If we look at the entire scenario , one can come to know Karnataka is an important saadhana bhoomi for any pure Vaishnava . All the 3 acharyas made this land as their kaarya kshetra .... Sankara established his first DakshiNaamnaaya peeTham in Sringeri . Ramanuja declared Melkote as the final of all the 108 Divyadeshams. Madhwa made Udupi as the centre of propagating Sadvaishnavism. Madhwa philosophy is mainly intended only for saadhana of Maanushottamas i.e, it is not meant mainly for stree , shoodra or dwija bandhus ( Vaishya , Kshatriya or simply Brahmana ) but for the upliftment of higher intellectual Brahma bandhus . Why Madhwa siddhanta is not famous because ...the slogan goes like this Hari Sarvottama ; Vayu Jeevottama .No doubt any Vaishnava agrees first part... the second part is also correct and there is no controversy .... but due to the curse of Kanva maharshi , the moola roopa of Vaayudeva is not famous and only his incarnations are famous as stated in Skanda purana ! Madhwa philosophy is under the hands of Tulu and Kannada speaking Brahmins and hence less proportion of Maadhwas are found outside Karnataka (speaking Tamil , Telugu , Marathi as their mother tongue) who have less knowledge of Kannada ! In Karnataka , majority of the people are devoted to Lord Shiva like Veerashaivas , Vokkaligas and Sankaraites together form major Shaivaite population in Karnataka ! If the influence of Bhaagavatha (where Shiva and Vishnu are treated same ) is also considered means the Pure Vaishnavas are very less in proportion in Karnataka . Moreover , Maadhwas give more importance to external cleanliness in many cases and internal saadhana is very less . It is because, the goal of Maadhwas is to condemn Advaitins and thus they use their intelligence and saadhana for para mata khaNDana and feel they are great ! The main attraction of Maadhwa community is Raayara mutt and there are 1000s of mutts dedicated to Sri Raghavendra teertha and hence Maadhwas are famously called Raayara mutt followers . Next comes Udupi mutt which became famous only after Kanakadasaru , a saint from Kuruba Gowda caste and there are no other instances of low caste devotees directly associated with Udupi mutt . Very traditional Maadhwas try to follow their customs seriously . There are non - Traditional or Modern Maadhwas who follow simple traditions just for name sake . Minute secular Madhwas never follow any of their inherent traditions or they have migrated to other modern religious reforms especially Ramakrishna Mission and ISKCON movement . Coming to core Maadhwa community there are several mutt bifurcations and some mutts will have differences usually during Paryaya time . Many Maadhwa pontiffs are very resourceful persons in religious works but they are not updated with tactics of successfully dealing with local issues .Very few pontiffs participate and represent Madhwa philosophy in any major developments at National level and there is no provision for crossing the sea especially for the pontiffs and hence the hopes are very less ..only Sri Sugunendra teertha came with tough decision to enter foreign countries for dharma prachara . There was a big fight that Sri Sugunendra teertha should be denied the rights of performing Krishna pooja !! Now a days clashes between high intellectual Brahma bandhus are being reported . Wide spread blamings for pankti bhedha , maDe snaana ,Vaishnava deeksha to kurubas could not be dealt properly by Maadhwa spiritual leaders . Even the media harass them by telecasting new twisting topics like Udupi original deity is not Sri Krishna and he is Subrahmanya - this topic was dealt very worstly ! Raghavendra teertha is not god as stated by senior pontiff of Pejavar mutt created sensation and ironically Shiva was considered God by the same seer but Hanuman was not so.... because Shaivas cannot tolerate those comments ! In Sri Vaishnavism , we see Azwars belonging to various castes Nammazwar - Vellala , a rich Shoodra caste ; Tirumangai Azwar - Kallara tribe ; Tirumalisai Azwar - Paraiyar, an untouchable caste ; Tiruppani Azwar - Panar untouchable caste ; Kulasekhara Azwar - a Kshatriya caste , Andal - a lady ..... all these instances show how Sri Vaishnavism was more evolved and thanks to your Krishna Chaitanya who once again continued the real spirit of Vaishnavism and saved common people from the clutches of traditional Madhwas and said follow simple task of chanting the divine names of Lord Krishna as stated in HARE KRISHNA MAHAMANTRA . My inner mind says he may be Sri Krishna himself as Lord is Mahaa maayaavi who is not easily grasped even by Brahma and Mahalakshmi !!! Fortunately he has not given his own bhashya and if any mistakes in Gaudeeya sampradaaya means it is due to ignorance of Goswamis as they are not high qualified souls like Brahma and Shiva .... human based misinterpretations of Chaitanya prabhus instructions will always be there !!! No sadhaka becomes interested in Madhwa philosophy if they say , Nitya Naraka , Nitya Samsara type of concepts . Taratamya itself creates fear in the minds of common man as Madhwas style is Rajo pradhaana but the contents are Sattva pradhaana .... direct straight forward statement type without analysing the psychology of readers ( Madhwas intention was Sattva souls listen to his bhaashya without much bias , Raajasic souls will distance from his philosophy but like it and Taamasic souls criticise and try to deviate others from following Madhwa bhashya ) They will restrict themselves as there is no provision for alternative sadhana and in such cases, ISKCON movement is a better choice for them as they treat the people equally . Whatever may be their claims ...that Chaitanya was disguise incarnation of Krishna and their dscendence from Madhwa sampradaya ....people beleive them and follow them . Many Madhwas never flip the pages of various Advaita books as they do not find time to study their own scriptures ! Another example for Maadhwas sheer negligence is they could not preserve 4.5 lakh + keertanas of Purandara dasaru and hardly 2,000 + keertans are available today means imagine the loss of their own most valuable heritage . If the entire works of various Haridasas are clubbed means then also they cannot cross several tens of thousands ! Moreover , Kannada people only should read Madhwa philosophy books as there are more Kannada books than English especially Keertanas and Sulhaadis of Haridasaru are not available with English translations. Even in Mantralayam , 90% of the books in the book stall are in Kannada ! Many intelligent Madhwas are happily settled in various parts of the globe and they cannot quote ABCD of Madhwa shastra prameyas authoritatively and you can also see the instances of some gifted persons in their community being misled by Advaitins trying to destabilise followers of Madhwa shastra in this forum itself ! The Maadhwas whom they were considering esteemed philosopher once upon a time now spat openly and humiliate using uncivilized words ! Some say yes and some say no to several traditions ...many confusions and internal ego problems have made Madhwa philosophy to reach this stage ! ISKCON allows Christians and Muslims into their main streams ... but here many Kshatriya , Vaishya and Sat Shoodra bandhus who are interested in Madhwa deeksha are not treated well ...the plates are thrown from fixed heights ..one has to catch the phala prasadams and their concentration will be distancing them ... even a glass of milk is not served and seperate glasses will be maintained just like Landlords treat dalit workers ...but they always advance towards the money being offered (only money , silver and gold articles accepted and not any ready made items !) ...no problem even if it is black money which they will convert it into pure( not simply white money !)money by doing Gayathri mantra japa and thus bless the donors ! Only decorating idols step by step , doing all the poojas properly without failing in it , visiting Brindavans of great saints of their lineage regularly ,doing Ekadashi rites with proper breakage of fasting in Dwadashi day , Observing KrishnashTami correctly ..all these are Maadhwas strict duties ! Very very less research works on Scientific interpretation of Madhwa philospophy is available today and hence fearing citation problems new researchers go back with their ideas rotting in their minds ... new developments are not allowed and one will create fear like Some asuras try to spoil your houses if you deviate from these rituals , one will suffer from Asura aavesha if traditions are not followed properly... and their maDi panche will be so pure that any one can use it for wiping the lenses of Astronomical telescope so that perfect image can be visualised ! They cannot treat their fellow Dwija bandhus properly ...especially Sankaraites never like the attitude of Maadhwas and they fear their mouth as Maadhwas claim Sankara , a demon ! Ramanuja Brahmins increase the girth of their stomach by participating in all type of rituals and they are the most widely recognised Vaishnava cult in South India and since they are Lakshmi putras due to enormous dakshiNa from their plenty of temples they never feel discouraged (some eye the precious jewels of the Lord !) and always watch Dwaita , Adwaita people quarrelling by becoming either judges in their Vada sabha and attest the seal of their big namams to the forehead of losers and ring the bells of victory as they are the followers of Vedanta Desikar , incarnation of divine bell of Lord Vishnu or by becoming negotiators and not solving their long pending issues of U, V , I_I_I shape namams which look very silly at this stage of sheer advancement in technology where man is trying to know the truth by experimentation method and not by blind faith method . Coming to Madhwas ,no unity is observed whenever issues of following correct dates , unique panchangam , authentified versions of the texts of the scriptures , unbiased knowledge of their lineage pontiffs ! Many scholars call their fellow scholars in derogatory language though both are from good family ..also they will not hesitate to condemn various mutt pontiffs and deviate from their orders in many cases (even they didnt spared the great Daivaamsha sambhoota ...praatah smaraNeeya Late 108 Sri Vidyaamaanya teertha sripadangaLavaru and what about under priviledge people if they come in their sampradaya ....one can imagine !? Acquistion of mutts by Government is their new problem . Earlier , with great difficulty Madhwas name was included in the State anthem of Karnataka ..though Madhwa being the soil son of Karnataka (Ramanuja , Sankara , Chaitanya were outsiders and there was good mentioning ...but the name of Madhwa was included after serious efforts by the senior pontiffs !) Moreover , they are happy to call themselves as Maadhwas or Veera Vaishnavas (followers of Hanuman and Bhima!) and not Sadvaishnavas ( there is a long way to reach that stage !) .... Only that almighty knows what is the solution !!! My mind always aligns with what is sung in this beautiful song ...above all caste , creed and philosophical bias , true spirit of an ideal Indian and our Vedic seers also ......youtu.be/95cqNFZaCG4
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 03:38:16 +0000