Religious Practices and Tradition
The Vadakalais being staunch followers of the Sanskrit Vedas, always championed the cause of purity of the vedic tenets. Traditionally, every day starts around 4 a.m as per Ushah Kāla Dharma. There are mantras to be recited on every occasion, invoking the grace of God at every stage – ablutions, etc. Performance of Sandhyavandanam three times a day(morning twilight, evening twilight and noon), is of absolute necessity. The most important daily duty is the Aradhana or Ijya, either with a shaligrama or a small idol. After that, Vaiswadeva and Pancha -Maha Yajnas(including brahma yajna) are to be performed. Special charts, namely Vyajanakara and Chakrakara are used in regard to the oblations offered in Vaiswadeva Yajnas.
The Vadakalai Iyengars firmly believe in practising Karma yoga, Jnana yoga and Bhakti yoga along with Prapatti, as means to attain salvation. The Vadakalai Guru Shri Vedanta Desika emphasises the practise of the three yogas in his work Rahasya Trayasarah, where he describes Karma and Jnana yogas to be pre-requisites of Bhakti yoga.
The sect rigorously follows the set of rules prescribed by the Manusmriti and other Dharma Shastras.
Read more about this topic: Vadakalai
Famous quotes containing the words religious, practices and/or tradition:
“Yet the New Testament treats of man and man’s so-called spiritual affairs too exclusively, and is too constantly moral and personal, to alone content me, who am not interested solely in man’s religious or moral nature, or in man even.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Such is the art of writing as Dreiser understands it and practices it—an endless piling up of minutiae, an almost ferocious tracking down of ions, electrons and molecules, an unshakable determination to tell it all. One is amazed by the mole-like diligence of the man, and no less by his exasperating disregard for the ease of his readers.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“The instincts of merry England lingered on here with exceptional vitality, and the symbolic customs which tradition has attached to each season of the year were yet a reality on Egdon. Indeed, the impulses of all such outlandish hamlets are pagan still: in these spots homage to nature, self-adoration, frantic gaieties, fragments of Teutonic rites to divinities whose names are forgotten, seem in some way or other to have survived mediaeval doctrine.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)