Thus spake Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur ;
If we take up the practical activities of the Madhva and the Gaudiya Vaisnavas for the purpose of such comparison, we find that the former put themselves under a severe reserve in their propagatory methods, whereas the latter are vigorously proselytizing. The Madhvas keep up the old habits and ideas, whereas the Gaudiya Vaisnavas have advanced towards and utilized everything facilitating the true cause of devotion. The former are very fond of archana according to the pancharatrika system; whereas the latter, though not different to adopt archana, yet in addition to that, they perform bhajana like the Dasakuta section of the Madhva community. The Gaudiya Vaisnavas give more stress to bhajana than to archana of the Vyasakuta section of the latter community. The habits and customs of the Southern Indian Vaisnavas are different from those of Northern Indian Gaudiya Vaisnavas, though both of them have a common base and origin as their guiding principle.
Turning to their respective social procedures we find that there is one great point of resemblance. Brahmanas are alone considered to be eligible for the service of God by the Madhva community. Brahmanas are accordingly in sole charge of the religious institutions of the sect. They alone conduct all public and private worship. This is also the practice of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas. But in this matter also there is an important distinction between the two. The point has already been referred to in connection with propaganda and proselytization. The Madhvas are not prepared to go outside the pale of the caste brahmanas for imparting initiation for worship. In this they are in one sense too narrow in comparison with the method of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Sri Caitanya accepted all who possessed the real inclination for leading the exclusive spiritual life and bestowed on them even the position and function of the acharya. Thakura Haridasa, the great acharya of the Gaudiya sect, was a Mohammedan by parentage. Most of the Gaudiya Vaisnava Gosvamis were not caste brahmanas.
In another respect, however, the Madhva practice is more lax than the practice of the Gaudiya society. No person is entitled in the Gaudiya community to mantra-diksa unless he or she is prepared to submit unconditionally to follow the instructions of the acharya in every particular of actual conduct. By this test caste brahmanas are also liable to be ineligible for the service of God in the Gaudiya community, if they are not prepared to give up their unscriptural mode of life by submitting to the autocratic rule of the acharya.
Gaudiya Vaisnavas claim to follow the real principle of the scriptural varnashrama institution in the organization of their spiritual society. Whereas the Madhvas follow the hereditary principle which is seldom applicable in the present age when few persons possess either the habit or the inclination to follow the spirit of the shastric regulation.
Judged by the test of loyalty to the spirit of the scriptural regulation, the Gaudiya community may justly claim to be far more conservative in their social practices than the Madhvas.
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