Within the Sri Vaishnava tradition shaped by Ramanuja, devotion to Vishnu—understood as the Supreme Brahman and ultimate reality—stands at the very heart of spiritual life. Vishnu is regarded as the creator, sustainer, and source of all existence, while individual souls are eternally dependent on him and exist to serve him. Devotion (bhakti) is therefore not a peripheral practice but the appropriate response to the true nature of reality, in which all beings and the material world are related to Vishnu as to their ground and support. This devotion is grounded in knowledge of Vishnu’s nature and qualities, and it is cultivated through study of scriptures and the hymns of the Alvars, recitation of his names, and participation in temple worship and ritual.

Such devotion is held to be the primary and most effective means to liberation from the cycle of birth and death. In this vision, bhakti is superior to ritual action or knowledge taken in isolation, because it unites right understanding with loving contemplation and surrender. The devotee entrusts everything to Vishnu through prapatti or saranagati, acknowledging complete dependence and the limits of individual effort. This surrender is not passive resignation but a conscious orientation of the whole being toward service of the divine, expressed in humility, ethical conduct, and disciplined remembrance of Vishnu’s forms and names.

The decisive factor in liberation is understood to be Vishnu’s grace, which responds to and perfects the devotee’s effort. Devotion purifies the heart and disposes it to receive this grace, yet the final attainment is seen as a gift from a compassionate Lord rather than an achievement of personal merit. Through this interplay of devotion and grace, the soul becomes fit for entry into Vishnu’s abode, Vaikuntha, where it enjoys eternal loving service while retaining its distinct identity. In this way, devotion to Vishnu in Sri Vaishnavism is both the path and the goal: a life of surrendered love that culminates in unending communion with the Supreme.