VishishtAdvaita vishleShana vivechanam

By : Shri Kesava Rao Tadipatri

Shriman Madhwacharya

Introduction:

At the very outset, I would like to point out that have great admiration for Sri Ramanuja that when the ever confusing points of Advaita were ruling, he made tremendous progress in pointing out the many flaws in there, by founding VishishtAdvaita. However due to the will of the Lord some of the newer concepts introduced themselves are not aligned with shashtras.
Sri Madhvacarya, in aligning his philosophy with the shashtras, pointed out the many shortcomings of previous philosophies and reintroduced earlier known concepts and solidified Tattvavada and set it on a firm foundation later built upon by the luminaries of his tradition. More importantly, he also foresaw the advent of people with future philosophies such as that of the Gaudiya sampradaya for example and preempted them by giving their statements as Purvapaksha (Objections) and refuting them with statements of Siddhanta (Resolution) well in advance.
Even an insignificant being like me can see and point out some of the deficiencies in other philosophies, but that is based on the wonderful works of Sri Madhvacarya and his glorious parampara. So, an effective rebuttal of Sri ParakAla yati was accomplished by Acharya Madhva and the Guru parampara and I am only pointing out those points.

Perhaps most ironical to see is that based on the purvapaksha statements on the following write up, VishishtAdvaita does not believe in Visesha, while having that in the name itself! Visi..a advaita or qualified Monism is perhaps true to its name. Visesha is bheda vyavahara when abheda is there - that is speaking of difference when there is no difference.VishishtAdvaita opposes Advaita, but what Advaita accomplishes by vyAvahArikatva and UpAdhi and MAyAvAda, all that is accomplished by one entity called “dharma-bhuta-jñana”..

1. Advaita says that the jiva and Brahman are same or nondifferent in the sense that they are identified as one.

VishishtAdvaita says that the jiva and Brahman are same or non-different in the sense that they are equal.

2. Advaita says that they appear to be different because of vyAvahArika satya of jagat - that is before liberation.

VishishtAdvaita says that they appear to be unequal because of DBJ not expanding to infinity - that is before liberation.

3. Advaita says that when vyAvahArikatva melts away and when ajñana goes away and when jñana dawns, the jiva is identified as one same as Brahman. This happens in moksha or paramArtha.

VishishtAdvaita says that when dharma bhuta jnana expands to infinity, the jiva becomes equal to Brahman. This happens in moksha.

4. Advaita says that the jiva needs the grace of the Lord in vyAvahArikatva, but in moksha, the jiva is the God.

VishishtAdvaita says that the jiva needs the grace of the Lord for making its dharma bhuta jnana expand infinitely in moksha, where the jiva has six qualities like jñana and Ananda equal to God.

The purpose of this write-up is to call a spade a spade and respond to the purvapaxins point by point.

The whole document can be seen in this link