[If you think that Śrī Śaṅkara really believed that every soul is God, He should not have addressed a scholar (not an ignorant soul) as a fool because every soul is God. If every soul is God, Śrī Śaṅkara would not have told that scholar to worship God (Govinda). This clearly means that Śaṅkara’s real philosophy is that every soul is not God. Regarding Śrī Rāmānuja, He declared dualism between God and soul at the beginning of His philosophy itself. Śrī Madhva strongly preached dualism between God and soul. Hence, all the three divine preachers preached dualism (Dvaita philosophy) only.]

[All the three divine preachers worshipped Krishna as God, who was a human soul born to Devakī and Vasudeva. In this case, all the three philosophers agree that a human soul, Krishna, is God, which is the monism. Hence, all the three divine preachers agree monism in the case of human incarnation. Therefore, all the three divine preachers have the same opinion that an ordinary soul is not God (dualism) and the human incarnation, Krishna, is God (monism). Therefore, it is a perfect conclusion that all the three divine preachers preached only one philosophy.]

[All the human souls shall follow the philosophy of Śrī Madhva doing practical service to God (Karma Yoga) after getting spiritual knowledge. Gradually, these souls become not only strong theoretical devotees of God, but also practical servants of God, attaining part of divinity in the path of the philosophy of Śrī Rāmānuja. Śrī Madhva came after Śrī Śaṅkara and Śrī Rāmānuja and hence, souls were already good in knowledge and devotion. Finally, these souls are eligible to merge with God and attain full divinity called monism.]

[Actually, no devotee can attain monism with God by self-effort. Even if there is a trace of aspiration for monism, the soul is permanently disqualified for monism to become human incarnation of God. This is the reason why Śrī Madhva condemned monism to a very serious extent. If the soul does not aspire monism, it has some rare chance of getting monism with God. The basic reason is that God grants monism and the soul can never acquire monism by aspiration.]

[Actually, the human incarnation results not by the aspiration of the devoted soul. Whenever there is a need for spiritual welfare, God Himself will pick up a climax devotee to become a human incarnation to do the work that is needed for the spiritual welfare of the world. Therefore, the aspiration for monism to become human incarnation will permanently disqualify the soul from becoming human incarnation. Hence, Śrī Madhva rejected monism and always established dualism so that no human soul will ever aspire to become human incarnation. If monism is permanently rejected, a human soul will always be in dualism so that such soul has some chance to attain monism. This does not mean that Śrī Madhva really rejected monism.]

[There will be only one king in a kingdom and there will be innumerable citizens. King is different from every citizen. If every citizen is the king, who is the ruler and then, who is ruled? Therefore, we shall not say that every citizen is king and that every soul is God.]

[Between the king and the citizens, there will be several officers, who are also the servants of the king. Even these officers are not the king. In such case, how can we dare to say any ordinary citizen as the king? This does not mean that monism is absent because the monarch, king, exists. Monism applies to the king. The meaning of the word ‘monism’ here means that there is only one king and none other than him exists as the king. Hence, the dualism does not contradict the monism in any way. Both monism and dualism are to be accepted without any contradiction between them since they both travel simultaneously. Similarly, no soul is God and even the angels ruling humanity are also not God. This is dualism. Monism also exists side by side in the sense that there is no second person equal to God and hence, God alone is the greatest.]

[By not accepting monism, the chance of becoming human incarnation is not lost. Instead, the chance is bettered. The reason is that if you aspire for monism to become God, you will never attain monism and will never become God (Human Incarnation). Hence, Śrī Madhva is only the helper of monism and not the enemy of monism. Śrī Madhva shall be considered as the greatest helper for any soul to attain monism. His serious criticism of monism is only to help the soul to get monism finally.]

[Monism means that only one greatest God exists and there is no second God equal to Him. Dualism means that all souls, including all the angels ruling humanity, are not God. There is a possibility that some soul or angel may feel that it will become God or it is already God. In order to remove such dangerous thinking in the souls, Shri Madhva totally eradicated the concept of monism for the spiritual welfare of the souls because such thinking itself is the greatest sin involving ego and ambition of souls.]

[Śrī Madhva emphasized practical service and sacrifice (Karma Yoga) to the spiritual souls in the beginning itself because Karma Yoga is most important as it is directly linked with the divine fruit of salvation. Jñāna Yoga (necessary spiritual knowledge) and Bhakti Yoga (necessary devotion) can be attained simultaneously so that ignorance and ego can be filtered out from the practical service or Karma Yoga. The reason is that one may spend the entire life in the theoretical phase of knowledge and devotion only without entering Karma Yoga at all, saying that he/she will enter Karma Yoga after completely finishing Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga!]

[In the above said example, the monarch king having no second king represents the monism of Śrī Śaṅkara. The public officers of the kingdom, standing between the king and the citizens, represent the special monism of Śrī Rāmānuja. The general public ruled by the king and officers represents the dualism of Śrī Madhva.]

[The citizens have no power and souls have no divinity (Śrī Madhva). The middle officers have some power, which is not as much as that of the king. Similarly, the climax devotees have partial divinity, which is not as much as that of God (Śrī Rāmānuja). The king has full powers without a second king (Śrī Śaṅkara). We have to slightly modify the above example from monarchy (and aristocracy) to enter democracy to say that even an ordinary citizen can become an officer as well as the king through devotion and spiritual efforts.]

[This means that the basic ordinary soul can become the climax devotee and even God (provided God wishes so) through the spiritual path. An ordinary soul becoming a climax devotee need not be contradicted. The contradiction comes only when the ordinary soul or even the climax devotee becomes God. The conclusion is that the ordinary citizen can become an officer but can never become the king. This type of worry can be easily removed because the soul is not directly transformed into God (Avyaktaṃ vyakti māpannam– Gita). In the formation of the human incarnation, God merges with the soul-medium like electricity merges with the wire. God and soul are always separate and hence, dualism is never damaged.]

[When electricity enters a wire, the properties of the wire like leanness, color etc., are not disturbed by the electricity. As long as the electricity exists in the wire, the properties of the electricity like shock, explosion etc., are exhibited by the wire. If the electricity exits from the wire, the wire will not show the properties of electricity. This establishes the dualism between God and soul or electricity and wire.]

[Since the electricity is not seen, we have taken the electrified wire itself as the representative of electricity. The unseen electricity needs a wire as the medium to reach the machine to make it work. Similarly, a specific soul selected by God is merged by God to become a human incarnation for the sake of delivering correct spiritual knowledge and for the sake of worship of God to be done by souls. Unmediated-unimaginable God called as Parabrahman getting mediated, appearing as God Krishna, is useful to hear the Bhagavad Gītā from Him and worship God Krishna as the ultimate God or Parabrahman.]

To be continued…