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:
“I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“Of all reformers Mr. Sentiment is the most powerful. It is incredible the number of evil practices he has put down: it is to be feared he will soon lack subjects, and that when he has made the working classes comfortable, and got bitter beer into proper-sized pint bottles, there will be nothing left for him to do.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“The words of the Constitution ... are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.”
—Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965)