Shree Yadunathji Utsav
What it is
Shri Yadunathji was the sixth son of Shri Gusaiji (Vitthalnathji), the son of Shri Mahaprabhuji Vallabhacharya, and one of the seven brothers among whom Shri Gusaiji divided the Satghara — the seven principal svarups of Pushtimarg — establishing the seven lineages that still carry Pushtimarg seva forward today. Shri Yadunathji's devotion drew him particularly to the svarup of Shri Kalyanraiji Prabhu, whose seva he performed from childhood and later inherited as his own gadi.
He was also a scholar: his Sanskrit work Shri Vallabhadigvijaya, written at Chandod, is considered the earliest biographical text on Shri Mahaprabhuji, and he composed a number of stotras alongside it.
Why we observe it
Each of the Satghara brothers carried a piece of what Shri Gusaiji built, and Shri Yadunathji's particular gift to the sampradaya was scholarship alongside seva: preserving, in Shri Vallabhadigvijaya, the earliest written record of Shri Mahaprabhuji's own life for every Vaishnav who came after. His utsav honours both halves of that inheritance, seva of Shri Kalyanraiji Prabhu and the written word that keeps the founder's story alive.
A Vaishnav can take from Shri Yadunathji's day the reminder that devotion in Pushtimarg has always had more than one shape: the daily seva of a svarup, and the quieter, equally devoted work of setting that seva's history down so it is not lost.