More Philosophical Dvaita Vedanta Nonsense From Sanjay Dadlani

Sanjay Kishore Dadlani
Middlesex University Student Residing In The UK

Sanjay Dadlani recently wrote an article about Sathya Sai Baba and Dvaita Vedanta that said, in part:

"It shouldn't come as a surprise that Sai Baba also claims to be a poorna avatar. Of course, nothing else would be appropriate enough to describe his great magnificence. :-) Sai Baba's 'poorna' status is supposed to be exemplified via the sensational nature of his "astounding miracles", welfare works, all-inclusive spiritual teachings, and the like. After all, wouldn't GOD be perfectly capable of transmitting new holy teachings for the benefit of the world, which explain absolutely everything?

Here comes the crunch: Dvaita Vedanta is one of the three major philosophical schools of Hindu theology, the other two being Vishishtadvaita Vedanta and Advaita Vedanta. Whereas seekers of Eastern spirituality are likely to have heard of or be influenced by Advaita above all, Dvaita (also known as Tattvavada) has an increasing reputation for having formed its conclusions on a strong basis of sound reasoning, admirable rigorousness and textual clarity. In other words, Dvaita followers have extremely good reasons for believing the way they do, and Dvaita holds that there is no such thing as poorna avatars. :-)

The reason for this is rather simple: Since avatars are descents of one deity, Vishnu, it naturally follows that they are all emanations of his and would naturally possess all of his potencies. In theory, it is possible for Matsya and other "minor" avatars to exhibit and fully display all the astounding powers of God displayed by the 'poornas' like Rama and Krishna, and the reason for why they didn't do so is really because there was no call to do so. Otherwise it is regarded that each and every incarnation of Vishnu is possessed of 'full' and 'complete' power and are thus equal to each other. There is no gradation among the incarnations of Vishnu as they are all him.

Not everyone will agree with this, but there you have it: the viewpoint of Dvaita Vedanta on this subject. This leads us to the natural consequence that Sathya Sai Baba's claims to 'poorna' avatarhood will have no credibility among the followers of Dvaita Vedanta and they are not likely to brook such nonsense either.

At the very least, this is a perfect example of how Sathya Sai Baba's divine and supposedly all-inclusive teachings are incompatible with Dvaita Vedanta philosophy. :-) One of the Baba's oft-quoted platitudes urges Hindus to be better Hindus, Christians to be better Christians, Muslims to be better Muslims, and so on. This will not apply for the Dvaita Vedantin, as Sai Baba's meaningless witterings about 'poorna' avatars will hold no weight with such people. After all, how can Sai Baba claim anything "special" about his status when his claim doesn't even exist in their religious paradigm? :-)"

Well the real "crunch" about Sanjay's useless and pointless article is that Dvaita Vedanta is not accepted by Christianity, Islam, Agnosticism, Atheism, Buddhism, Chinese traditional religions, Primal indigenous religions, African tradional and diasporic religions, Sikhism, Judaism, Rastafarianism, etc.

Dvaita Vedanta forms an extremely small percentage of religious adherents and their God Concept is rather meaningless in the overall schema of religious beliefs. Turning the tables, Dvaita Vedantin's God Concept is meaningless and holds no weight to the majority of religious/non-religious adherents that populate the Earth. How can Dvaita Vedantins claim anything special about Vishnu when their claims do not even exist in the majority paradigms that religious/non-religious people happen to believe in? Needless to say, the majority religions would not brook such nonsense either :-)

Furthermore, Gaudiya Vaishnavism (which Sanjay fully professes belief in) fully advocates for the concept of Poorna Avatars and a special emphasis is always placed on Radha-Krishna. Krishna is considered the fullest and Original Personality of Godhead, with whom other avatars simply do not compare. Needless to say, Sanjay's Gaudiya Vaishnava beliefs in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that Lord Krishna is the source of Vishnu (and not an incarnation of Him) have no credibility among followers of Dvaita Vedanata (who believe that Vishnu is the Supreme Being and Lord Krishna was an incarnation of Him and not vice versa).

Therefore, Sanjay Dadlani just formed another argument against his own Gaudiya Vaishnava beliefs. The only time Sanjay opens his mouth is to stick his other foot in it. Since Sanjay Dadlani believes that Dvaita Vedanta "forms its conclusions on a strong basis of sound reasoning, admirable rigorousness and textual clarity", I suggest he approach the Bhaktivedanta Manor in the UK (which he attends and whose marble deities he bows before as God Incarnate) and tell them to replace the statues of RadhaKrishna and Ramachandra with one of Vishnu because Dvaita Vedantins worship Vishnu as the Supreme Being and their beliefs are somehow meritorious and are based on sound reasoning, admirable rigorousness and textual clarity. lol

To top off all this nonsense, Sanjay Dadlani does not believe in Dvaita Vedanta per se. The Sutras of Vyasa are the basis of Vedanta philosophy. These Sutras have been commented on by various scholars/devotees and various interpretations have given rise to several schools of thought. For example:

1. Kevala Advaita philosophy of Sri Sankaracharya


2. The philosophy of Qualified Monism or Visishtadvaita of Sri Ramanuja


3. Dvaita philosophy of Sri Madhvacharya


4. The Bhedabheda philosophy of Sri Nimbarkacharya


5. The Suddha Advaita philosophy of Sri Vallabhacharya


6. The Achintya Bhedabheda philosophy of Sri Chaitanya


7. The Siddhanta philosophy of Sri Meykandar

Apparently, Sanjay has a lot of time on his hands (since his University put a stop to his boot fetish stalking habits) and decided to bore everyone with his pointless philosophical nonsense.

It worked.