Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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The Madhvaite View Regarding God
risms then it becomes clear that the author also conceives God in the form of one who renders people help in getting out of difficult contingencies. Thus he says that one purpose held by God before Himself is to bestow favour on people. Through preaching wisdom and religion He resolves to get the entire miss of people out of difficult contingencies. And such a resolve He makes because of a predomiance of the sattva type of guņa. Though in his statement Vyasa does not make it clear that this God of the nature of a particular soul is also a creator and destroyer of the world, even then he does clearly say that He helps people get out of difficult contingencies. Thus as soon as there was introduced in the Bbāşya the idea that God acts as a helper to people faced with difficult contingencies his commentators, partcularly Vācaspatimiśra and Vijñānabhikṣu, got a favourable opportunity to give expression to their own respective views. Hence while commenting on the bhāsya they both, in their respective manners but competently, demonstrated that God posited by the Yoga system is also a creator of the world. This demonstrtion on their part is chiefly based on the testimony of scriptural texts,
The Madhvaite View Regarding God
Though the Madhvite tradition is famous as a Vedāntic tradition and it also establishes its views on the basis of the Upanisad-based texts like Ved. antasutra etc., yet in a way it is almost a category apart from all the remaining Vedāntic traditions. On having a look at its doctrine of first principl. es one finds that it is chiefly influenced by the corresponding Nyāya-Vais. eslka doctrine. But it appears that keeping in mind the so much grown and ever-growing prestige of Upanişads it utilized them in its own manger--that is, by positing, in the manner of the Nyaya-Vaisesika tradition. besides a real multiplicity of non-conscious atoms and conscious souls an absolutely independent God in the form of an individual. Though it has referred to God by names like Brahman or Vişnu, yet from the point of view of His nature God posited by it seems akin to the creator God posited by the Nyāya-Vaiseșika or Sankhya-Yoga tradition. Thus the Madhvite tradition describes God as a creator and destroyer of the world and it also submits that He creates the world in conformity to the good and bad acts performed by the mass of living beings. Thus viewed the Madhvite tradition, just like the Nyāya-Vajseșika tradition, views God as One who undertakes world-creation in conformity to the acts performed by the mass of living beings. Of course, one difference of opinion is certainly there inasmuch as Madhva, giving to God the designation Brahman, also derives an account of Him from
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Pra krstasattvopādänad isvarasya sasvatika utkarsah. Tasya atmānugrahābhāye'pi bhūtānugrahaḥ prayojanam.
-Yogabhāşya 1.24
-ibid. 1.25