the grace of God, and grace leads to the liberation of soul. The knowledge of God, for Madhvacharya, is not a matter of intellectual acceptance of the concept, but an attraction, affection, constant attachment, loving devotion and complete surrender to the grace of God. He rejects monist theories believing that knowledge liberates, asserting instead that it is Divine grace through Bhakti that liberates. To Madhva, God obscures reality by creating Maya and Prakriti, which causes bondage and suffering; and only God can be the source of soul's release. Liberation occurs when, with the grace of God, one knows the true nature of self and the true nature of God. Ethics Evil and suffering in the world, according to Madhvacharya, originates in man, and not God. Every Jiva (individual soul) is the agent of actions, not Jada (matter), and not Ishvara (God). While Madhva asserts each individual self is the Kartritva (real agency), the self is not an absolutely independent agent to him. This is because, states Madhva, the soul is influenced by sensory organs, one's physical body and such material things which he calls as gifts of God. Man has free will, but is influenced by his innate nature, inclinations and past karma. Madhvacharya asserts, Yathecchasi tatha kuru, which Sharma translates and explains as "one has the right to choose between right and wrong, a choice each individual makes out of his own responsibility and his own risk". Madhva does not address the problem of evil, that is how can evil exist with that of a God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. According to Sharma, "Madhva's tripartite classification of souls makes it unnecessary to answer the problem of evil". According to David Buchta, this does not address the problem of evil, because the omnipotent God "could change the system, but chooses not to" and thus sustains the evil in the world. This view of self's agency of Madhvacharya was, states Buchta, an outlier in Vedanta school and Indian philosophies in general. This accusation of David Buchta is answered by the arrangement that the tripartite characteristic is intrinsic of the souls. That is to say, those characteristics define the soul. And any attempt to change that would mean replacing souls themselves. Seeing no point in repairing the prevalent characteristics if the very identity of the souls is in danger, the omnipotent does not change them. Thus answering the problem of