Sri Sadhu Om wrote in his preface to Guru Vācaka Kōvai (The Series of Guru’s Sayings) that Upadēśa Undiyār, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu and Guru Vācaka Kōvai are the true Śrī Ramaṇa Prasthāna-traya, the triple canon of Bhagavan’s revelation.

  And all these three great works owe their existence primarily to the inspired poetic and spiritual genius, Sri Muruganar, the foremost disciple of Bhagavan Ramana.

 

It was Sri Muruganar who earnestly beseeched Bhagavan to write in a few Tamil verses the upadēśa (teachings) given by Lord Siva to the ṛṣis (sages) in the Daruka forest, who had been led astray from the path to liberation by following the path of kāmya karmas prescribed in the Purva Mīmāṁsā. Bhagavan’s composition of thirty verses, in response to Muruganar’s request, constitutes Upadēśa Undiyār.

 

It was again Sri Muruganar who elicited Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu by praying to Sri Bhagavan, ‘Graciously reveal to us the nature of reality and the means of attaining it so that we may be saved.’

 

Whereas Upadēśa Undiyār and Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu consist entirely of stanzas composed by Sri Bhagavan, Guru Vācaka Kōvai — the treasure-house of Sri Bhagavan’s sayings collected and strung together as a garland of Tamil verses — consists mostly of stanzas composed by Sri Muruganar. Of the 1282 stanzas, 1255 were composed by Sri Muruganar and only 28 by Sri Bhagavan.

 

However, each of the stanzas composed by Sri Muruganar embodies one of the actual sayings of Sri Bhagavan, and all of them were shown to Sri Bhagavan, who approved them and wherever necessary corrected them. Thus each stanza of Guru Vācaka Kōvai presents in a well-wrought and finely polished setting a pearl that fell from Sri Bhagavan’s lips, and the whole work forms a systematic and detailed exposition of his teachings and carries his imprimatur.

 

Upadēśa Undiyār Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Guru Vācaka Kōvai