Caitanya and the Mādhvas

An Argument for Viśeṣa

Abstract

In this article, I explore seven basic subjects: There is an ongoing controversy about the link between Mādhvas and Gauḍīyas originating in the earliest days of the Gauḍīya sampradāya. Indeed, there are two instances in Caitanya’s life that appear to deny the link outright. One instance occurring at Uḍupī has often been translated as meaning that Caitanya makes an emphatic distinction between the two traditions by his repeated use of the phrase “your sampradāya” and, furthermore, that he appreciates only one aspect of their tradition—Deity or image worship (based on misapplications of the words eka and vigraha). A more thoughtful translation of the key verse would indicate instead that he appreciates a unique (eka) feature regarding ontology (sambandha-jñāna), and that the word sampradāya here carries no sectarian implications at all. A critical question then arises: What is that feature that is unique to both traditions (as opposed to other Vaiṣṇava traditions) and is also mentioned in the verse? The answer points to a conceptual understanding of God as having a form, and that each aspect of that form is absolutely real and ontologically nondifferent from every other aspect and, indeed, from his very self. This nondifference is an application of a very specific doctrine called viśeṣa, the elucidation of which is unique to the Mādhva and Gauḍīya traditions, suggesting a deep foundational, theological relation between the two.