Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Wooden murti of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as Dhāmeśvara, Nabadwip[1]
Personal life
BornVishvambhara Mishra
(1486-02-28)28 February 1486
Nabadwip, Bengal Sultanate
(present-day West Bengal, India)
Died14 June 1534(1534-06-14) (aged 48)
Puri, Gajapati Empire
(present-day Odisha, India)
SpouseLakshmi Priya (first wife) and Vishnupriya
Known forExpounded Gaudiya Vaishnavism, kirtan
Religious life
ReligionHinduism
Founder ofGaudiya Vaishnavism
Achintya Bheda Abheda
PhilosophyBhakti yoga, Achintya Bheda Abheda
Religious career
GuruSwami Isvara Puri (mantra guru); Swami Kesava Bharati (sannyas guru)
Disciples
  • Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, Gopala Bhatta Goswami, Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami, Raghunatha dasa Goswami, Jiva Goswami, others

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Bengali: মহাপ্রভু শ্রীচৈতন্য দেব; Sanskrit: चैतन्य महाप्रभु, romanized: Caitanya Mahāprabhu), born Vishvambhara Mishra (IAST: Viśvambhara Miśra[2]) (28 February 1486 – 14 June 1534[3]), was an Indian Hindu saint from Bengal and the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mode of worshipping Krishna with bhajan-kirtan and dance influenced Vaishnavism in Bengal.

He is considered the chief proponent of the Vedantic philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda. The concept of inconceivable difference in non-difference, known as achintya-bhedabheda, was explained later by Jiva Goswami in his book Bhagavat Sandharbha,[4] and in his Sarva-samvadini.[5][6]

Mahaprabhu founded Gaudiya Vaishnavism. He expounded Bhakti yoga and popularised the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra.[7] He composed the Shikshashtakam (eight devotional prayers).

Chaitanya is sometimes called Gauranga (IAST: Gaurāṅga) or Gaura due to his molten gold–like complexion.[8] His birthday is celebrated as Gaura-purnima.[9][10] He is also called Nimai because he was born underneath a Neem tree.[11]

Life

The religious hagiographies of Gauḍīya sampradāya are the only sources available for the reconstruction of Caitanya's life. These texts (in Sanskrit and Bengali), consider Caitanya to be an avatāra of Kr̥ṣṇa, Svayaṁ Bhagavān, Rādhā-Kr̥ṣṇa (joint and separate), Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, and Jagannātha. A canonical narrative was established in early 1600s through the Caitanya Caritāmr̥ta of Kr̥ṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, which is regarded within the tradition as the "final word" on Gauḍīya history and theology.[12]

Chaitanya was born in a Brahmin family as Viśvambhara Miśra aka Nimāi, the second son of Jagannātha Miśra and his wife Śacī Devī, the daughter of Nilambara Chakrabarti, both Brahmins of Sylhet region.[2] Jagannātha Miśra's family were from the village of Dhakadakshin in Sylhet District (now in Bangladesh), where the ruins of their ancestral home still survive.[13][14][1] Hagiographies describe his birth as a divine event and state that it predicted his future mission of propagating harināma saṃkīrtana in Kali Yuga.[1]

While still a student, his father died, and he soon married Lakṣmīpriyā. He travelled to east Bengal to become a scholar and support his family, but his wife died in his absence. He then married Viṣnupriyā, the daughter of paṇḍit Sanātana Miśra. Viśhvambara, also known as Nimāi Paṇḍit, was a promising Sanskrit scholar and is said to have once defeated Keśava Bhaṭṭa of the Nimbārka school in a debate on Sanskrit prosody, an example of his "superhuman erudition".[1]

Around 1508-1509, he left Nabadvip for Gaya to perform śrāddha, a ritual homage to his dead father. There, he met an ascetic named Īśvara Purī, who initiated him using a mantra for Kr̥ṣṇa worship. Gaudiya texts describe that after this meeting Viśvambhara abandoned all scholarly and domestic pursuits, developing an intense desire to hear and speak about Krishna. Within a year he took a vow of saṃnyāsa (renunciation) from his guru, Keśava Bhāratī, and changed his name to Kr̥ṣṇa Caitanya. His mother then asked him to at least live in the city of Puri so that he would not be too far from Bengal.[1]

After his renunciation, Caitanya spent his time teaching Kr̥ṣṇa bhakti and engaging in communal saṁkīrtana. Hagiographies describe debates with followers of Advaita Vedānta and other theological opponents in form of digvijaya (conquest through debate). He spent two months in Vrindavan in c. 1515, where he instructed Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī. He spent the last two decades of his life in Puri, where his ecstatic seizures yearning for Kr̥ṣṇa and his consorts, mainly Rādhā, intensified. He died in c. 1528-1534.[1]

Teachings

The Śikṣāṣṭaka is the only work accepted to be composed by Caitanya. The poem expounds upon the subjects of harināmajapa, saṁkīrtana, the relationship between individual souls and Kr̥ṣṇa, devotional submission to Kr̥ṣṇa, and Caitanya's personal virahabhakti. Scholars debate the extent to which Caitanya played in the development of the complex Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theology.[1]

According to Murari Gupta, one of Caitanya's close associates, Caitanya taught that kirtana (chanting God's name) is the most effective spiritual practice in the Kali Age. He first gathered the community for kirtana in Srivasa's courtyard.[15] Caitanya revealed bhakti as the primary means to approach Krishna, and he appointed the Goswamis, such as Srinivasa Acarya and Narottama Dasa, to gather and compose texts explaining this devotion.[16]

According to Dinesh Chandra Sen's analysis, Caitanya's teaching is centered on prema (divine love), described in Vaishnava texts as progressing through different spiritual phases.[17] Sen also states that Caitanya integrated compassionate service and taught that devotion to God is higher than social distinctions, quoting Caitanya's words "The moment that you say you love God, all human beings will be your brethren; there will be no Brahmin, no Sudra".[18]

Biographies

Works on Chaitanya:[19][20][21]

Cultural legacy

Chaitanya has influenced the cultural legacy in Bengal, Odisha and Manipur, with many residents performing daily worship to him as an avatar of Krishna. Some attribute to him a Renaissance in Bengal, different from the more well-known 19th-century Bengal Renaissance. Salimullah Khan (b. 1958), a noted Bangladeshi linguist, maintains, "Sixteenth-century is the time of Chaitanya Dev, and it is the beginning of Modernism in Bengal. The concept of 'humanity' that came into fruition is contemporaneous with that of Europe".

Noted Bengali biographical film on Chaitanya, Nilachaley Mahaprabhu (1957), was directed by Kartik Chattopadhyay (1912–1989).[22] A Bengali film based on Chaitanya's demise, Lawho Gouranger Naam Rey (2025), is directed by Srijit Mukherji.[23]

See also

References

  1. Valpey, Kenneth (2018). "Caitanya". In Jacobsen, Knut A.; Basu, Helene; Malinar, Angelika; Narayanan, Vasudha (eds.). Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online. Brill.
  2. Stewart, Tony K (2012). "Chaitanya, Sri". In Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN 984-32-0576-6. OCLC 52727562. OL 30677644M.
  3. Delmonico 2007, p. 549: "The form of Vaishnavism inspired by the sixteenth-century saint-reformer Shri Krishna Chaitanya (1486–1533 C.E.) rested heavily upon a belief in the purifying and salvific powers of the names of God, whose fullest self-revelation Chaitanya believed to be Krishna".
  4. Dasa 2007, pp. 377-378: "The Bhagavat Sandarbha [...] describes the concept of Bhagavan alluded to in Bhagavata 1.2.11. Jiva explains [...] [t]he relation between Bhagavan and His potency is one of inconceivable difference in non-difference, known as achintya-bhedabheda. It is in recognition of the nature of this relation that Chaitanya’s philosophy is called Achintya bhedaabheda-vada".
  5. Gupta 2007, p. 46, footnote 30: "[I]n the Sarva-samvadini, [J]iva Gosvami lists the names of different teachers and their schools of Vedanta, and then concludes by saying, 'sva-mate tu acintya-bhedabhedah,' 'but my view is acintya-bhedabheda'".
  6. Krsna Dasa, T. 2022, "[Jiva Goswami in his] Sarva-samvadini [commenting] Anuccheda 77 and 78 of the Paramatma Sandarbha [states that:] 'It is well known that Gautama, Kaṇāda, Jaimini, Kapila and Patañjali, as well as śrī-rāmānuja and śrī-madhvācārya’s accept bheda alone. To us, acintya-bheda-abheda alone is acceptable, because the substantive is endowed with acintya śaktis' ".
  7. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Archived 28 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine "He spread the Yuga-dharma as the practice for attainment of pure love for Radha-Krishna. That process is Harinam-Sankirtan, or the congregational chanting of the Holy Names of Krishna "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare"
  8. In the Name of the Lord (Deccan Herald) "He was also given the name of ‘Gora’ because of his extremely fair complexion." Archived 7 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "Gaura Purnima". www.krishna.com. Archived from the original on 12 March 2008.
  10. Sri Gaura Purnima Archived 1 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine"givegita.com"
  11. KCM Archive"They named Him Nimai, as he was born under a neem tree." Archived 24 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  12. Stewart, Tony (2014). "Caitanya". Oxford Bibliographies Online in Hinduism.
  13. Sen 1922, p. 125.
  14. Nair 2007, p. 87.
  15. Stewart 2010, p. 102, 108.
  16. Stewart 2010, p. 5.
  17. Sen 1922, p. 266-276.
  18. Sen 1922, p. 276-283.
  19. Mukherjee 1999, pp. 65–66, 174, 280.
  20. Manring 2005, pp. 34–42, 44.
  21. PDF Archived 26 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine.Mamoni, Sarma (2015). "Chapter 14". History of Vaishnavite cultures in Assam and Bengal a comparative study. pp. 253–255. hdl:10603/127571. Note, Sarma Mamoni is a researcher at Gauhati University under Chakraborty Amalendu.
  22. Sur, Ansu; Goswami, Abhijit (1999). Bengali Film Directory. Nandan, West Bengal Film Centre. p. 96.
  23. Chakraborty, Shamayita (16 July 2021). "Parambrata to play Gourango in Srijit's next; will also sing in the film". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022.

Sources

Further reading