[Advaita-l] Fwd: The uniqueness of the Madhva system

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Sat Dec 24 12:44:50 EST 2022


The uniqueness of the Madhva system
Sri Balagaru Srinivasacharya in his book 'Manimanjari Vaibhava'
On page 45 of the Sanskrit part says:
(Here is a brief Kannada translation. See its original Sanskrit in the
image below)
// In the Madhva faith, the world is real, Hari is the Supreme, Mukhyaprana
is the Jagadguru, Three types among the living beings, salvation is only
for the noble jivas, the evil jivas are censurable, those who hate Hari and
Vayu are to be abused because it is the means to salvation (in the Madhva
system)...the determination of the deity-hood of Madhvacarya, etc. is
necessary.
Also the determination of the demonic nature of other (non-Madhva)
philosophers like Shankara is also necessary. However in the non-Madhva
systems there is no such requirement for the determination of the deity
nature (devata svarupa) of their Acharyas and the demonic nature (daitya
svabhava) of their opponent Acharyas for attaining the purushartha like
Moksha. //
Thus the author has asserted the uniqueness of the Madhva system (the
determination of the devilish nature of other philosophers) by saying that
there is no need to do so in other non-Madhva schools.
And on page 58-59 he quotes some supposed verses from the Skanda Purana -
from which he asserts Shankaracharya's demonic nature and the demonic
nature of all other philosophers.
Thus, except for their Acharyas, all the 21 Ku-bhasyakaras including
Ramanuja, are daityas, of demonic nature as per the Madhva system. He has
also said that such abuse is a sine qua non for salvation in the Madhva
system.
This book was published in 2003.
It may also be noticed that Narayana Pandita, commenting on his own Madhva
Vijaya (a biography of Madhvacharya), has named the 21 ku-bhashyakara-s,
where Shankara and Ramanuja are included among others.
Jagannatha Dasa, in his Harikathamruta saara, a Kannada poetic work, has,
at the beginning, declared that all pre-Madhva commentators of the Brahma
sutra, 21 of them, are 'ati duraatma's (extremely wicked). The commentary
to this lists the 21 including Ramanuja and Shankara.
Om

See two images here: https://groups.google.com/g/advaitin/c/48FN_Ihag7c


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