World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 734

THE UNMOVED MOVER AND THE NON-DOING DOER
- PROF. R.A. MALAGI (An Essay on Madhvachārya's concept of the Divine-Human Relationship with special reference to jīvakartřtva, the doership of man.)
As you could bisect humanity into two genders, so could you bisect it into two variegated groups : that of the theists and that of the nontheists. While the theists might believe in the God of their choice, the nontheists would like to pursue their own ways, including the humanist. To borrow the idea of Pascal, the theists gamble in favour of a God of their choice as the sole arbiter of reality. Their gamble is their conviction, their faith, their salvation. In the Indian tradition again, you could divide the religious, spiritual or philosophical thinkers into two broad groups, again : the Vedic and the non-Vedic. Yet, again, among the Vedic makers of thought, we have three broad divisions, the Advaita, (monist) the doyen of which is sankaracharya (788-820 C E), The 'qualified' Advaita of Ramānujāchārya (1 1th/12th cent.), and the absolute dualism of Madhvāchārya, (1199-1278 to 1238 to 1317 CE).' Madhvāchārya had the privilege of assessing and evaluating the two schools of thought which preceded his and claiming his own to be definitive, the decisive Vedānta, clinching the whole progressive debate about the nature of reality and the Vedic God.
II
The entire metaphysics of Madhvāchārya hinges on his basic intuition about the nature of reality. His formulation in Tattvasankhyanam
swatantramasvatantram ca dvividham tattamiśyate
swatantro bhagavān Visnuh........2 is the guiding principle of his entire philosophy. The truth is two-fold : the Independent Reality and the dependent reality; Lord Vişnuḥ is the sole Independent Reality and all else is dependent on Him. It is a powerful answer to the famous statement by his early predecessor Sankarācharya. 'Brahma satyam, Jaghanmithyā, jīvo brahmaiva nāparah' (Brahma is the [sole) truth; the world is unreal; the human, the sentient being is none other than Brahma himself.
Further, Madhvāchārya sees a unique relationship between God and man. It is one of an inseparable relation between bimba and pratibimba, the original and its image. While an ordinary relationship between a physical object and its image is transient and terminable, this
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