Ayyavazhi - Relation With Hinduism

Relation With Hinduism

The Hindu and Ayyavazhi ideologies are closely tied to each other. The place where Ayyavazhi and Hinduism depart from each other is at the advent of Kali Yuga. Akilam says that until Kali Yuga, the Vedas and all other Hindu scriptures remain with divinity. Each of the gods referred to in scriptures (Hindu) also remain with all their powers. But from the beginning of Kali Yuga, they and all their virtues collapsed. Kaliyan was a part of the mundane primordial manifestation who spread maya or illusion upon the existing scriptures and Devas. In Kali Yuga, all true scriptures are bound to maya and are unhelpful.

The reason, as stated in Akilam for the disintegration of the entire system is that, towards the end of Dwapara Yuga there in Kailash, Siva believing the words of devas, created Kaliyan without discussing to Vishnu, he who had the responsibility to destroy the Kaliyan as per the previous deeds. So Vishnu refused to take birth in the world to destroy Kaliyan. So Siva and Brahma surrendered all their powers to Vishnu. Until this event, Siva was the supreme power as per Akilam. It is notable that this is a theological idea something similar to Shaivism, where Siva is supreme to all. Now onwards, however, Vishnu is the supreme power. Here the ideology changes similar to that of Vaishnavism. This supremacy of Vishnu remains like this from the beginning of Kali Yuga until the incarnation of Vaikundar, from where it changes further.

During the incarnation, Vishnu himself can not incarnate directly in the world to destroy Kaliyan, since he (Kaliyan) had bought as boon the power of Devas, including Vishnu's, and spread it all over the world as maya. So God needs to be incarnated with a new set of rules and with unique importance. A total universal transformation of the power relation of god-heads, the rules of scriptures, the dharma, etc., took place, and Vaikundar was given birth by taking in the power of Ekam, by Lakshmi and Vishnu conjoining together inside the sea.

And from now onwards all the powers were handled over from Vishnu to Vaikundar inside the sea. Siva, Vishnu and Brahma therefore form a part within Vaikundar. This ideology about Trimurthi (three are equal in power) is similar to that of Smartism. Vishnu alone forms a double role; one, within Vaikundar, and the other, as the father of him, remain inside the sea and regulating Vaikundar through Vinchais. After Vaikundar was given birth to, by assuming the Power of Ekam, Vaikundar was supreme to Vishnu and all other God-heads, though Vishnu playing the role of Father to Vaikundar. However, Vaikundar had to obey the order of Vishnu, since Vaikundar was given birth to perform the duties of Vishnu, which he (Vishnu) could not do. Vaikundar (and scriptures given by him) is the manifestation of the supreme Ekam so, in Ayyavazhi spirituality, he is the only worshippable universal power

Regarding scriptures, the first part of Akilam is summed-up events of the previous yugas, which are present in Hindu scriptures. The second part says about the universal transformation and the uniqueness of Vaikundar and his incarnational activities. So as a summary, till the beginning of Kali yuga, what is Hinduism, that is Ayyavazhi. From then onwards for a series of reasons, Akilam says that 'Hindu' scriptures and its ideology had lost its purity and was destroyed, and so the Dharma was re-configured in the name of Akilam and Vaikundar and the 'Hindu' ideas were re-formed.

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