Nimbarka

Śrī Nimbārkācārya
Nimbarkacharya's holy icon within the Acharya sannidhi at the Ukhra Nimbarka Peeth Mahanta Asthal (West Bengal)
Religion	Hinduism
Philosophy	Dvaitādvaita or Bhedābheda
Personal
Born	Niyamānanda 7th century CE Vaidurya Pattanam in Maharashtra , India
Guru	Narada
Literary works	Vedāntapārijātasaurabha, Vedāntakāmadhenudaśaślokī, Rahasyamīmāṁsā
Honors	Nimbabhāskara, Nimbāditya , Āruṇi, Havirddhāna, Haripriya, Sudarśana, Raṅgadevī Sakhī
Propagator	Nimbarka Sampradaya

Nimbarka is known for propagating the Vaishnava Theology of Dvaitadvaita (dvaita-advaita) or “dualistic non-dualism". It is also known as 'Bhedābheda' (bheda-abheda) philosophy.

According to his eponymous tradition, the Nimbārka Sampradāya, Śrī Nimbārkāchārya appeared in the year 3096 BCE, when the grandson of Arjuna was on the throne. Contrarily, scholars headed by Prof. Roma Bose theorise he lived in the 13th Century, on the presupposition that Śrī Nimbārkāchārya was the author of the work Madhvamukhamardana. This has been proven to be an erroneous attribution.

Bhandarkar has placed him after Ramanuja, suggesting 1162 AD as the date of his demise. S.N.Dasgupta dated Nimbarka to around middle of 14th Century. On the other hand, S. A. A. Rizvi assigns a date of c.1130–1200 AD.

Current scholarship has pointed out that in Bhandarkar's own work it is clearly stated that this was an approximation based on an extremely flimsy calculation, yet most scholars chose to honour his suggested date, even until modern times. The latest scholarship has demonstrated with a high degree of clarity that Nimbarka and his immediate disciple Shrinivasa flourished well before Ramanuja, and that Shrinivasa was a contemporary, or just after Sankaracarya.

According to tradition, Nimbārka was born in Vaidūryapattanam, the present-day Mungi Village, Paithan in East Maharashtra. His parents were Aruṇa Ṛṣi and Jayantī Devī. Together, they migrated to Mathurā and settled at what is now known as Nimbagrāma (Neemgaon), situated between Barsānā and Govardhan.

Nimbarka's philosophical position is known as Dvaitadvaita (duality and nonduality at the same time or dualistic non-dualism). The categories of existence, according to him, are three, i.e., cit, acit, and Isvara. Cit and acit are different from Isvara, in the sense that they have attributes and capacities, which are different from those of Isvara. Isvara is independent and exists by Himself, while cit and acit have existence dependent upon Him. At the same time cit and acit are not different from Isvara, because they cannot exist independently of Him. Difference means a kind of existence which is separate but dependent, (para-tantra-satta-bhava) while non-difference means impossibility of independent existence (svatantra-satta-bhava).