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 — souls and matter — is dependent (paratantra). Liberation therefore comes from knowing one's true relation to God, not from erasing one's own existence.