Today is a very auspicious and the most important day as it’s Sri Madhvacarya Appearance Day. He appeared in 1238 AD. We have all been into the Krishna consciousness movement, into the association of devotees, and every devotee must have experienced that at early stages, the level of enthusiasm for devotional services and the level of inspiration is at the utmost level but gradually that levels start decreasing. The reason for the decrement is that the shelter we’re in is not Bhagwat Gita. It had been chiefly mentioned that there are two types of Bhagwat:
- Granth Bhagwat – This is in the form of the book “SrimadBhagwatam,” in which eighteen thousand shlokas are there.
- Bhakta Bhagwat Krishna gets happy and merciful when a person does a service for him or glorifies him. Still, suppose a person hears about the devotees of Krishna and serves the devotee of Krishna, especially the pure devotees of him. In that case, he feels extremely happy and merciful with that person, and that is why whenever we think to learn something, we should always go to a bona fide place.
CHILDHOOD OF SRI MADHVACARYA
Madhvacarya appeared in the place known as Madhyegeha, his father’s name was Narayan Bhatt, and his mother’s name was Vedanti (or VedVidhya). Earlier, Narayan Bhatt and Vedanti had two children who died prematurely, leaving them both sad and depressed, and then they had done Tapasya to get a child. They only survived on milk for twelve years since their only desire was to get a son who wouldn’t die. At that moment, there was a lack of pure devotion of the Lord, not only at a particular place, rather the whole Bharatvansh was deprived of it as Nastiktavad and Mayavad was increasing rapidly. Madhvacarya’s father, Narayan Bhatt, had named him Vasudeva in his childhood. Vasudeva had the qualities of a Vaishnava ever since his childhood that he used to do such tales or Lila, which left his friends astonished of him. In a short span of life, he learned his primary education, and at the age of five, he had done his Brahmanical thread ceremony. He was a genius of Vedas ever since birth, and he had learned Vedic literature by his heart.
In the tales of Ramayana – Madhvacarya has served Lord Rama in Hanuman Ji by destroying the asuras.
In the tales of Krishna – Madhvacarya served Sri Krishna in Bhim and killed many asuras of the century.
In the era of Kalayuga – Madhvacarya served Vyas Dev in the form of Vayu dev by preaching and killing the inner evils of oneself with the help of his siddhantas.
FOUR BONAFIED SAMPRADAYA
There are only four spiritual lineages (sampradaya) under Sri Krishna whose Acharya’s name is:
- Brahma sampradaya – Madhvacharya
- Laxmisampradaye or Sri Sampradaye – Ramanuja Acharya
- Shiv sampradaye or Rudra Sampradaye – Vishnu Swami
- Four Kumar Sampradaye – Nimbarka Acharya
Only these four are the bona fide maters who can provide us with pure devotion.
Our ISKCON comes under the Brahma Sampradaya who’s Acharya is Sri Madhvacarya, and it’s also known as “Bhram Madhav Gauriya Sampradaye,” which beliefs in the philosophy “Achintya-Bheda-Abheda.” These four acharayas came on a Navdip and did bhakti and tapasaya. During this time, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had also appeared and given them two knowledge each, and with that knowledge, they made these spiritual lineages. But when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared, he took two siddantas from each Acharayas and established Gauriya Vaishnav Siddhanta.
PRINCIPLES OF SAMPRADAYA
The Siddantas that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took were:
- The siddant of “Shudh Bhakti” and “VaishnavSewa” from Ramanuja Acarya.
- The siddant of “destroying Mayavad” and “accepting Sri Vighre as the truth” from Madhvacarya.
- The siddant of “accepting Radha-Krishna as sarvoch (topmost) vighre” and “following Gopies on their footsteps” from Nimbarka Acharya.
- The siddant of “Rag Bhakti” and “complete dependence on Krishna” from Vishnu Swami Acharya.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very happy with Madhvacarya, and that’s why he decided to appear in Madhvacarye Sampradaye to take his initiation. Madhvacarya believed that Jiva and Lord are different, and Jiva will always be a Das of the Lord. In the teachings of Vaishnava Sampradaya, we are taught how great Sri Krishna is and how miserable we are. Madhvacrya spent his whole life destroying the roots of such Mayavads.
NINE TEACHING OF SRI MADHVACARYA
Gaudiya Vedant Acharya, Sri Baldev Bhushan had mentioned in his book, the Siddhanta set by Madhvacrya are:
- Lord Vishnu alone is the supreme absolute truth.
- Lord Vishnu is the object of all Vedic knowledge.
- The material world is real
- The living entities are separate from Lord Vishnu
- The living entities are servants of Lord Hari lotus feet
- The living entities are of 2 kinds – liberated living entities and the condition living entities
- Attainment of Lord Vishnu lotus feet alone is the liberation of the conditioned soul
- Pure worship of Lord Vishnu is the conditioned soul of liberation
- The truth is known by Pratyaksha (Direct perception), Anuman (Logic), Sabda (Vedic Authority)
Sri Madhvacarya ji ki Jai
Sri Sri Rukmani Dwarkadhish Ki Jai
Shobha Radhika Devi Dasi
(ISKCON-Dwarka New Delhi)