Madhva

(1197–1276) Philosopher and founder of
the Dvaita Vedanta philosophical
school, whose long life was largely spent
in Udupi, a small town near the Malabar
coast in the state of Karnataka.
Madhva’s basic philosophy was the utter
transcendence of God. This conviction
led him to develop the theory of
dualism, which posits a qualitative
difference between God in his
transcendence and the corruptions of
material things. According to Madhva,
God is completely different from
humans and the material world, even
though both came from God and
depend on Him for their continuing
existence. Madhva differed sharply
from the major school, Advaita
Vedanta, which upheld the theory of
monism—the belief that a single
Ultimate Reality (called Brahman) lies
behind all things, which are merely
differing forms of this single reality.
Whereas Advaita collapses all things
into one thing, Madhva firmly insists
on maintaining differences.
Madhva’s emphasis on dualism led
him to articulate these differences,
known as the “fivefold difference”: the
difference between God and Self,
between God and the world, between
individual Selves, between Selves and
matter, and between individual material
things. Even though each Self contains
an aspect of God, fundamental difference gives the Self only limited capacity
for religious life. This limited power
means that final liberation of the soul
comes solely through the grace of God,
who alone has the power to effect it.
Final liberation was conceived both as
freedom from rebirth and as the soul’s
opportunity to remain in the divine
presence forever.