Madhvacharya

Against Shankara's non-dualism Madhva taught in his commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, the Gita and the Upanishads, and in his own “Anuvyakhyana” and “Determination of the Truth about Vishnu,” that five differences are eternal and real: between God and soul, God and matter, soul and soul, soul and matter, and one material thing and another. Vishnu alone is independent (svatantra); souls and the world are real but wholly dependent on Him, and He governs matter, which is eternal, as its efficient cause. Knowledge comes by perception, inference and scripture and is validated by the inner witness (sakshi); God's infinite attributes are not other than His essence, distinguished only by a “special” (visesha) that allows us to speak of them. Souls differ intrinsically and eternally: some are fit for liberation, some wander forever, and some, the tamo-yogyas, are destined by their own nature for everlasting darkness, so that liberation, which keeps the soul distinct and graded in its bliss, comes only by Vishnu's grace to those made for it. He installed the image of Krishna at Udupi and founded eight monasteries to serve it.

Why he matters: He is the living proof that Hinduism is not one metaphysics: a Hindu who holds a personal creator, real and immortal individual souls, objective truth, grace and eternal damnation, so that Catholic readers tempted to equate Vedanta with Shankara should meet him first. His doctrine of attributes not different from the essence yet really spoken of is an independent approach to the problem Thomas and Palamas answered in different ways.