Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

About Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Who is it?: Founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Birth Day: February 18, 1486
Birth Place: Nabadwip, Indian
Died On: 14 June 1534(1534-06-14) (aged 48)\nNear Swargadwar, Puri\n(present-day Odisha, India)
Birth Sign: Pisces
Religion: Hinduism
Founder of: Gaudiya Vaishnavism Achintya Bheda Abheda
Philosophy: Bhakti yoga, Achintya Bheda Abheda
Guru: Isvara Puri (mantra guru); Kesava Bharati (sanyas guru)
Disciple(s): Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, Gopala Bhatta Goswami, Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami, Raghunatha dasa Goswami, Jiva Goswami and others
Honors: Expounded Gaudiya Vaishnavism; He is the Yuga Avatara(Yuga Incarnation) of Lord Krishna with the bodily complexion and mood of Srimati Radharani.
Birth Anniversary: Gaura Purnima
Samkhya: Kapila
Yoga: Patanjali
Vaisheshika: Kanada, Prashastapada
Dvaitadvaita: Nimbarka
Shuddhadvaita: Vallabha Acharya

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Net Worth

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born on February 18, 1486 in Nabadwip, Indian, is Founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Bengali spiritual teacher believed by his devotees to be Lord Krishna himself. He was a proponent for the Vaishnava school of Bhakti yoga which emphasizes on loving devotion to God, and is considered the most benevolent manifestation of Lord Krishna. Born in Mayapur in the town of Nadia to a devout Brahmin couple, he was a very beautiful child who enamored everyone who came to see him. His maternal grandfather, a prominent astrologer, foretold that the child was destined for greatness. Named Vishambhar at birth, he was drawn towards the name of the lord from a young age. Brilliant and hard working, he excelled in his studies and became a scholar at a young age. Once on a trip to Gaya he met his guru, the ascetic Ishvara Puri, from whom he received initiation with the Gopala Krishna mantra. On his return to Bengal, he became a religious preacher and was soon the eminent leader of the Vaishnava group within Nadia. Married by now, he left his family and entered the sannyasa order. He spent several years travelling throughout India, chanting the divine names of Lord Krishna and spreading the message of divine love. He spent the last 24 years of his life in Puri, Odisha.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a member of Spiritual & Religious Leaders

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Chaitanya Mahaprabhu images

Famous Quotes:

By 10 o'clock the night was very dark and cloudy. Across the Ganges in a northern direction I suddenly saw a large building flooded with golden light. I asked Kamala if he could see the building and he said that he could. But my friend Kerani Babu could see nothing. I was amazed. What could it be? In the morning I went back to the roof and looked carefully back across the Ganges. I saw that in the place where I had seen the building was a stand of palm trees. Inquiring about this area I was told that it was the remains of Lakshman Sen's fort at Ballaldighi.

Biography/Timeline

1840

Taking this as a clue, Bhaktivinoda conducted a thorough, painstaking investigation of the site, by consulting old geographical maps matched against scriptural and Verbal accounts, and eventually came to a conclusion that the village of Ballaldighi was formerly known as Mayapur, confirmed in Bhakti-ratnakara as the actual birth site of Chaitanya. He soon acquired a property in Surabhi-kunj near Mayapur to oversee the temple construction at Yogapith, Chaitanya's birthplace. For this purpose he organized, via Sajjana-tosani and special festivals, as well as personal acquaintances, a massive and hugely successful fundraising effort among the people of Bengal and beyond. Noted Bengali Journalist Sisir Kumar Ghosh (1840-1911) commended Bhaktivinoda for the discovery and hailed him as "the seventh goswami" – a reference to the Six Goswamis, renowned medieval Gaudiya Vaisnava Ascetics and close associates of Chaitanya who had authored many of the school's texts and discovered places of Krishna's pastimes in Vrindavan.

1886

In 1886 a leading Gaudiya Vaisnava reformer Bhaktivinoda Thakur attempted to retire from his government Service and move to Vrindavan to pursue his devotional life there. However, he saw a dream in which Chaitanya ordered him to go to Nabadwip instead. After some difficulty, in 1887 Bhaktivinoda was transferred to Krishnanagar, a district center twenty-five kilometers away from Nabadwip, famous as the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Despite poor health, Bhaktivinoda finally managed to start regularly visiting Nabadwip to research places connected with Chaitanya. Soon he came to a conclusion that the site purported by the local brahmanas to be Chaitanya's birthplace could not possibly be genuine. Determined to find the actual place of Chaitanya's pastimes but frustrated by the lack of reliable evidence and clues, one night he saw a mystical vision:

1896

From the very beginning of Chaitanya's bhakti movement in Bengal, Haridasa Thakur and others Muslim or Hindu by birth were the participants. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the great sage of Dakshineswar, who lived in the 19th century, emphasized the bhakti marga of Chaitanya mahaprabhu, whom he referred to as "Gauranga." (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna). This openness received a boost from Bhaktivinoda Thakura's broad-minded vision in the late 19th century and was institutionalised by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in his Gaudiya Matha in the 20th century. In the 20th century the teachings of Chaitanya were brought to the West by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), a representative of the Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati branch of Chaitanya's tradition. Prabhupada founded his movement known as The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) to spread Chaitanya's teachings throughout the world. Saraswata gurus and acharyas, members of the Goswami lineages and several other Hindu sects which revere Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, including devotees from the major Vaishnava holy places in Mathura District, West Bengal and Odisha, also established temples dedicated to Krishna and Chaitanya outside India in the closing decades of the 20th century. In the 21st century Vaishnava bhakti is now also being studied through the academic medium of Krishnology in a number of academic institutions.

1957

Noted Bengali biographical film on Chaitanya, Nilachaley Mahaprabhu (1957), was directed by Kartik Chattopadhyay (1912-1989).

1958

Chaitanya's influence on the cultural legacy in Bengal and Odisha has been significant, 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".

2013

Despite having been initiated in the Madhvacharya tradition and taking sannyasa from Shankara's tradition, Chaitanya's philosophy is sometimes regarded as a tradition of his own within the Vaishnava framework – having some marked differences with the practices and the theology of other followers of Madhvacharya. He took Mantra Upadesa from Isvara Puri and Sanyasa Diksha from Keshava Bharati.

2016

According to the hagiographies of 16th-century authors, he exhibited his Universal Form identical to that of Krishna on a number of occasions, notably to Advaita Ācārya and Nityānanda Prabhu.

2017

In the early 17th century Kalachand Vidyalankar, a disciple of Chaitanya, made his preachings popular in Bengal. He traveled throughout India popularizing the gospel of anti-untouchability, social justice and mass education. He probably initiated 'Pankti Bhojon' and Krishna sankirtan in eastern part of Bengal. Several schools (sampradaya) have been practicing it for hundreds of years. Geetashree Chabi Bandyopadhyay and Radharani Devi are among many who achieved fame by singing kirtan. The Dalits in Bengal at that time neglected and underprivileged cast readily accepted his libertarian outlook and embraced the doctrine of Mahaprabhu. His disciples were known as Kalachandi Sampraday who inspired the people to eradicate illiteracy and casteism. Many consider Kalachand as the Father of Rationalism in East Bengal (Purba Banga).