Dvaita Vedānta’s strict dualism, which maintains an eternal distinction between God, individual souls, and the material world, gives rise to a strongly theocentric ethic. Moral norms are grounded in the will and nature of a personal Lord—Viṣṇu or Nārāyaṇa—whose commands are known through śāstra. Right and wrong are thus not merely social conventions or psychological states but responses to a real, transcendent authority. This framework lends itself to a form of divine-command ethics in which obedience to God and fidelity to scriptural injunctions become central moral concerns. Because the world is regarded as real rather than illusory, it becomes a genuine arena for moral struggle, responsibility, and spiritual growth, rather than something to be dismissed as ultimately unreal.

Within this vision, devotion (bhakti) is not only a spiritual path but also the organizing principle of ethical life. Actions are evaluated by the extent to which they foster loving devotion, surrender, and service to God. Virtues such as humility, gratitude, and a deep sense of dependence on the divine are cultivated, while metaphysical pride—especially any claim to equality with God—is treated as a serious moral fault. The soul’s eternal status as servant of God encourages an ethic of self-effacement rather than self-deification. At the same time, the balance of divine grace and human effort sustains a cooperative model of ethical practice: grace is indispensable, yet conscientious adherence to dharma remains necessary.

Dvaita’s ontology also shapes a hierarchical understanding of both cosmos and community. Reality is structured in graded levels—God, gods, liberated souls, bound souls, and inert matter—and Madhvācārya’s teaching on gradations among souls reinforces this stratification. Different souls are seen as possessing distinct capacities for knowledge and devotion, which supports differentiated duties and expectations. Ethical life thus involves accepting and fulfilling one’s svadharma, including traditional varṇa and āśrama responsibilities, as a form of service to God. This can foster reverence toward more advanced souls and a paternalistic compassion toward those considered less advanced, while rejecting a flat metaphysical equality of all beings.

Finally, the affirmation of eternal individuality and personal accountability gives Dvaita ethics a particular gravity. Each soul is a distinct moral agent whose choices bear karmic consequences, and there is no ultimate dissolution of agency into an impersonal Absolute. The separateness of souls means that ethical behavior is framed less as “harming or helping oneself in another form” and more as fulfilling obligations to God and to the divinely ordered structure of reality. Because destinies are understood as enduringly distinct, moral and devotional decisions carry a sense of lasting, even irreversible, significance. This lends urgency and seriousness to ethical conduct, as every action is seen as contributing either to deeper alignment with the divine or to further estrangement.