An encyclopedia of Sanātana Dharma
Sanatan Sindhu emblemSanatan Sindhu

Internal lineage · sampradāya

Dvaita (Mādhva)

द्वैतDvaita

Founder / origin — Madhvācārya (1238–1317 CE)

Strict dualism — Brahman (Viṣṇu), selves, and matter are eternally distinct.

Madhva's Dvaita insists on five eternal distinctions: God from self, God from matter, self from self, self from matter, and matter from matter. Viṣṇu is supreme and independent; every other reality depends on Him. Liberation is service and devotion within a permanent hierarchy — a striking philosophical alternative to both Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita.

Related essays

Essay · Vocabulary

What is Dharma — and what is a Hindu?

The words Dharma, Sanātana and Hindu — where they come from, what they actually mean, and how the four great sampradāyas (Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, Śāktism, Smārtism) scale the same spiritual mountain from different sides.

Essay · Vaiṣṇava Theology

Two traditions on the Eighth — Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and the question of who the avatāra is

Two authoritative streams disagree about the eighth Daśāvatāra: one names Kṛṣṇa the avatāra with Balarāma as Ādi-Śeṣa, the other (Gauḍīya) names Kṛṣṇa Svayam Bhagavān with Balarāma as the eighth. Both are read side by side.

Essay · Bhagavad Gītā 2.47–2.51

Karma Yoga — the discipline of acting without craving the fruit

A reading of niṣkāma karma from the Gītā's most quoted verse outward: why the fruit is withdrawn but the act is not, how samatva (evenness) turns work into yoga, what 'skill in action' actually means, and how the three Vedānta schools read the agency that remains.

Essay · Gītā 11 · Viśvarūpa Darśana

Kālo 'smi — the Universal Form and the terror of the eleventh chapter

Arjuna asks to see the whole, and is given the divine eye. What he sees is not comfort — it is fire, infinite mouths, and Time announcing itself as the devourer of worlds. A reading of Viśvarūpa Darśana Yoga, Kāla as the answer to the problem of destruction, and Madhva's use of the vision.

Essay · Gītā 18 · Mokṣa Sannyāsa Yoga

Do as you wish — renunciation, the guṇas and free will in Gītā 18

The longest chapter closes the argument. Kṛṣṇa cuts between ritualists and world-fleeing ascetics by separating sannyāsa from tyāga, sorts action, knowledge and even food by the three guṇas, and then — having delivered the most secret knowledge — leaves the decision entirely to Arjuna.

Browse all essays →

← Back to all traditions