Episode Details

Meeting with Vyasadeva

- Srila Madhvacarya appears in the Gaudyia Vaishnava disciplic succession as a disciple of Vyasadeva. How this can be if he appeared on the planet thousands of years after Vyasadeva compiled the Vedas?

- He was able to personally meet Vyasadeva in Badrinath (his hermitage in the Himalayas).

- There is the earthly Badrinath, a place in the Himalayas where anyone can go, and the celestial Badrinath, or Badarikashrama, the place where Vyasadeva lives with Nara-Narayana and other great sages, which is inaccessible to ordinary humans.

- The story is that after he wrote his commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita (the Gita-Bhashya), he went to the Himalayas to offer his respects to Vyasadeva, the original compiler of the book.

- Staying in the temple of Badrivishal in Badrinath, he presented his commentary on the Gita to the Deity.

- When he read the first line, "I will explain the meaning of the Bhagavad-Gita according to my capacity", the Lord directly interjected.

- The Lord said that although he had the capacity to reveal the full meaning of the Bhagavad-Gita, he should explain only according to the capacity of his students to understand.

- In this way, the Lord hinted at the later appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who would reveal the complete meaning of the scriptures.

- Madhvacarya decided then to go higher into the Himalayas and personally met Vyasadeva to get his blessings in establishing his sampradaya.

- He prepared by observing a complete fast and meditating for 48 days, which became just another of his superhuman feats.

- After warning his disciples that maybe he would not be able to return, he went alone on his journey and eventually reached the celestial Badarikashrama, where Vyasadeva resides surrounded by Rsis.

- Vyasa approved his commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, instructed him on Vedic knowledge, and blessed him to write his commentary on the Vedanta Sutra and establish the Madhva Sampradaya.

The Suddha-dvaita philosophy

- Certain philosophies are considered dualists because they believe in the existence of another force separated from God, like in the case of the atheistic Sāṅkhya, where there is the dichotomy of Puruṣa and Prakrti, being both considered independent forces that interact.

- According to the Vaishnava interpretation, this is incorrect, because nothing is independent from God. There is no independent material energy, a devil, or other Gods.

- There is only one Supreme Being who is the source and controller of everything that exists, and there is nothing independent from him.

- The material world is just part of His external potency, the demigods are His servants, the different souls are part of His marginal potency, and so on.

- The philosophy of Sankaracarya is called non-dualism because he rejected the idea of dualism, explaining that there is nothing separated or independent from God or Brahman.

- However, because people at the time were not able to accept the idea of a personal God, Sankaracarya was forced to limit his explanation, transmitting the idea that there is nothing separate from God, without explaining the existence and interactions of His different energies.

- In this way, Sankaracarya denied dualism, but He was not able to explain the whole truth, having to settle on the idea that Brahman is everything and we are all Brahman.

- While this is generally true, because he couldn't enter into the details that balance the idea, he hat to settle into the idea that the material manifestation is illusory and that we are all God.

- Ramanujacarya protested against both dualism and monism, explaining that while everything is God, there are distinctions between His different energies.

- That's why his Visistadvaita philosophy is called non-dualism with distinctions, or purified monism, since his philosophy sits between both, giving a more