Attacks On Madhva

harishkumar09 · January 3, 2006

The Coming Troubles

Of late I am seeing a rather disturbing phenomenon.Ever since the controversy in Karnataka triggered by one Poornachandra Tejasvi there have been increasing attacks on Madhva and his alleged treatment of Shudras.

The trouble in Karnataka started was triggered by the grandson of the Rashtra Kavi of Karnataka Kuvempu , who demanded that the name of "Madhva" be removed from the Karnataka National Song for he was against the Shudras and that a modern self-respecting nation should not have his name in their National Song.

He claimed that his own grand father venerated Shankara and his advaita philosophy for its egalitarian outlook and so the poet's own opinion needs to be taken into account when deciding about the expurgation.

The intellectuals gathered around him alleged that Madhva had condemned Shudras to eternal damnation and such a person should not be venerated.

This kicked up a storm and there was a rebuttal offered by many Madhvas who came out to defend Madhva and his philosophy.The Pejawar Swami himself came out in the defence and stated that Madhva did not believe in birth based caste system and only gave importance to qualification.He has toured all the places to assure dalits that there was salvation for them in Madhvas philosophy.

I had thought after this storm everything would settle down and it was all over.

But I was later surprised and shocked while searching through the Sulekha articles , when I came across posts accusing Madhva of not giving Shudras the right to study the Vedas or perform Vedic rituals.In fact this charge was made against him even when the controversy in Karnataka broke out.

I am unable to understand all this , for all three Acharyas , including Adi Shankara , were against the Shudras studying the Vedas and performing rituals.In fact it was Shankara who started this trend and the remaining two who followed were of a reformist tendency.In fact Madhva gave women the right to study the Vedas.Swami Vivekananda has praised Madhva for this.Since the Yuga Dharma has to be followed Madhva and Ramanuja continued the Shankarite trend of not allowing Shudras to study the Vedas or perform rituals.

The reason I am bringing all this up is the continuing rise of hostility against Madhva in certain quarters.Of course one obvious reason for this is the rise in popularity of Madhva , which has created envy in the minds of Shankara's followers , who at the best of times had no respect for Madhvaas and at the worst of times contemplated their extermination.

They were smug to see advaita becoming the philosophy of India , their propounder venerated as the greatest of philosophers.Now their position is being threatened and they are increasingly feeling insecure.

Thanks to the rise of Madhva philosophy , in no small measure due to the contribution of ISKCON , they have come to realise they may not enjoy the position of superiority for ever.Naturally they are anxious to put up a defence in favour of advaita and even malign Madhva.

It was a well known fact the Karnataka controversy had the backing of the Smartha brahmins of that state.

Now with the caste question increasingly raised in India and many Hindu Nationalistic Intellectuals ( HNI ) accepting that problem lies within , and not without and that Islam and Christianity are merely the symptoms of the disease latent within the hindu society , the caste question will be brought to even greater prominence.Any perusal of Hindu Nationalist documents today clearly points to caste being a major problem with hindu society and the main reason for the conversion of lower caste hindus to other faiths.Many fear that major conversions may take place which deplete the hindu population with disastrous consequences.

There is lot of debate and discussion and thinking regarding the caste question and many alternatives have been suggested.Many of these Hindu Nationalist Intellectuals and organisations have petitioned the Shankaracharyas to change their stance with regard to the birth based caste system and also give the Shudras the right to study the Vedas.

This is due to the status that the Shankaracharyas enjoy as the Spiritual leaders of the hindu society.

But the Shankaracharyas are not willing to budge from their rigid position.

A time may come when ISKCON will have to offer its philosophy as an alternative to the hindu society.It has already done so , but in the near future it may have to do so to prevent large scale migration out of the hindu society and retain numerical strength and also to provide spiritual salvation.But since most Hindu nationalist Intellectuals are of the advaitic persuasion , who consider bhakthi as something for emotionally weaker people and regard Advaita as the highest revealed truth , a clash is inevitable.

As Hindu Nationalists rise in power and influence , so will advaita philosophy.This poses a real social and spiritual danger to the hindu society and ultimately to the human race as the world looks upon India as the spiritual perceptor.Nothwithstanding the fact that the advaita of the HNI is not shankara-advaita , stil the potential for social and spiritual discord exists.

For all problems of hindu society may be traced to the advaita philosophy and the disharmony it has created , is creating , and will create.Thus even a watered down version of Advaita philosophy cannot save India from social and spiritual disharmony.

So it is essential that we become prepared for what I consider to the Final Face-Off...Vaishnavism vesus Advaita which is bound to take place.

And given the past record of the advaitins , they will not hestitate to use all unfair methods including violence to get their things done.They have done it in the past and will do so in the future.They burnt buddhists alive , massacred jains in large numbers and attempted to assassinate Ramanuja and Madhva.The latter perosnaly gave a fitting reply , breaking the bones of the assassins , and that was the end of it all.But devious techniques like stealing the reference books of Madhva from his library were resorted to.The advaitin attitude is simply , "If you can't beat them , kill them" and there is little to believe things have changed.

ISKCON should realise its position in a hindu rashtra.Its activities will be severely curtailed and its leaders may even be killed , incarcerated and even driven out of the country.Let us not forget that in the past Shankaracharyas have used their political position to curtail the freedom of Srila Prabhupada and limit his influence.

People who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

So the best thing is to be prepared for it.Krishna says "tasmaat sarveshu kaaleshu maam anusmara yudhya ca"

"At all times to come , remember me and fight"

We better keep our swords sharpened and ready.

January 3, 2006

"Let us not forget that in the past Shankaracharyas have used their political position to curtail the freedom of Srila Prabhupada and limit his influence."

Thank you.