Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Shri Krishna Chaitanya, also known as Gauranga, was a 16th century saint born in Nabadwip, West Bengal. He is known for his mode of worshiping Krishna through ecstatic song and dance, which had a profound impact on Vaishnavism in Bengal.

Religious Transformation

At 22, Chaitanya made a pilgrimage to Gaya to perform his father’s Shraddh. There, he underwent a profound religious experience that transformed his outlook and personality. He returned to Nabadwip completely indifferent to all worldly concerns.

Congregational Worship

A group of devotees soon gathered around Chaitanya and joined him in congregational worship called kirtan. Kirtan involves choral singing of the name and deeds of God, often accompanied by dance movements and culminating in states of trance.

Bhakti as the Supreme Religious Practice

For Chaitanya, the legends of Krishna and Radha symbolized the highest expression of mutual love between God and the human soul. Bhakti (devotion) was conceived as complete self-surrender to the divine will and superseded all other forms of religious practice.

The Gaudiya Sampradaya

Although Chaitanya himself did not write any works on theology or religious practices, his selection of and charges to core disciples gave birth to a major Vaishnava sect, called the Chaitanya Sampradaya or Gaudiya Sampradaya. The Gaudiya Sampradaya is an intensely emotional form of Hinduism that flourished mainly in Bengal and eastern Odisha. It started in Nabadwip and spread, with a theology being developed by Chaitanya’s disciples known as the six gosvamins.

The Six Gosvamins

The six gosvamins were a group of scholars who defined the tenets of the Chaitanya Movement and its ritual practices. They worked out a voluminous religious and devotional literature in Sanskrit and reestablished the pilgrimage sites of Vrindavan and Mathura.

Worship as an Incarnation of Krishna

Although Chaitanya appears to have been worshipped as an incarnation of Krishna during his lifetime, the theory of his dual incarnation as Krishna and Radha in one body was developed only later by Bengali religious writers.

Successors and Disciples

The present leaders of the sect are (with some exceptions) the descendants of Chaitanya’s early disciples and companions. The ascetics are known as vairagins and include the late A. C. Bhaktivedanta, known as Swami Prabhupada, who founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the “Hare Krishnas”.