[Advaita-l] Quarrel between Two 'Kalai' followers of Srivaishnavism

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

PraNAms
Coming from a vadahalai tradition and married to tangalai lady, I must say our disagreements are not related to these philosophical positions, but more to related to mandane habitual operations unrelated to the philosophy. There is no point in watching these vidoes sited as one can not learn anything from these other than the fact that individual upbringings cloud the pursuit of the fundamental truth.
My father was a great teacher of Vishishtaadvaita when he was alive and considered that I got side tracked in following advaita. He was offered the Parakala mathaadipati position but my mother, I was told, did not accept since that requires taking sanyaasa. Nevertheless, he has written extensively on vishishtaadvaita and several of his books were published by the TTD. We are still in the process of publishing some of his unpublished works. 
The differences between the two - tengalai vs vadahalai are minor - more in terms of sharagati or how to surrender to the Lord and in the role of mahalakshmi. 
The famous marjalanyaaya (cat philosophy) and markataka nyaaya  (the monkey philosophy comes to mind in explaining the sharanaagati. The vadahalai philosophy insists that the surrender is like the kitten surrendering to her mother - It becomes the mother-cat's responsibility to project the kitten. It holds it neck and carries to safer position. In the case of baby-monkey - it is the baby's responsibility to hold on the mother as the mother jumps from one branch to the other. 
I found both aspects are involved - you have to hold on to Him until He takes over. He will take over only when you give your ego to hold on - the example they quote is Krishna did not come to rescue Droupadi until she stopped holding to her saree as Dussaasana was trying to strip her. When she gave up and lifted both hands in prayer to the Lord - He came to rescue her. Same story in terms of Gajendra moksha - the elephant gave up the struggle to save itself. 
The other difference is related to the role of Lakshmi - through via Lakshmi (BMI) only one can approach the Lord. It is said that mother is more compassionate and tolerates the dirt of the child. She cleans the child, dresses the child properly and then takes the child to the father for his approval. The two philosophies differ slightly in terms of the role of Lakshmi in that. As per advatia via a reflection (chidaabhaasa) only one can recognize the all-pervading consciousness. The mind and chidaabhaasa form the Laksmi (part of Prakriti) needed to recognize the Lord within. 
If one understands these philosophical positions correctly, then there is no problem.
Emotional aspects come in when one gives more importance to the superficial differences without understanding the substantial truth. This happens in the adviata too. 
Just my 2c
Hari Om!Sadananda


   On Saturday, June 9, 2018, 1:28:56 AM EDT, S Venkatraman via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote: 
 
 Namaste Subrahmanyanji,

I will certainly watch the videos. But before doing that I thought it will
be useful to have some understanding of the Philosophical or other
differences between the two sects. Can you point me to some source which
explains these differences? Many thanks and regards,

Venkat

On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 8:32 AM, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> When the Ramanuja followers celebrated the 1000 years of his advent just
> last year, there are two main groups of his following continuing their
> bickering to this day.
>
>
> Sri Kanchi varadaraja swami temple Nammazhwar saatrumurai quarrels between
> thenkalai and vadakalai vaishnavas May 29, 2018
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9IQT7Acb2o
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXyVkn1y4w0
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cokd8zfjZTU
>
> There were fist-fights, pushing, wordy duels, cursing, etc.
>
> A friend said that this is an annual feature during the Nammazhwar festival
> in the Kanchi Varadarajaswamy temple, the other several  unsettled burning
> issues between the two sects notwithstanding.
>
> A question arises as to the philosophy-religion dichotomy. Whether
> philosophy could be kept completely out of religion or can the two coexist.
>
> regards
> subrahmanian.v
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