Dvaita

Dvaita

द्वैत, dvaita

Duality, dualism. In general, it means a dual perception of the world (when, for example, there is “I” and “others”, “this” and “that”) or can be applied to any concept that contains two or more completely independent principles (truths, reality).

Most often, the word "dvaita" refers to such a worldview or religious/philosophical view, which is characterized by the perception of a person (his soul) and God as two separate independent realities.

The followers of Dvaita believe that the soul is not identical to God. This is the difference from the monistic view of advaita (non-duality). In Dvaita there are two: you and God, you place yourself below God (upasana), while in Advaita everything is one.

The spiritual growth of a practitioner in Dvaita lies in the development of one's openness to God – in performing ritual actions (karma-kanda), moral deeds, and offering prayers that indicate the believer's devotion, his bhakti.

Dvaita Vedanta

The term "dvaita" has been widely used since the emergence of the philosophical school – Dvaita Vedanta, founded by Madhva (Madhvacharya) in the 13th century as a theistic response to advaita.

Dvaita argues that God, individual souls (jivatman) and the inanimate world are separately existing realities. Both jivas and individual objects of the world are different from each other. The world and the jivas are neither an illusion, as in Shankara's advaita, nor an emanation of God, as in Ramanuja's vishishta-advaita.

In the teachings of Madhva, the supreme deity is Vishnu, identical with Brahman, the absolute reality of the Upanishads. He is the arbiter of the destinies of people, karma and the ruler of the world, but God did not create the world. The world is originally spiritualized. Vishnu always remains together with his wife Lakshmi, she is the personification of his shakti, creative power. Vayu is the mediator between God and the jivas. Jivas are atomic, described as images or reflections of God, but not identical to him. Souls have ananda by nature, but it is hidden by karma and manifests in the state of liberation, moksha. There is a hierarchy among souls: eternally free (for example, Lakshmi), liberated (devas) and finally though which are immersed in samsara from life to life, including hells. To achieve liberation, jivas need the highest mercy: any accumulated karma can be corrected with the help of devotion to God, bhakti. At the same time, devotion is more important than the liberation that results from it.

Natha sampradaya

In Nathas Tradition, both dvaita and advaita values are accepted, but at the same time, Nathas try to avoid the extremes of these systems, which is necessary for a greater depth of awareness and transformation. The worldview of Nathas is called  dvaita-advaita vilakshana, which translates as "beyond duality and non-duality." This vision is based on the mystical experience of siddhas and yogis of the Tradition, it simultaneously contains the immanent and the transcendent. Guru Gorakshanath is the personification of the perfect knowledge and pure vision in the Nath Sampradaya.