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The Philosophy of Vallabha
[CH. attachment to worldly things stands in the way of extension of God's grace; it can be removed by abnegating the fruits of karma. The emancipation that has been spoken of before as a result of bhakti is to be interpreted as the three-fold Sevāphala, superior, middling and inferior, viz., a-laukika-sāmarthya (uttama-sevāphala), sãyujya (madhyama-sevāphala) and bhajanopayogi deha (adhama-serā-phala)'.
Topics of Vallabha Vedānta as explained
by Vallabha's followers. A number of papers, which deserve some notice, were written by the followers of Vallabha on the various topics of the Vedānta. According to the Bhāgavata-purāņa (111. 7, 10-11), as interpreted by Vallabha in his Subodhini, error is regarded as wrong attribution of a quality or character to an entity to which it does not belong2. Taking his cue from Vallabha, Bālakṣsna Bhatta (otherwise called Dallū Bhatta) tries to evolve a philosophic theory of illusion according to the Vallabha school. He says that in the first instance there is a contact of the eye (as associated with the manas) with the conch-shell, and thereby there arises an indeterminate knowledge (sāmānyajñāna), which is prior to doubt and other specific cognitions; this indeterminate cognition rouses the sattvaguna of the buddhi and thereby produces right knowledge. It is therefore said in the Sarvanirnaya that buddhi as associated with sattva is to be regarded as pramāna. In the Bhāgavata (11. 26. 30) doubt, error, definite knowledge, memory and dream are regarded as states of buddhi; so the defining character of cognition is to be regarded as a function of buddhi. Thus it is the manas and the senses that produce indeterminate knowledge, which later on becomes differentiated through the function of buddhi. When through the tamas quality of māyā the buddhi is obscured, the conch-shell with which the senses are in contact is not perceived; the buddhi, thus obscured, produces the notion of silver by its past impression of silver, roused by the shining characteristic of the conch-shell, which is similar to
1 bhakti-märge sevāyā uttama-madhyama-sādhāraņādhikārakramena etat phala-trayam eva, no mokşādih. Hariraja's commentary on Sevāphala, sloka 6.
2 yathā jale candramasah pratibimbitasya tena jalena krto gunaḥ kampādidharmah asanno vidyamano mithyaiva drsyate na vastutaścandrasya evam anātmano dehader dharmo janma-bandha-duhkhādirupo drastur ätmano jīvasya na išvarasya. Subodhini, 111. 7. 11.
