4000 dhivyaprabandham

SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImadh varavaramunayE nama:

SrIman nArAyaNan blessed a select few AthmAs with divine knowledge and great devotion towards him and made them AzhwArs. AzhwArs compiled many pAsurams (verses) in glorification of SrIman nArAyaNan. These pAsurams total up to 4000 verses approximately and are thus called 4000 dhivya prabandham. dhivya means divine and prabandham means literature (that which captures bhagavAn himself). The various kshEthrams (holy places) which host bhagavAn in his archA (deity) form that are glorified by AzhwArs became to be known as dhivyadhESams. dhivyadhESams are said to be 108 in total. 106 of those, exist in the various regions of bhAratha dhESam (including Nepal). kshIrAbdhi (milk ocean) is situated within the material realm yet too far for us to reach. parama padham is the spiritual realm which is reached after liberation. SrIrangam is considered as the primary dhivya dhESam and thirumalA, kAnchIpuram, thiruvallikkENi, AzhwAr thirunagari etc., are some important dhivyadhESams. bhagavAn is said to have five manifestations – supreme lord in paramapadham, vyUha form in kshIrAbdhi, antharyAmi (as the in-dwelling super soul), vibhava (incarnations such as SrI rAma, krishNa etc) and finally archA (deity) form. Among these forms, the deity form is considered as the most magnanimous form of bhagavAn which is approachable by every one at all times. Our pUrvAchAryas held the dhivyadhESams as their life and dedicated their life in serving bhagavAn and bhAgavathas in such dhivyadhESams. For more information, please visit https://koyil.org .

dhivya prabandham brought out the essence of vEdham/vEdhAntham in simple and chaste thamizh. The whole purpose of these dhivya prabandhams is to uplift the jIvAthmAs by transmitting true knowledge. Several hundreds of years after the time of AzhwArs, many AchAryas starting with nAthamunigaL, centered with SrI rAmAnuja and ending with mAmunigaL appeared and preached the divine message of AzhwArs. While less intelligent people considered AzhwArs pAsurams as simple thamizh songs, the most intelligent AchAryas established that these pAsurams bring out the ultimate philosophy of SrIman nArAyaNan being the means (to be uplifted from this material world) and the goal (to be situated in ones true nature of eternal service to SrIman nArAyaNan in paramapadham – spiritual world). Our pUrvAchAryas fully relished the dhivya prabandhams and centered their life around learning them, teaching them and living by those pAsurams.

adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan

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