten are the commentaries on ten Upanishads, one on the Mahabharata and one on the Bhagavata and ten are the Prakaranas. The Rigbhashya is a commentary on the Rig-Veda (for a few typical Riks). Seven of his works are of the Stotra type. The direct disciples of Sri Madhvacharya, viz. Padmanabha Tirtha, Narahari Tirtha, Trivikramapanditacharya among others have written commentaries on his works.

The philosophy he espoused was dualism, Dvaitam, He was critical of Sankara’s Advaita, which he attacked fiercely and of Ramanuja’s Visishtadvaita. The salient points of his philosophy can be summed up as:

1. Brahman is Lord Vishnu. He only is independently Real
2. Jeevas (Athmas) and Jada (insentient objects) are also Real but their Reality is dependant Reality, dependant on Brahman.
3. Panchabeda,  five differences i.e. between Brahman and jeevas, jeeva and jada, jada and jada, jada and Brahman, jeeva and jeeva, is an eternal fact.
4. Liberation (Moksha) means attaining the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu; in other words, entering an eternal relationship of service to the Supreme Lord
5. Pure devotional service to Lord Vishnu is the only way to attain this liberation    
6. Jeevas are of three classes; mukthi-yogas, eligible for Moksha, nitya-samsarins, subject to eternal Samsara, tamo-yogyas, condemned to eternal hell.
7. The truth can be known only through; pratyaksha (direct perception), anumana (inference or logic), and sabda (Vedic authority)
8. The worship of Vishnu consists of - (i) Ankana, marking the body with His symbols, (ii) Namakarana, giving the names of the Lord to children and (iii) Bhajana, singing His glories
9. Renunciation, devotion and direct cognition of the Lord through meditation lead to the attainment of liberation.

Sri Madvacharya's Dvaita philosophy had been further developed by Jayatirtha (1356-1388) and Vyasaraya (1478-1589) and has its main centre at Udupi (Karnataka).

------------------------