Inclusiveness and Exclusivity in Ayyavazhi - View On Gods

View On Gods

Ayyavazhi accepts all God heads of several religions such as the concept of Allah and almost all God-heads in Hinduism. The Vaishnavite concept of Maha Vishnu is often referred to in Ayyavazhi scriptures. It also includes the avatars of Narasimha, Rama, Krishna etc. Also, many quotes in Akilam give space for glorifying the activities and discussions of Vishnu. More over Vaikundar is said to be son of Narayana. The Saivite concept of Parasiva, The Trimurthi conception, all found place here. It also says thet Siva is the supreme head of all the Deva Sanga. It also includes many events about the Tamil God Muruga. But unlike in Hinduism, Muruga is considered as one among the six primary Avatars of Vishnu. Akilam call Vaikundar as 'Thanumal Vethan', which means Vaikundar himself is Siva Vishnu and Brahma. In midst of the meta-narrative mythography it also refers to Ganapathi, Indra, Varuna, Vayu, etc. It too refers to female god-heads such as Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Parvati, Kali, Saptha Kannis, etc. All the God-heads are treated with similar powers as referred in Hindu scriptures. All this divine powers (god-heads) are viewed as the lesser manifetation of one and supreme power Ekam.

But due to the advent of Kaliyan and because of the cruel nature of his boons, for the first time the supreme God or the 'God beyond Consciousness' (Ekan) incarnates in the world as Vaikundar and so all the God-heads were surrendered to Vaikundar and all the previous scriptures had lost their substances. And so for the Kaliyukam, Vaikundar was said to be the only worshippable God and hence, the theology of Ayyavazhi was channeled towards exclusivism.

Apart from this it also refers to some God-heads from Abrahamic traditions. It says that Narayana, who is one among the three power-head in Ayyavazhi Trinity was the one who incarnates as Christ. Quotes from Akilam and Arul Nool refers to the Islamic conception of 'Allah', also.

By all these, Akilam reveals an inclusive character of God. It don't rejects any religion's views on focussing the God. A quote in Akilam refers Vaikundar as, "You moves around the world in various forms". So, it says that one and the single god is worshipped in different names all over the world.