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Madhva's Interpretation of the Brahma-sutras [CH. formless (nirākāra), might itself be considered as non-existent (atyantabhava-pratiyogitvasya nirākāre brahmany api sambhavat)1.
Again, if, as the Vivarana has it, even sense-objects (visaya) serve only to manifest pleasure, which is but the essence of self (ātma-svarupa), then there is no reason why the enjoyment of senseobjects should be considered different from the enjoyment of liberation. Again, the desire for liberation is also considered as a necessary requirement. But whose is this desire for liberation (mumuksutva)? It cannot belong to the entity denoted by ego (aham-artha); for this entity does not remain in liberation (ahamarthasya muktāv ananvayāt). It cannot be of the pure intelligence (cit); for that cannot have any desire. Thus the interpretations of the word "now" (atha), the first word of the sutra, were objected to by the thinkers of the Madhva school. Their own interpretation, in accordance with the Bhasya of Madhva as further elaborated by Jaya-tirtha, Vyasa-tīrtha, Raghavendra Yati and others, is that the word atha has, on the one hand, an auspicious influence, and is also a name of Nārāyaṇa2. The other meaning of the word atha is that the enquiry is possible only after the desired fitness (adhikārānantaryārthaḥ). But this fitness for Brahma-enquiry is somewhat different from that demanded by the Sankara school, the views of which I have already criticized from the Madhva point of view. Madhva and his followers dispense with the qualifications of nityānitya-vastu-viveka, and they also hold that desire for liberation must be illogical, if one follows the interpretation of Sankara, which identifies jiva and Brahman. The mere desire for liberation is not enough either; for the sūtras themselves deny the right of Brahmaenquiry to the Sūdras1. So, though any one filled with the desire for liberation may engage himself in Brahma-enquiry, this ought properly to be done only by those who have studied the Upanisads with devotion, and who also possess the proper moral qualities of selfcontrol, etc. and are disinclined to ordinary mundane enjoyments5.
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1 Tātparya-candrikā, p. 69.
2 evam ca atha-sabdo mangalārtha iti bhāṣyasya atha-sabdo vighnotsāraṇa-sādhāraṇakaram ātmakananuṣṭheya-viṣṇu-smaraṇāthaśabdoccāraṇarupa-mangalaprayojanakaḥ prasastarūpānanuştheya-rupa-vişnv-abhidhāyakaś ca iti arthadvayam draṣṭavyam. Ibid. p. 77. The same view is also expressed in the Tattva-pradipa, a commentary on Madhva's Bhāṣya by Trivikrama Panditācārya. 4 Brahma-sutra, I. 3. 34-8.
3 Anubhāṣya.
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mukti-yogyatva-bhakti-pūrvakādhyayana-sama-damādi-vairāgya-sampattirūpādhikārārpanena, etc. Tattva-prakäsikā-bhāva-dipikā, p. 12.
