Haridasas comprised of two divisions: Vyasa Kuta and Dasa Kuta. The followers of Vyasa Kuta were required to be learned in the Vedas, Upanishads and other Darshanas with a true constructive appreciation of the metaphysics and of manifestations of Vishnu. They claimed to be strict disciples of Vedavyasa Tradition and through slokas and Keertanas in Geervana Bhasha, explained to the masses, the implications and propounded the significance of this great tradition. Those who synthesised all elements of value enshrined in the Vedas and in those involved in Vyasa tradition and taught the masses through the medium of Prakrit Kannada, the language of the region, were known as followers of Dasa Kuta. These were required to convey the message of the Dvaita Philosophy and religion through the vernaculars.
There was no philosophic or doctrinal difference between the two sects. Both accepted Dvatia philosophy and religion of Madhwa. Only the Vyasa Kuta was Jnana Gamya intent on the philosophic aspect of the teachings of the Master, unraveling confusion in interpretation of vedic text, convicting errors of interpretations, turning every prejudice into light and kindling love of truth into a passion; the other singing the praises of Vishnu through intelligible medium of the masses of persuading them to follow the path of Bhakthi.
Both the sects used the Kirtana form for conveying the message of Dwaita philosophy and love of the divine Krishna to those for whom the scriptures were remote and incomprehensive. Both the Kutas had the same end in view one used sanskrit and other Kannada as media of message of the love of God. The Haridasas were learned in the sastras and in Vyakarana and Shadangas and other components of Sanskrit for paravadi Nigraha.
But they were deeply convinced that God could not be reached merely through grammar and logistics, though Jnana through cultivation of the intellect, was one of the Sadhanas of Mukti. Sri Sripadraya, Vyasaraja, Vadiraja and Sri Raghavendra may be described primarily as belonging to Vyasakuta, while Sri Purandara, Vijayadasa, Gopaladasa and Jagannatha dasa as belonging to Dasa kuta.
It is contended by a few scholars that Dasakuta began with Purandara Dasa and that tradition became popular and was continued down through the centuries by Vijayadasa, Gopaladasa and a host of Dasa Kuta Parampara. Whether it was in existence before or both Vyasa Kuta and Dasa Kuta were one and the same, a distinction without a difference are to-day matters of controversy. Both the Vachanakaras and the Haridasas believed in a supersensual world, in the manifestation of new senses unknown to the human mind; that with the enlargement of the senses, expansion of the intellect and exaltation of the heart, the Mahanubhavi would see new and ineffable visions of Reality, full of love and significance. The mind of the Dasa was inclined to see in the light of pure love beyond the veil of the material into a great beyond where subject and object would cease to mirage each other in distorted duality and would become simply an idea.
The mystic sense is latent in everybody; it can by cultivation transcend the threshold of consciousness and the border between the human and the superhuman and intuitively sense the divine; Aparokshanubhuti. The Dasa was aware that the divine is realized within and without and as Taitiriya Upanishad says "Antar Bahis cha Tat-sarvam Vyapya Narayana Sthi-tah" to open one's heart in purity to this intrinsic nature and to allow the immortal or divine life immanent in things to penetrate into one's soul is to listen to the music of God. This mystic insight is in the power of all and this insight is the recognition of a higher principle operating in the universe which is integrated and absolute. Without this insight and awareness of an integrating principle, manis lost in the world. The Haridasa taught that thought, will and feeling were integral and inalienable elements of human personality, and tht it was only by the consecration of these faultiness in their quest of ultimate Reality that the individual would become a partaker of the divine culture.
This intuitional experience was within the reach of all, provided
individuals made an effort towards it. To the Haridasa,the whole
experience was a unity and the whole world an Ananda. Every soul is
potentially a mystic with the faculty endowed by God to bring the
reality of Bliss within its consciousness, by concentration and
by withdrawal from all objects and self-abandonment; "Abhyasena
to Kaunteya Vairagyena cha grihyate".
