Vallabh sect

Pushti marg ("the Path of Grace") is a Vaishnav sect of the Hinduism, founded by Vallabhacharya (also known as Mahaprabhuji) around 1500 AD.

Vallabhacharya is one of the six main Acharyas of the Bhakti tradition of Hinduism. (The other five being Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya, Shri Nimbarkacharya and Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.) He propagated the philosophy of Shuddhadvaita which forms the basis of Pushtimarg devotional practice. These acharyas have made significant contribution to the bhakti movement and led to the medieval rise in popularity of the Hindu Religion. The devotional movement is based on the idea that love of God should be seen as an end in itself, not as a means to something else.

Vallabhacharya was born into a Telugu Brahmin family in South India, now in Andhra Pradesh. His ancestors had a religious background and includes scholars like Yagnanarayan Bhatt and Ganapati Bhatt. They wrote several books on religion and devotion. Vallabhacharya was the second son of Lakshman Bhatt and Yallammagaru. Their ancestors had performed several Soma-yagnas and Shri Lakshman Bhatt completed 100 Somyagnas. Yagnanarayan was blessed by Lord Vishnu, that on completion of 100 Soma-yagnas, God himself would incarnate in his family.

Thus when 100 Soma-yagnas were complete, Lakshman Bhatt went to Kashi to accomplish his vow of feeding 125,000 Brahmins. He could not complete this task as there were political disturbances in Kashi. He took his pregnant wife Yallammagaru and on his way southwards he halted at a place called Champaranya. There, his wife gave birth to a still baby which they kept under a tree and proceeded ahead. On the same night Lakshman Bhatt heard a celestial voice ordering him to go back to the baby and pick it up as it was misunderstood to be a still born. On reaching the spot where they had kept the baby, they found the baby encircled by a divine fire as a protecting spirit.

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