The Three Acharyas

Lord Buddha descended down on this earth some 2500 years ago. During that time, people were drifting from the path of righteousness and were doing a lot of inhuman activities. They believed that killing animals in the name of sacrifices would bring them benedictions. Buddha showed them the path of peace and prevented the cruelty done towards innocent animals. He was the one who introduced vegetarianism in this current age. He preached the philosophy of Buddhism and concluded that nothing in this world is real. He stated that everything would end only in a void called ‘Shoonya’. Sabh kuch maya hai!:)

For centuries people followed the philosophy of Buddha and were walking on the path of peace. Soon they were perplexed by this natural question that arose in their heart: “If nothing is real, then what on the world is real?”

It was at this point that Adi Shankara appeared on earth. He propagated the philosophy of Advaita or non-dualism. Dualism means existence of ‘two’. Thus non-dualism or Advaita means ‘non-existence of two’. In other words there is an existence of ONLY a single entity. ‘Eka-mevaad-vithiyam….’ – The theme song of the Tamil movie ‘BABA’ preached the same philosophy:)
Shankara stated “It is true that nothing is real in this world. But there is a real thing outside this world called the Supreme truth or Parabrahman. That supreme truth is called God. Meditate on it and aim towards reaching it”. His philosophy convinced people and they became happy that at least there is something real in this Universe. They started to follow his teachings and walked on the path shown by him.

A few centuries later, Ramanuja was born. He propagated the philosophy of Visistadvaita or qualified non-dualism. He preached the existence of a second entity but only that with a limited capacity. He stated “The Supreme soul or God is always real. The soul within every human body is also real. This human soul is qualitatively the same as God but quantitatively it is very tiny when compared to God”. Thus he concluded that God is always Supreme and that the human soul is always dependant on Him.

Finally came Madhavacharya a century later. He propagated the philosophy of Dvaita or pure dualism. He took Ramanuja’s philosophy to the next higher level. He said that apart from worshipping, it is also possible for the human soul to have a loving relationship with God. In addition he stated that every person moulds his own karma and that through devotion one can become free from all sinful reactions.

Adi Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhava are called the three chief acharyas of Hinduism. Though their philosophies look outwardly contradictory, in reality it is not so. Shankara laid the initial path and started to teach people about God. Ramanuja explained the dwelling soul within every human body and its dependency on God. Madhava took the philosophy further and guided the people towards establishing a loving relationship between the human soul and God.

Jai Sri RadhaShyamasundara!