based on the vyakhyanam of Sri Periyavaccan Pillai
by Smt Sumithra Varadarajan

Now that the jeevatmas are not capable of understanding the sastras and acting accordingly emperuman had no other go than to come down himself to impart us the knowledge as given in the sastras. So he came to earth taking various avatAras. He saved his bhaktha Prahaladan in the Narasimha avatAra from the clutches of Hiranyakasipu .Thus he did "Dushtanigraham and sishta paripaalanam" in his avatAras. He tried to change the minds of the people and make them understand his magimai. In rAmAvatAra he lived and showed how a man should be. As Sri Nammazhvar says "Karpar EramapirAnai allal mattrum karparo" but have people learnt anything from rAmA but instead they question the authenticity of Sri Ramayanam. Why did rAma do this and that? The people have more crooked knowledge than good thinking. So Emperuman was not satisfied. He thought probably since rAmAvatAram was fully a manushyAvatAram people didn't recognize him so now he took the KrishnAvatAra where he showed his supernatural powers. Now people like Duriyodhana and others started saying that kannan is doing magic which is known to them too. Again people didn't believe emperuman and there was no one to read his geetha and get benefited by it. Our Acharyas say that Sri Krishna searched for a person, who was a gyani("Vasudeva Sarvamithi SamahAtma") and unable to find such a mahatma he returned to his aboard without any satisfaction.

In Bhagavat Geetha bhagavan says "Avajananthimam moodha: Manusheem thanumaasritam".These moodhas think me to be a normal man and even criticize me). Here PVP analyses to whom Krishna is referring as moodhas? Is it Shisupalan and others who insulted Krishna? No. Those people where created with that svabhavam to criticize and talk ill of Krishna. So Krishna knows very well that, that is what can be expected from them. Then whose behaviour worries the paramAtma? Those people who were created to do mangalaasaasanam to him also criticize him and ask can rAma do this can Krishna do this etc. Only the behaviour of such persons pains the lord. Sri Mamunigal names these personalities as Astika Nastikargal. They say they believe god and go to the temple to do prartanai but in public they question the authenticity of the avatAras of the Bhagavan. Only the activities of such people troubles bhagavan and even in rAmAvatAra he says "Mam avamanye" they are insulting me. There emperuman goes to the extent of saying not only the jeevans here but also the devas(trijaseeshvaraha) fail to respect the bhagavan and they start talking ill of him. Here we have to remember the Govardhana leela of Sri Bhagavan where Indra talks ill of Sri Krishna and tries to wash out whole of gokulam. So now Emperuman realized that though he had come in person people, fail to realize him and fall under his feet.

Even after so much insults the dhayai of bhagavan made him to think out another way to liberate all the jeevatmas from the endless miseries of the samsara. So now he decided to send the Alwars who were considered to be the Abhinava DasAvathArAs. Like catching a deer by sending another deer or catching a elephant with the help of another trained elephant Bhagavan sent alwars who were Jeevatmas but with full of gyanam and bhakthi to correct us and lead us to the divine feet of emperuman. As Nammazhvar says "Kaliyum kedum kandukonmin". These alwars came to earth to reduce the kali gooram. So they concentrated on the kaliyuga dharmam that is the bhaagavata dharmam. The bhaagavata puranam indicates the avatara of the alwars as follows:
"Kalau kalau bhavishyanti Naarayana paraayanaaha kvashit kvashin Maharaja dravidesucha Bhoorishaha
Tambarabarni nadhi yatra kritamaala payasvini kavericha mahapunyam pratichita Mahanadhi……….bhagavatee vasudeve amalaachayaha"
This sloka shows that in kali Saadhoos will be born mainly in south India mainly in the banks of the rivers like tambarabarani, kaveri, Vaikai, paalaru etc. This clearly shows that this sloka refers to the avatara of the alwars who where born similarly in the banks of the various rivers. What will these alwars do? "Yatra Sangeerthanenaiva" says Bhagavatam they will sing the praise of the lord. And what the alwars sung are now called as the Nalayira Divya Prabhandam commonly called as Arulicheyal.

The alwars were 'Mayarvara madi nalam arulappetravargal'. That is the lord bestowed them with bhakthi and gyana by himself so there is no doubt in their absolute knowledge. So we Srivaishnavas consider the arulicheyal more important than even the Vedas and use it for the thiruvaaraadanam of the bhagavan everyday. Even the lord shows the importance of the arulicheyal by following the ghosthi in all his purappadu and also listening to them during the adyayana utsavams. According to us all the sastrams are present inside the Arulicheyals itself. In present day we are all incapable of learning all the sastras so to make us learn all the arthas the crux of all the sastras has been provided by the alwars in their paasurams. Let us see how all the sastra arthas are present in the arulicheyals in the next posting.