If Vaishnavism is so popular and wide spread in India, the credit must go to Sri Ramanuja, who took advantage of the ecstatic outpouring of the south Indian mystics, the Alvars, and produced a highly logical philosophy of knowledge soaked in devotion as the easiest means of God-realization.
The greatest help to spiritual life is meditation. In meditation we divest ourselves of all material conditions and feel our divine nature. We do not depend upon any external help in meditation.
-Swami Vivekananda