UNIVERSAL CHARACTER OF VALLABHACHARYA’S RELIGION
Prof. George Gallowany in his Philosophy of Religion classifies the religions of the world as under: (1) The Tribal Religion (2) The National Religion and (3) The Universal Religion. He mentions their specific features and points out their defects. Pusti Marg, on account of its liberality and sympathetic attitude to all the races and admission to it the people of any race, it is the Universal Religion.
Following are some of the features of PustiMarg’s universality:
(1) It admits all men and women, irrespective of class or rank to religious life without discrimination.
(2) It is the religion of love for God and for all the creatures of God.
(3) It does not believe merely in the externals or the ceremonials. It is mainly the religion of the heart.
(4) It does not believe in propagation or proselytisation.
(5) It teaches that all beings are forms of God and therefore, one must love all and hate none. Even an enemy should be respected and loved.
(6) It teaches tolerance towards those who differ from us even though they hate us bitterly.
(7) It teaches to love women and treat women, not only as equals, but in devotional life as superior to men.
(8) It does not require the devotee to give up life of a house holder and turn a recluse. He may stay in the world and experience God through service and love.
(9) It does not denounce property, but it says that it should be regarded not as personal property, but as held by one in trust as God’s property i.e. the idea of Trusteeship.
These are some of the features of Vallabhacharya’s religion which are worthy of acceptance universally. The gist of Vallabhacharya’s religious teaching is that the goal of life is soul’s participation in the Divine Bliss; which is higher than the spiritual bliss or liberation. This devotion is not opposed to work or action and knowledge. On the contrary, it assimilates into its structure their elements-action for God expressed through divine service and knowledge of God in the form of Anand or Bliss. This devotion is spontaneous flow of the heart, which in the beginning is only very meager, but in the course of time reaches the climax, when the soul of the devotee sees God, face to face, and God lovingly accepts it as His own, embraces it as His beloved and gives it the bliss of perfect union, from which there is no return to the world. It is an eternal state of enjoyment of the Divine Bliss. This is the essence of the Pusti- Marg.
The welknown Gujarati poet Nanalal pays homage in the following words in his Vaishnavi Shodash Granth: " In the history of the world, the contribution of the Vallabh dynasty continuing over a period of five hundred years, is rare and unparalleled...It will be a matter of great joy to learn if any other dynasty dating over five hundred years in Europe, in America, in Africa, may on the surface of the earth, has contributed, both qualitatively and quantitatively towards the philosophical literature, as has been done by the Vallabh dynasty.
(Abridged by Navnit C. Shah from J. G. Shah’s work, "SHRI VALLABHACHARYA -His Philosophy and Religion")
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