Vadagalai

One of the two main subsects in the
Shrivaishnava religious community, the
other being the Tengalai. The Shrivaishnavas are devotees (bhakta) of the
god Vishnu, and the community’s roots
lie in the devotional hymns of the
Alvars, a group of twelve poet-saints
who lived in southern India between
the seventh and tenth centuries. Two
centuries later, the Alvars’ devotional
outpouring was organized and systematized by the philosopher Ramanuja
(11th c.), who is considered the
Shrivaishnava founder. Ramanuja was
convinced that Brahman, or Supreme
Reality, was a personal deity rather than
an impersonal abstract principle, and he
was also convinced that devotion
(bhakti) was the most important form of
religious practice. Vishishthadvaita
Vedanta, his philosophical position,
stressed both of these convictions and
thus opposed the Advaita Vedanta
school, founded by the philosopher
Shankaracharya, which believed that
the Supreme Being was impersonal and
that realization (jnana) was the best
spiritual path.
The split between the Tengalais and
the Vadagalais came several centuries
later and stemmed from differing perspectives on what the individual must
do to gain final liberation of the soul
(moksha). The Vadagalais not only
stress the saving power of God’s grace,
but also assert that the individual must
respond to that grace and take an active
role in his or her salvation. This belief is
in complete contrast to the Tengalais,
who emphasize the need for absolute
surrender (prapatti) to the grace of God,
through which devotees are saved with
no action of their own.