VAISHNAVISM -1

Lord Narayana is present in five forms. They are 1. param 2.vyuham 3.vibhavam 4.antharyami and 5.archavataram .Param is how HE is in paramapadam ,vyuham in thiruparkadal[sheerapthi],vibhavam in the 10 avatara forms. Even after taking 9 avataras the lord was NOT successful in correcting the souls of man.Of them the archavataram is very popular and apt for this kali yuga. This is how OUR Lord is present in the temples . Lord narayana is in thousands of temples worldover.Of these temples there are 106 in this material world ,which are called Divyadesams .There are two more divyadesams which cannot be seen by us with this karmic body .Those two are Thiruparkadal and Sri vaikuntam . The 106 divyadesams are spread out all over TAMILNADU( 84 ) , KERALA(11) , ANDHRAPRADESH (2),GUJARAT(1), UTTARPRADESH(7) and NEPAL(1).Desam means a place and divya means sanctity. These temples get their sanctity as lord narayana in these places was sung upon by the alwars .The divine poems which have been set to particular ragaas and regularly sung during sathumurai are called as ARULICHEYAL.Cheyal means an 'act' and Arul means the 'blessing of god' . The songs emanating by the grace of god is arulicheyal.
The alwars are considered to be ten or twelve .They are (NOT WERE) 1. POIGAIAZHWAR [100]2.BOOTHTHAZHWAR[100] 3.PEIAZHWAR[100] 4.THIRUMAZHISAIAZHWAR[216] 5.NAMMAZHWAR[1296] 6.KULASEKHARAAZHWAR[105] 7.PERIAZHWAR [473]8.ANDAL[173] 9.THONDRADIPODIAZHWAR[55] 10.THIRUPANAZHWAR[10] 11.THIRUMANGAIAZHWAR[1253] 12.MADURAKAVIAZHWAR[11].The azhwars were born in 1.thiruvekka[kanchi],2.mahabalipuram,3.mylapore,4. thirumazhisai,5.thirunagari6.thiruvanjikalam 7.srivilliputhur 8.srivilliputhur 9.thirumandangudi 10.uraiyur 11.thirunagari 12.thirukollur respectively .The azhwars are also called as TAMIL MUNIS.The alwars were sent by Narayana to improve the lot of us men.The alwars never were successful and did not take upon the people to correct. They are actually the different inseparables of god like the gadha ,shanka, swoord , kaustubh ,viswaksena, bhooma devi, sri vatsam,sarngam etc.The azhwars belonged to different castes , showing that god treats everybody equally.
The poems of the azhwars are about 4000 . They are called as the divya prabhandam and nalayira divyaprabhandam [nalayiram neans 4000]. Vaishnavism is also called UBHAYA VEDANTA .There is no philosophy in the world which is not covered in this nalayiram.
The above are basic ,easy tidbits about vaishnavism . let us remember these minor details of our religion and pass it on ........................ADIYEN