Sri Madhvacharya His Personality and Teachings

- Pt. Raghavendrachar Rachuri

Jayateertha Vidyapeetha
Nahi jnanena sadrisam pavitramiha vidyate. Knowledge is incomparably pure. Thus says the
holy Bhagavad Gita. Our life is a gradual march towards purity the purity which is the souls
own nature. This purity can be achieved only by pure knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is the
greatest treasure of the mankind. It is the panacea of all our evils. It is the knowledge which
makes man superior to other God's creations. Human being minus knowledge is just an animal
with two legs. The world has seen many seers, who came down to earth, to propagate the divine
knowledge among the needy. But for them, the world would have drowned in the vast oceans of
ignorance.
After the advent of Kali Yuga, the noble souls lost their way in the dense forests of samsara. They
sank to great depths of ignorance, doubt and bewilderment. The graceful Vishnu was moved by
their plight. He wished to uplift his devotees and bring them back to the right path. As He has no
avatar in Kali Yuga, He Himself did not wish to incarnate. Only an all-knowing person could have
accomplished such a responsible task. Therefore, he ordered his chief aide Vayu to carry out his
wish. A true servant of God he is, Vayu devoutly carried out his masters order. He incarnated as
Madhvacharya uplift the noble from the depths of ignorance and illuminate their minds with the
bright light of knowledge.
Sri Madhvacharya is extolled in the Vedas to be the third incarnation of Vayu, the most powerful,
knowledgeable and supreme among all souls. He served Bhagavan Vishnu in His three
incarnations. He became Hanuman when the Lord incarnated as Rama. He was Bhima when the
Lord appeared as Krishna and he came to the earth as Madhvacharya to serve Bhagavan
Vedavyasa.
In Madhvacharya we find a true saint, an ardent devotee, a great reformer, an extraordinary
thinker, a prolific commentator, a compassionate teacher and a spiritual genius of commanding
intellect and power. He continues to be the great source of inspiration to his followers and his
very remembrance galvanizes their slumbering minds. Let us in this short write up try to know
about this great personality and his golden teachings. Anything we say about him falls short in
presenting a true picture of his majestic personality. But as Sri Narayana Panditacharya, his
biographer, notes - mano vishuddhyai caritanuvadaha we make a humble attempt for the
sake of purification of our mind.
.
A true saint
Sri Madhvacharya, right from his childhood, showed signs of divinity. He was completely
detached towards mundane worldly pleasures. This was natural to him as he was always
immersed in meditation of the Almighty. At a very young age he made his mind to renounce this
world and accept sainthood. This, he thought, is the best way to fulfill his life's objective of
uplifting the noble souls by imparting divine knowledge. Though decimating evil forces is the
prime objective in all his incarnations he knew that by the will of God, Goddess Durga will
incarnate in the near future for that purpose. Thus, unlike his previous two incarnations where he
single handedly destroyed most of the evil forces he chose to launch a peaceful attack through
his works and discourses.
An ardent devotee
Madhvacharya's devotion towards Vishnu is unflinching and insurmountable. He is the best
example of a true devotee of the Almighty. He doesn't even spend a moment without
remembering the Almighty. He asks for nothing except service of the God. He is the perfect
follower of Bhagavata Dharma. In his eyes, Vishnu is the supreme master. All others are His

servants. He composed and devotionally sang several songs and stotras praising Vishnus
supremacy. When he was touring from place to place his entourage would dance and proceed in
front of him singing his melodious compositions in praise of Vishnu.
A great reformer
Madhvacharya was a great reformer of his times. He was not subdued by the onslaught of
Advaitic thought so predominant during his times. He took a fresh look at the Vedas and its
ancillary literature. He revived the age old Bhagavata dharma based on Vedic teachings in the
light of the Brahma Sutras. Once he went against the practice of killing animals during Vedic
sacrifices. He recommended that offering Pishta pashu or a figure made out of flour should be
practiced instead in this kaliyuga. He claimed that this is truly Vedic. He prevailed over the
scholars and made his brother successfully perform a sacrifice using the pishta pashu.
An extraordinary thinker
He was an extraordinary thinker who revolutionized the Vedic thinking by his fresh and sound
ideas supported by stern logic which cut across all kinds of dogmatism. He was firmly set against
the notion of accepting doctrines just because of their wide public acceptance. He refused to
accept that it is possible to derive a meaningful spiritual system based on any but the
apaurusheya texts and their adjuncts. At the same time he gave due importance to perception as
a valid means of knowledge. He also dismissed claims that only part of the Vedas are useful, and
showed that even the so-called karma-kanda portions of them are only meant to worship Hari.
We find in some of his thoughts answers to even the most demanding problems of the Modern
Science. His definition of an atom as an indivisible particle which has at least 10 parts greatly
appeals to the modern logical mind. The concept of sakshin and vishesas are some of his
significant, unique and original contributions to the Indian philosophical thought.
A prolific commentator
Madhvacharya was an exemplary commentator and critic who reviewed all the 21 commentaries
on the Brahma Sutras and brought their shortcomings into light. He presented his own version of
the Brahma Sutras gaining support from innumerable puranas and ancillary texts. He composed
more than 37 works of highest spiritual standard. His style is simple yet profound readily
understandable by the beginners yet difficult to digest even by the men of strongest intellect. He
is said to have composed his magnum opus Anuvyakhyana by dictating each of the four chapters
simultaneously to four of his disciples. Sri Jayatirtha, the celebrated commentator of
Madhvacharya, records in appreciation of Anuvyakhyana - my mind acts as a bee towards the
lotus called Anuvyakhyana. In each word of this great work Sri Jayatirtha could see multitudes of
meanings. Though he is tempted to move forward to comment on the next word his mind doesnt
allow him to do so just as a bee wouldnt want to leave the lotus. Attracted by the beauty and
depth, it still revolves around the same previous word, bringing forth yet another shade of hidden
meaning. Such is the depth of thought carefully packed by Madhva in each of his words.
A spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power
Madhva was a spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power. At a very young age, when his
father was teaching him how to write alphabets he questioned his father as to why he is repeating
what was already taught the previous day. Much to the incredulity of his teacher, he once recited
the remaining portions of a Vedic mantra which was not yet taught by the teacher to his class. He
boldly accepted a challenge thrown up by a group of highly learned scholars and began to
discourse 100 meanings of the single name Vishwa, the first among the 1000 names of Vishnu.
But he laid a condition that the assembly would reproduce what was told. The assembly of
scholars was dumbfounded by the grammatical, etymological prowess of Madhva which is
impossible for even the devatas. Just as a group of wells would fail to hold the vast waters of
annihilation, the assembled scholars could not hold in their heads even a portion of the vast

range of meanings explained by Madhva. They prostrated at his feet and asked for forgiveness.
The hailed him as Sarvajna - an all knowing saint. Madhvacharya was also known to be very
strongly built and blessed with supernatural powers. He is said to have once lifted a big boulder
weighing tons with a single hand and placed it on the banks of the river tungabhadra for
protecting the people from the gushing waters. There are many more episodes accounted in his
biography where he performed lot of miracles and showed his supernatural powers. We are not
presenting them here for the sake of brevity. Interested readers may kindly refer to his biography
Sumadhva Vijaya for a detailed account of his great powers and miracles.
A compassionate teacher
Madhvacharya was a very compassionate teacher. He wished from the depths of his heart that all
eligible souls should get the divine knowledge and attain liberation. He personally taught those
who very fortunate to be his direct disciples. He composed several works for the benefit of all
such eligible souls who are to take birth in future. Through his works and discourses he taught
them the reasons for their sorrows and the ways to get rid of them. He sometimes used kind
words and some times warned them of the consequences like a kind doctor imparting the
medicine to his patients. He granted liberation to a noble man who donated a cow when Madhva
was a child. The old man was born again as his own grandson and learnt secret knowledge of
liberation from Madhva. He toured throught the length and breadth of the country to spread his
divine messages to every individual soul. He composed many a valuable text at the behest of his
disciples.
Teachings of Madhvacharya
We present here a gist of the divine teachings of Sri Madhvacharya.
1. The soul is bound in this samsara and experiences sorrow because of its ignorance
2. Escape from all sorrows is achievable only by the grace of Vishnu. Therefore one should
strive to earn the grace of Vishnu.
3. The benevolence of Bhagavan Vishnu which is the primary cause for liberation can only
be achieved by Bhakti. Vishnu will be pleased only by Bhakti and not by any other
means.
4. Bhakti is that incessant flow of love, which greatly supercedes all other objects such as
oneself, ones relatives etc. and which does not recede inspite of thousands of obstacles
and which is coupled with the knowledge that Bhagavan Vishnu possesses unrestrained,
infinite, blemish-less, auspicious attributes.
5. Bhakti will not develop until Bhagavan Vishnu is seen
6. Bhagavan Vishnu, who is obscure by nature, cannot be seen by any means except
through his blessings.
7. The blessing of Bhagavan Vishnu which is the only means to His vision is not possible
without meditating upon His blemish-less, suitable form [according to ones eligibility] for
a long duration, with utmost respect and continuity.
8. Meditation is not possible until one undertakes a self-study of the textual instructions
received [from a qualified guru]; otherwise one would not be free from doubt and wrong
knowledge.
9. Therefore self-study after receiving spiritual instructions from a qualified guru is to be
taken up as it is the means to liberation through meditation and gods grace.
Today, a large part of the world remains oblivious of this divine personality and the knowledge
imparted by him. As a result, mankind has found itself in a severe crisis. This is inspite of all the

technical advancements. Therefore, even today there is a great need to propagate the ancient,
divine and impeccable knowledge preached by Madhvacharya to every living soul.