Knowledge snippets
Bite-sized knowledge on Hindu and Madhwa philosophy, plus poems, stotras and stories.
- Snippet
Karishey karayishey
If we are doing something good then we have to make others to do these good things. This is what Sri Raghavendra tirtharu did. They have written a literary marvel called prathahsankalpa gadya that teaches us about sri ma…
Prathahsankalpa Gadya, Sri Raghavendra tirtharu
#prathahsankalpa gadya#sri raghavendra tirtharu - Snippet
Bhakti as the means and the fruit
In the Madhwa tradition bhakti is defined as steady love for God rooted in knowledge of His greatness (mahatmya-jnana-purvaka sneha). Because it is grounded in knowledge, it is not mere sentiment; because it is love, it …
Jayatirtha, Nyaya-sudha
#bhakti#moksha#madhwa - Snippet
Three qualities that shape every choice
Sattva (clarity), rajas (restlessness) and tamas (inertia) are not personality types but proportions present in everyone, shifting with food, company, sleep and work. Practice in Hindu philosophy is largely the craft of …
Bhagavad Gita 14.5-14.9
#guna#sattva#rajas - Snippet
Vishnu as antaryamin, the inner ruler
Dvaita reads God's presence in the world as antaryamin — the inner controller dwelling in every being while remaining distinct from it. This lets the tradition affirm intimacy without collapsing identity: God is closer t…
Bhagavad Gita 18.61
#antaryamin#vishnu#dvaita - Snippet
Why the Haridasas sang in Kannada
The Haridasa movement — Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa and their successors — carried Madhwa philosophy out of Sanskrit debate halls into everyday Kannada song. The devaranama form compresses tattva into a few lines that a …
Haridasa tradition
#haridasa#purandara dasa#kanaka dasa - Snippet
Four aims of a human life
Purushartha names four legitimate aims: dharma (right living), artha (livelihood), kama (desire and enjoyment) and moksha (liberation). Classical Hindu thought does not pit them against each other — artha and kama are va…
Manusmriti 2.224; Kautilya, Arthashastra 1.7
#purushartha#dharma#artha - Snippet
Three approaches to the one Brahman
Vedanta is not a single position. Advaita (Shankara) reads Brahman and soul as non-different; Vishishtadvaita (Ramanuja) reads them as qualified non-duality, soul as the body of God; Dvaita (Madhvacharya) reads them as e…
Brahma Sutras with the three classical bhashyas
#vedanta#advaita#vishishtadvaita - Snippet
Karma is action, not fate
Karma names the law that action bears fruit, not a verdict fixed in advance. The Gita's counsel is therefore practical: act because action is your nature, offer the act, and release the demand for a particular result. Fa…
Bhagavad Gita 2.47
#karma#gita#dharma - Snippet
Tattvavada: the doctrine of reality
Madhvacharya named his school Tattvavada — "the way of things as they are". Reality is not an illusion to be dissolved but a real order to be understood: Ishvara (Vishnu) is independent (svatantra), while everything else…
Madhvacharya, Vishnu-tattva-vinirnaya
#tattvavada#dvaita#madhwa - Snippet
Pancha bheda: the five real differences
Dvaita holds five differences to be eternally real: between God and soul, God and matter, one soul and another, soul and matter, and one material thing and another. This is why Madhwa thought insists that plurality is no…
Vyasatirtha, Nyayamrta
#pancha bheda#dvaita#madhwa - Snippet
Svatantra and paratantra: two kinds of being
Madhvacharya's simplest division of reality has just two members: the independent (svatantra) and the dependent (paratantra). Only Vishnu is independent. Souls are conscious dependents, matter is unconscious dependent. E…
Madhvacharya, Tattva-samkhyana
#svatantra#paratantra#dvaita - Snippet
The three pramanas of knowing
Dvaita accepts three means of valid knowledge: perception (pratyaksha), inference (anumana) and scripture (agama). Scripture is authoritative precisely where perception and inference cannot reach — the nature of God, the…
Madhvacharya, Pramana-lakshana
#pramana#epistemology#agama - Snippet
Moksha with the soul intact
Advaita describes liberation as the dissolution of individuality into Brahman. Dvaita disagrees: in moksha the soul keeps its identity and enjoys God according to its own capacity, which is why the tradition speaks of gr…
Madhvacharya, Brahma-sutra-bhashya 4.4
#moksha#ananda taratamya#dvaita