AzhwArs – glories and history

 

 

People work hard for 8 months to stay relaxed during the 4 months of rainy season; To be happy in the night they work hard in the day time; To live comfortably when they get old, people work hard when they are young; People should thus work hard in this life to have a good after-life.

 

Hearing this, the king starts contemplating that he is comfortable in this life from material wealth, comforts, etc, but he is not sure about the after-life and how to approach that. He then goes to his purOhith (pandit) and asks him how to establish the supreme god and how to attain him after this life. selva nambi who is a great devotee of srIman nArAyaNan at once says we must assemble all the vidhwAns (scholars) and establish the parathathvam based on vEdhAntham. He invites the scholars to establish the truth since the most important principle per Apasthambha dharma sUthram, “dharmajnYasamaya: pramAnNam vEdhAchcha”

 

(                                      :                                                      ) meaning the acts of the knowers of vEdham is

 

the primary source of knowledge and vEdham is the secondary source. The king prepares a pouch filled with great wealth as the prize for the one who establishes the truth and hangs that in a decorative ceiling. He invites the scholars from all over the region to assemble at his palace for a debate.

 

vatapathrasAyi emperumAn (srIvilliputhUr) wants to uplift the samsAris by establishing his supremacy (as explained in vEdhAntham) through periyAzhwAr, appears in his dream and instructs him to go and fetch the prize. AzhwAr replies to emperumAn that the prize is for establishing the supremacy of emperumAn through vEdhAntham and out of humility says that “How can I go and fetch that prize with my hands which have become rough due to working in the garden?”. emperumAn insists to him that “I will take care of everything since I am revealer of vEdham and its meanings as necessary”. AzhwAr waking up early in the morning as per

 

sAsthram which says “brAhmE muhurththE cha uththAya” (

 

) meaning one should wake up in the brahma muhurtham (around 4am) and realising

 

the divine dream, performs his nithyAnushtAnam and leaves to madhurai to the palace of the king. Arriving at the palace, the king and selva nambi welcome AzhwAr who is a brAhmaNOthama (top most brAhmaNa) and offer their obeisance to him. The local scholars informs the king that AzhwAr is not well learned – but selva nambi and the king already knowing about AzhwAr’s dedication to vatapathrasAyi and his kainkaryam gave him great respect and asked him to establish the parathathvam based on vEdhAntham. By the divine grace of emperumAn, periyAzhwAr was able to visualize and understand the essence of vEdham, vEdhAntham, ithihAsam, purANam, etc. Just like srI vAlmIki bhagavAn was able to understand all the great principles by the grace of brahmA and prahlAdhAzhwAn became sarvagya (omniscient) immediately by the touch of emperumAn’s pAnchajanyam, periyAzhwAr by the causeless mercy of emperumAn, understood that the essence of sAsthram is srIman nArAyaNan’s parathvam (supremacy). This can be seen in the logical sequence of pramANams as follows:

 

samastha chabhdha mUlathvAdh akArasya svabhAvatha:

samastha vAchya mUlathvAth brahmanNOpi svabhAvatha:

 

 

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AzhwArs – glories and history vAchyavAchaka sambhaNdhas thayOr arththAth pradhIyathE

 

:

 

:

 

All the sounds naturally originate from akAram; All the meanings (or the objects) of those sounds naturally originate from brahmmam. So, it can be understood that the relationship between akAram and brahmmam is natural as well.

 

gIthAchAryan himself declares in bhagavath gIthai that “aksharAnNamakArOsmi”

 

(

 

 

), meaning I am akAram amongst letters.

 

 

It is said that “akArO vishnNuvAchaka:” (

 

 

:) meaning akAram

 

represents vishnNu establishing that srIman nArAyaNan is the supreme being.

 

thaithriya upanishadh identifies the foremost qualities of such srIman nArAyaNan as follows:

 

yathO vA imANi bhUthANi jAyanthE, yENa jAthANi jIvaNthi, yathprayaNthi abhisamvichaNthi, thath vijijnYAsasva, thath brahmEthi

 

,                                                      ,

 

,                                                          ,

 

That from which this whole universe and the beings are created, on which the whole universe is sustained, in which it merges during destruction, where the beings reach upon attaining mOksham, know that and know that to brahmam. Thus jagath kAraNathva (being the cause of the universe), mumukshu upAsyathva (being the object of the worship for the ones who desire to get mOksham) and mOksha pradhathva (having the ability to benedict mOksham to a jIvAthmA) are identified as the most important qualities of the supreme being.

 

These qualities are fully seen in srIman nArAyaNan as explained in:

 

vishnNOs sakAchAdhudhbhUtham jagath thathraiva cha sthitham sthithi samyamakarththAsau jagathOsya jagachcha sa:

 

:

 

As stated in vishNu purANam, this universe appears from vishNu; it subsides in vishNu during praLayam (when there is no creation); He is the one who sustains it and annihilates it; He also has the whole universe as his sarIram (body).

 

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