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His philosophy is
best studied in his two commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras, his commentaries on the
Upanisads and the Bhagavad Gita and his glosses on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana. The centre of
his religion is the worship of Krsna as taught in the Bhagavata, and his philosophy has
many points in common with that of Ramanuja. According to him, there are three
eternal entities fundamentally different from one another-God, the soul and the world.
Of these God is said to be Svatantra or independent reality and the
other two are dependent realities. He does not create them, but only rules them. He lives
in Vaikuntha along with His consort, Laksm who is the personification of his power.
But He manifests Himself through various Vyuhas
or forms and Avatars or
incarnations. At the same time He is also the antaryamin or the inner controller of all
souls. Madhava does not admit that the world is the body of God. According to him, God is
only the efficient cause of the world and not the material cause.
The distinction between God and the world is absolute and
unqualified. That is why his system is called Dvaita or dualism, whereas Samkara's system
which denies any ultimate distinction between God and the world of souls is called
Advaita, or monism, and Ramanuja's system which maintains the distinction but also
emphasizes the oneness of God, whose body is the world, is called Visistadvaita or organic
monism.
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