(Pushtimarga): The path Of Grace
Freedom: In Bhaktimarga, Vaishnava can serve ShreeNathJee in any form that pleases the bhakta. Such as, baby, friend, master, lover, servant, God or any other form. Examples are, Mira's Madhav, Yahoda's Lalo, Arjun's friend, Narshinh Mehta's Shamariyo sheth and Shabri's Ram.
God is the ultimate: Any form one worships, Krishna has to be ultimate shelter and superpower for the Bhakta. In sloka seven of "Navratnam", Jagadguru Shree Vallabhacharya has clearly advised that Vaishnava should worship ShreeJee under the roof of Gurus's blessings, but if the God's wish (God telling Bhakta in dream or by giving darshan or according to bhakta's knowledge) is not same as Guru's order, Vaishnava must follow the God's signal and thus Vaishnava would not break any rules of Guruhakti. Int this way, Bhaktimarga is different than many other religions where God is seen as much closer to the Gurus than to the bhaktas.
The beauty of Pushtimarga: In Bhaktimarga, Vaishnava does not need to turn away from the responsibilities of family or society. There is no need to leave house and search for the God when He resides in one's home. There are millions of vaishnavas in India and all over the world, who are performing "seva" in there house everyday and also are responsible to the family and/or society. Even in the busy life of America, many vaishnavas do seva in the morning and then go to work or school. Because this is done privately at most places, it is hard to find million dollar temples in every cities.
What Vaishnavas are doing: To serve Krishna and enjoy the life as a gift from the God. Generally, Vaishnavas life looks a materialistic life style because it has no showoffs as a worshipper. A vaishnava performs seva every morning (Many vaishnavas do this all day, but let's take general case). In the seva, he/she prays ShreeJeeBawa, Yamunamaiya and Vallabh prabhu as directed by his/her Guru. No show offs here, pretty much personal or family based activity. After seva, he/she gets busy in daily activities. During such activities, vaishnava does not forget the lord. To see everything as Murlidhar's wish, not to see negative of vaishnavas, to sing Bhajan/kirtan (Can also sing pop song with remembering the Lord) periodically and help others are the characteristics of vaishnavas. Many Vaishnavas do "satsang" or go to the temple (if available, otherwise temple is already in our heart and home anyway) every evening. Means some bhajan/kirtan and some talks about the Lord.
How to do it:
1. Decide which form of Krishna you would like. You can change later if you want. Pick the form which is dearest to you. Krishna's every form is dearest, but picking the one that is dearest to you can make bhakti easier.
2. Receive "Brahmasambandha" (initiation) from the Gurus of Vallabhkul so that one can get better feedback to serve the God. Get your God's idol or picture "Pushti" by Guru. This means Guru requests the God to stay in that idol or picture and communicate with Bhaktos. Getting Pusti is a very responsible job. After this it is very important that Bhakta really serves ShreeJee nicely and regularly. For instance, if Krisna's baby form is picked, vaishnava must take care of that idol or picture as own baby and thus serve baby nicely and regularly. Thus for fast paced life styler or beginner Bhaktas, Pushti is not preferred.
3. Worship that form same way as you would treat that person in real life. For example, if you picked Krishna as "lover", make sure you keep giving Him love because we give love to our beloved. Love should be given without expectation. For master form, one should acept everything as ShreeNathJee's desire and never argue for having unhappiness. Of course, we want to worship all the forms, but setting up the form picked in step 1 in our house can make "Seva" easier. Ultimately, God is only one, so if your family has different form, it should not matter to anyone's understanding. Serving Krishna as described by Vallabhkul Balakos (Mahaprabhu Shree Vallabhavharyaji's descendants) is preferred because it makes things easy. But as shree Vallabh has showed, just keep common sense in it. For instance, If you are feeling cold, most likely you Lalo is also feeling the same so have Him a good minisweater or so. Don't get trapped into seva as a routine work, but enjoy it.
Easy: Bhaktimarga, also called Pushtimarga by vaishnavas is easy way to attain Krishna. Not only Vaishnavas but many great spiritual leaders have sugggested thdevotees to worship their respected Lord as shown by Mahaprabhuji and Gusaiji.
