History Of Lord MahaVishnu’s Incarnate Lord Vaikundar

Lord Vaikundar (c.1833–c.1851): According to the sacred book Akilathirattu which is comparable to the texts of Vedas, Lord Maha Vishnu, the creator and protector of the Universe, incarnated as Lord Vaikundar in Kaliyuga after ending the incarnation as Lord Krishna. The incarnation as Lord Vaikundar was the tenth in the manifestations of Lord Maha Vishnu, who was the embodiment of Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma.  While Veda agama Akilathirattu, reverently mention him as Shri Pandara, Shri Mayon, Shri Narayana, Lord Vishnu, Lord Thirumal, Shri Perumal, Ayya Narayana, Shri Sivanarayana and Shri Suryanarayana, the devotees reverently worship him in the names of Ayya, Lord Vaikunda Swami and Lord Narayana Swami.

The divine philosophy has been that whenever Adharma raised its ugly head and threatened to destroy basic fabrics of Dharma, God manifested in some form and destroyed Adharma to re-establish the rule of Dharma. True to this philosophy, Lord Maha Vishnu incarnated as Lord Vaikundar in Kaliyuga, to save mankind from suffering. True to this the life story and glories of Lord Vaikundar, who incarnated in the universe to destroy evil Kali and re-establish rule of Dharma has been elegantly eulogized in the form of verses in Tamil in the sacred religious scripture called Akilathirattu, which contain the divine acts and doctrines of Lord Vaikundar as penned by Shri Arigopalan. The entire contents according to him have been penned as heard directly from the mouth of Lord Vaikundar in his dream on the 27th day of the Tamil Month Karthigai in the year Kollam which was 1016, corresponding to Friday, the 10th December 1841 CE.

The Holy Akilathirattu is considered to be one of the most sacred Veda Agama text similar to the ancient Veda texts written by Maharishi Veda Vyasa. Akilathirattu narrates the origin and evolution of the universe, time line of the evolutionary history covering major events and subsequent developments which shaped our land over billions of years after the cosmic had been created. It also explain various incarnations of Lord Maha Vishnu who finally manifested in Kaliyuga as Lord Vaikundar and prophecy for future.

Innal Vivaramellaam eduththu viyaagarum
munnaal mozhintha murainoolpadiyaale
naaraayanarum vanthu nadaththum valamaithannai
kaaranamaa ezhuthik kathaiyaai padiththoarkku
oyyaaramaaga ul vinainoi theerumendru
ayaavumikkathaiyai arulgindranpore
Akilathirattu

According to the Veda agama Akilathirattu, God who is omnipresent and pervade in the universe is one and the same though appear in different forms such as Lord Shiva, Goddess Shakthi, Lord Omkara, Lord Vishnu, Lord Rudra, and Lord Maheshwar etc. Prime divine created 8.4 more millions of both active and inactive souls of different nature after which he created Lord Sun and Lord Vayu to establish the concept of Dharma.

Once the cosmic embodied with cycles of Yugas and varieties of creatures were created, Lord Adi Brahma, named the first Yuga as ‘Neettiya Yuga’, after which a fire ritual (Agni Kund meant for performing Yagna and Homa) was performed by Lord Shiva in which, host of divine forces besides Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma participated to discuss the fabric of attributes and aspects to be incorporated in the universe. As the discussion continued, an evil minded asura called ‘Kroni’, emerged from the Agni Kund and within days of his appearance, he began to terrorise the Celestial forces, destroy the divine abodes and even attempted to destroy mount Kailash. Realizing the magnitude of the problem, Lord Maha Vishnu sat in penance seeking powers from Lord Shiva to annihilate Asura Kroni and to save the divinely Celestials. Lord Shiva while granting the boons instructed Lord Maha Vishnu to kill Kroni by cutting him into six pieces, further indicating that all those six pieces of fleshes would again get birth in some form of an Asura or Monster in the Yugas to follow, and therefore Lord Mahavishnu too would have to incarnate repeatedly in different forms to annihilate the Asuras in course of time in each of the Yugas.

After Lord Maha Vishnu slayed Kroni into six pieces, ‘Neettiya Yuga’ ended. In subsequent Yugas, Lord Maha Vishnu annihilated several asura forces born from the flesh pieces of slayed Kroni. He killed demon Gundomosali in ‘Chatur Yuga’, Thillai Mallaan and Mallosi Vahanan in ‘Nedu Yuga’ and Singha Mugha and Soorapadma in ‘Kretha Yuga’ besides demon Ravan in the fifth Yuga called ‘Thretha Yuga’ when all of them took birth from the flesh pieces of Kroni.

In the sixth of the Yugas called ‘Dwapara Yuga’, Lord Maha Vishnu incarnated as Lord Krishna and attempted to reform Duryodan by way of counselling. When Duryodan refused to take the good advices and waged war, Lord Krishna was left with no option but to side with Pandava brothers to annihilate the evil Duryodan and made Pandava brothers rulers of the land. Lord Krishna realized that the purpose of his incarnation had been completed and decided to return to Srirangam shedding the body of Lord Krishna. In order to end the incarnation, he enacted a drama for his own disappearance by resting in a forest area, when a misunderstood hunter’s arrow pierced through the foot of the Lord, thus making the mortal body fall lifeless. Lord Krishna who was residing inside the body immediately quit the body of illusion and proceeded to his abode in Srirangam.

On way to Srirangam, when he reached the hillside of mountain Arigona, he met seven celestial maidens namely Maragatham, Valle, Valli, Saligai, Sarakathakanni, Sarithai and Arimadavam, all residents of mount Kailaya. The maidens used to come there everyday, played for some time, took bath in the river and collected sacred water in their hands to anoint their Lord Shiva by way of worship. When Lord Maha Vishnu in the form of a mendicant went and stood before them, they gave him way to move, but Lord Maha Vishnu in disguise of a mendicant, asked them to offer worship to him too since they had done enough service to the Lord of braided hair, meaning Lord Shiva. The maidens turned down his request conveying that they cannot even think of offering worship to anyone other than their own eternal Lord sitting on the taurine, let them be anyone- Deva Rishis, Maharishis or even Lord Thirumal, meaning Lord Vishnu without knowing that the mendicant was none but Lord Maha Vishnu in disguise.

Angered by their refusal to offer worship, Lord Maha Vishnu threatened that they would not be able to carry the water from Ganges anymore to anoint their Lord. Immediately he converted the entire surrounding under the grip of unbearable chillness and stood there in the form of a fire after absorbing seven forms of semen from seven worlds of the universe. Unable to bear the extreme cold, the maidens went near the fire and stood around it as if they were hugging the fire. Instantly they lost their modesty, and gave birth to seven children. Since they lost their modesty they could no more collect water to anoint their Lord. Heartbroken celestial maidens felt ashamed that they had lost their chastity and would not be able to collect water to anoint their Lord. Therefore they went to the forest and sat in penance with plea to get married to the same mendicant who outraged their modesty. Lord Maha Vishnu not only named the seven male kids as Sanar, Sandroars, and Nadalvar but further anoint them with 13 such names, left them under the custody of Goddess Bhadra Kali and proceeded to Srirangam where he rested in full purview of the universe. While Lord Maha Vishnu was resting in Srirangam, Lord Shiva converted the last and sixth flesh of slayed Kroni into an asura named Kaliyan who was in fact Duryodan in previous birth. Lord Shiva bestowed several boons to Kaliyan in addition to converting one of the bones taken out from his hip (Kalian’s) into a female embodied with half the powers of Kaliyan and ensured they got wedded. After obtaining several boons from Lord Shiva, when Kaliyan was proceeding to his place, Lord Maha Vishnu in disguise of a Pandara (mendicant), wearing torn clothes, uncouth in appearance with braided hairs, blocked his way demanding that he give away some of the boons he received, lest he would not be allow Kaliyan to continue the journey unless he defeated him (Lord Maha Vishnu in disguise of Pandara) in a fight. Kaliyan shied away to fight with him saying that even women would laugh if he chose to fight a Pandara like him who had no weapons to fight. On insistence from Lord Maha Vishnu, Kaliyan promised on oath that he (Kaliyan) would never ever harm any Pandara or mendicant, and if any Pandara or mendicant was harmed by him (Kaliyan), the entire boons received by him would be lost.
Dear devotees, only to snatch away the powerful boons in possession of Kaliyan alias Kalineesan, the Lord Maha Vishnu appeared in guise of a Pandara and met Kalineesan in the name of ‘Shri Pandara’ so mention Akilathirattu in beautiful tamil ‘yeraniyum maayon ivvulagil thavasu panni kaaranam pola seitha kathai’ meaning the story of the most beautiful and elegant Lord Maha Vishnu who undertook a unique penance for specific reason. The Kaliyan will hereafter be referred as Kalineesan.

Once Kalineesan descended on earth, the entire atmosphere turned from good to worse. The evil forces unleashed intolerance, impiety, wickedness, unrighteousness and impudence all over the universe. Even good animals in the forest sat in penance praying to Lord Maha Vishnu to manifest and re-establish kingdom of righteousness (Dharma) to destroy the evil forces. On the strength of boons, Kalineesan spread hatred amongst people of different castes, kept them divided into many castes, created fiction to rebel against each other for their own selfish interests. Burdening the folks with heavier taxes, he not even spared the sacred thread worn by married female or dry leaves falling from the trees from the purview of taxation. Cows put to starve and influence of Kali pushed people turned to alcoholics. Rogues and criminals exploited the people. Thefts, fear and slovenes increased, gambling and corruption were rampant and murders and killings became order of the day. Sacred texts of ethics and morals (Shastra) tweaked and concocted to suit the rulers resulting in the folks adapting wrong rituals and practices. Maladies of mind and body increased and morality reached the lowest ebb. Folks fell prey to the politics of catechism and opposed one other. The Europeans ruled over the land with divide and rule policy. Humanity and spiritual practices degenerated, chanting of sacred name of Hari stopped. Rulers after rulers were wicked and under the influence of Kaliyan, dumbfounded people with the money power they wielded. At one period of time there were none to counter the influence of Kaliyan who ruled his land for over several thousand years by deceit and firmly established his influence and power throughout the vast land.

One of the Kings of Travancore under the influence of Kalineesan ruled the land oppressing hapless clan called ‘Sandroars’ (highly poor people, oppressed and suppressed by the then rulers, belonging to over eighteen different castes like Nadars, Parathavar, Mukkuvar, Pulaiyar, Izhavas, etc) and Lord Maha Vishnu wanted to reform the ruler, end the misery of those folks under him and therefore proceed to Thiruvananthapuram. On way, he expiated the curses of 55 Brahmarishies, Ekkaala Durgai, wife of one of the Rishis and a Cow who were all in penance seeking intervention of Lord Maha Vishnu who was seated in Thiruvananthapuram in the form of Lord Padmanabha. Lord Maha Vishnu went to the ruler to warn him that if at all he wished his dynasty to continue to rule the land, then he should immediately desist from harassing or oppressing the hapless folks, who were the kins of Goddess Bhadrakali born in the clan of Sandroars. He further advised him to treat them with dignity like any other folks, lest ruin was certain for him and Kingdom which he had inherited would be lost. But the adamant King under the influence of Kali was determined not to change his style of function till he breathed last, no matter what may happen to him and openly displayed his hatred on Sandroars. Infuriated Lord Maha Vishnu cautioned the King that though for the present he was proceeding to Tiruchendur, he would soon come back to unite the folks of all caste, make them love each other, and then destroy the Kingdom of the arrogant ruler. The Lord left Thiruvananthapuram and went to Tiruchendur.

While the oppression and suppression of Sandroars continued in the rule of Kaliyan, those in Celestial world along with Goddess Parvathi met Lord Maha Vishnu and requested him to intervene and save the Sandroars from the oppressor. Realizing that the Kali maya (illusion of Kali) cannot be won over with weapons, Lord Maha Vishnu directed the Celestials, Rishi munis, several other saints and Devaganas residing in divine abodes like Kailash, Vaikund, Swarga log, Siva log, Yama log and other abodes to go and take birth in the clan of Sandroars. Next, when Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi along with Lord Maha Vishnu met the Celestial maidens who were sitting in penance in the forest, Lord Maha Vishnu not only assured them that he would marry them when he incarnated as Lord Vaikundar in Bhoolog, but also return their sons. He directed them to go to Bhoolog, take birth and wait for his incarnation. Thereafter Lord Maha Vishnu also requested Goddess Mahalakshmi go and remain inside the sea radiating golden rays like a huge flame of fire since he was also destined to manifest in Bhoolog to destroy Kaliyan. Heeding to his request Goddess Mahalakshmi too proceeded to Bhoolog and remained seated deep inside the Tiruchendur Sea radiating golden rays around her.