Mankind is ignorant about the true nature of God,
of man and of the Universe and their relation to one another. So the ever
merciful Lord Sri Vishnu deputed Sri Vayu to be born on earth to fulfil.
His mission, namely to show the way to reach Him, and get rid of the miseries
and ignorance.
Smruthis, Sruthis and Puranas extol Hanuman, Bhima and Madhwas as the three
incarnations of Sri Vayu. Sri Madhwacharya himself has openly declared
in about 10 of his 37 works that he is such. There is a saying which tells
that there is no Guru equal to Sri Madhwa. There is no sastra equal to the
divine words of Sri Madhwa and there in no person to equal him in knowledge,
power and action in the three worlds.
Sri Madhwa was born in 1238 on the Vijayadasami day at a place called Pajakashetra
near Udupi. His father was Madhya-geha Bhatt and mother was Vedavathi.
The child was called Vasudeva. After his Upanyanam he studied the Vedas
under a gure; and at sixteen years of age he was initiated into Sannyasa
by Achutapreksha and bore the name Poornaprajna meaning completely enlightened
and wrote all the thirty seven works under the name Ananda Theertha. The
tradition holds the view that he was the messenger of Lord Narayana. As
Hanuman he served Sri Rama, and as Bhima he served Sri Krishna and as Madhwa
he served Sri Vedavyasa.
Sri Madhwa by his scholarship and powers of argumentation won many a dispute
and routed the apponents and converted Adwaitins into his fold including
his guru Achutapreksha. Sri Madhwa's life and work were authentically written
by Sri Narayana Pandithacharya a contemporary to SriMadhwa in a book called
Sri SumadhwaVijaya.
It has been acclaimed as an authoriative work and accepted by one and all.
It is a great literally composition with all the nicelties of a Mahakavya.
Tradition says that daily recitation of Sri SumadhwaVijaya brings fortune,
health, spiritual knowledge and bliss.
Madhwa's works can be divided into different classes; ten Upanishads, two
works on the Gita, four works on the BrahmaSutras, ten independent philosphical
tracts, a work on Mahabharata and one on Bhagavata, and one on the daily
rites. The rest seven are (Stotras) hymns in praise of God. The one Dwadasa
Stotra is in twelve little chapters. They all total up thirty-seven in
number.
Sri Madhwas's philosophy is unique and is based on the authority of the
Vedas, Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabarata and Pancaratra Agamas. The unique
feature of his interpretation is he harmonises all the passages in the
light of a single principle that they adore and glorify the infiniate auspicious
qualities of Lord Narayana who is the supreme Reality. This is the first
gem among the nine gems of his thought.
The second most important thought in Sri Madhwa's philosophy is the infinite
plurality of souls. He proclaims that five-fold differences are eternal.
The souls are different from one another, as well as from God and the world.
The world is different from the souls. The differnet aspects of matter
differ among themselves. This is the celebrated Panchabheda. This
differnece persists even in moksha. Even after release souls are graded
in respect of their perfection. The souls are also of the nature of gunas.
So they are in the nature of prakriti.
Another important doctrine is that the world according to Sri Madhwa is
real. It is the creation of God It is not created by man. If man have created
it why are they not perfectly happy?
He insists on bhakthi as the method to attain the Lord. It is supreme attachment
to the lord based on the complete understanding of the greatness and the
supremacy of the Lord which transcends all kinds of love. This kind of
amala bhakthi alone secures moksha.
