The Alvars were the earliest saint-poets in the country, who propagated the glory of Sriman Narayana through their soul- stirring pasurams. According to modern scholars they flourished between seventh and ninth century A. D.
As the name Alvar implies, they were immersed in their ecstatic experiences of Lord Krishna and they celebrated the Lord's abundant grace end majestic power in their outpourings of devotion, aptly called "Aruliceyal'. These hymns were collected in a corpus of four thousand verses by Acharya Nathamuni, known as Nalayira Divya Prabandham. These God-realised souls who are twelve in number, emphasised the need for prapatti or surrender to the Lord.
The present work written by Sri Raghavaiah is a detailed study of the Alvars' contribution to Bhakthi literature, basing on Sri Vaishnavism. Our efforts will be amply rewarded if this publication helps the readers take to a serious study of the works of the Alvars.
It is common and traditional with most men of letters and writers to ascribe unbelievable mysteries and miracles to the sacred stories of great and wise sages of pious and devotional eminence. Here in this book on the Twelve Alvars' biographies and philosophies, the readers find not any aspect or account away from truth, reality and nature.
The true and divine messages, that Vishnu, the universal lording force or energy is omnipresent and omnipotent, that the spirit of selflessness alone leads to happiness and deliverance from sin, and that the emotional feeling of oneness with nature and creation is the divine experience of perfect bliss, are stressed through the pure lives of the Alwars narrated sentiments receive with acceptance and satisfaction the contents of this book.
Care has been taken by me to render the contents of the book in an easy and flexible style: but it has become inevitably necessary to use certain technical terms of philosophic import and certain Sanskrit words and terms for appropriateness to convey the correct and exact sense. Care has been taken to see that the matter is driven home to the minds of the readers in proper understanding way or style.
The pictures published in the book at the outset are appropriately related to each other and one another from the stand point of the philosophic guidance they are meant to afford the readers.
This book is an English version of the Telugu Alvarula Divya Vaibhavamu, which has already been published by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. This is done for the benefit of a wider range of readers, beyond Telugu knowing population, belonging to all the regions of Bharath and abroad. The aim of the author is to reveal to the world the truth and universalism of Hinduism-Surrender-Selflessness-Service, the substance of Alvars' way of life.
As my parents, Thiruvayipatti Thiruvengadaiah and Lakshmamma, had been devoted to Tirumala Sri Venkateswara all their life, I feel it proper to dedicate this book to Sri Venkateswara ofTirumala and to give away full- free and unconditional copy rights to T. T. Devasthanams, as I did in the case of Telugu Alvarula Divya Vaibhavamu. .
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