Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
The life and teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the 15th–16th-century Bengali saint of ecstatic devotion to Krishna and founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) was a Bengali saint, mystic and religious reformer whose ecstatic love for Krishna transformed the religious life of eastern India. He popularised the congregational chanting of God's names, especially the Hare Krishna mantra, and founded the tradition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, from which the modern ISKCON movement developed. His followers revere him as an incarnation of Krishna himself.
Early life
Chaitanya was born in 1486 in Nabadwip (Navadvipa), a centre of Sanskrit learning in Bengal, as Vishvambhar Mishra. He was nicknamed Nimai, and also Gaura or Gauranga (“the golden one”) for his fair complexion. As a young man he became a brilliant scholar of grammar and logic, and opened his own school.
Transformation
Around the age of 22, Chaitanya travelled to Gaya to perform rites for his late father. There he met the ascetic Ishvara Puri, who initiated him with a Krishna mantra. He returned to Nabadwip transformed, consumed by love for Krishna. He gave up teaching and led groups of devotees in sankirtan, singing and dancing to the names of God through the streets, often falling into ecstatic trances.
A famous story tells that when the local Muslim magistrate (qazi) tried to ban the kirtans, Chaitanya led a huge peaceful procession to his house, and the magistrate, moved, withdrew the ban.
Renunciation and Puri
In 1510, at the age of 24, Chaitanya took the vows of a renunciant (sannyasa) and received the name Krishna Chaitanya. At his mother's request, he settled in Puri, in Odisha, near the great temple of Jagannath, a form of Krishna. He travelled to south India and to Vrindavan, the land of Krishna's childhood, but spent most of his remaining 24 years in Puri, where he was absorbed in intense devotion, especially to the love of Radha for Krishna. He died in Puri in 1534.
Teachings
- Krishna is the Supreme God, the source of all avatars.
- Love of God (prema) is the highest goal of life, higher even than liberation.
- Chanting God's names is the most effective practice in the present age, the Kali Yuga, and is open to everyone, regardless of caste, gender or learning.
- Radha, Krishna's beloved, represents the supreme devotee and the divine energy of love.
- Achintya bhedabheda: souls are both one with and different from God, in a way beyond human understanding.
Chaitanya himself wrote almost nothing. The only work attributed to him is the Shikshashtaka, eight verses on devotion and the chanting of God's names.
Chaitanya as an incarnation
Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe Chaitanya was Krishna himself, appearing in the mood of Radha in order to experience her love for him, and to teach the chanting of God's names. Images of Chaitanya, often with his companion Nityananda, are worshipped in Gaudiya temples.
Legacy
Chaitanya's followers, especially the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, developed the theology of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and helped restore Vrindavan as a centre of pilgrimage. His most important biography, the Chaitanya Charitamrita by Krishnadasa Kaviraja, was written in Bengali in the late 16th century. In the 20th century, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada carried his teachings to the West by founding ISKCON. Mayapur, near Chaitanya's birthplace, is now an international pilgrimage centre.
Sources and further reading
- Edward C. Dimock Jr and Tony K. Stewart (trans.), Caitanya Caritamrta of Krsnadasa Kaviraja (Harvard University Press, 1999).
- Tony K. Stewart, The Final Word: The Caitanya Caritamrta and the Grammar of Religious Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2010).