Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Bengali: মহাপ্রভু শ্রীচৈতন্য দেব; Sanskrit: चैतन्य महाप्रभु, romanized: Caitanya Mahāprabhu), born Vishvambhara Mishra (IAST: Viśvambhara Miśra) (18 February 1486 – 14 June 1534), 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 had a profound effect on Vaishnavism in Bengal.
He is considered the chief proponent of the Vedantic philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda. However, the concept of inconceivable difference in non-difference, known as achintya-bhedabheda, was developed later by Jiva Gosvami in his book Bhagavat Sandharbha.
Mahaprabhu founded Gaudiya Vaishnavism. He expounded Bhakti yoga and popularised the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra. He composed the Shikshashtakam (eight devotional prayers).
Chaitanya is sometimes called Gauranga (IAST: Gaurāṅga) or Gaura due to his molten gold–like complexion. His birthday is celebrated as Gaura-purnima. He is also called Nimai because he was born underneath a Neem tree.
The religious hagiographies of Gauḍīya sampradāya are the only sources available for the reconstruction of Caitanya's life. The hagiographies (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 accepted by the Gauḍīya community in the early 1600s via the Caitanya Caritāmr̥ta of Kr̥ṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, which has been described as the "final word" on Gauḍīya history and theology.
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. Jagannātha Miśra's family were from the village of Dhakadakshin in Srihatta (Sylhet) (now in Bangladesh). The ruins of their ancestral home still survive in present-day Bangladesh. The hagiographies of Caitanya portray his birth as a divine event and state that it predicted his future mission of propogating harināma saṃkīrtana in Kali Yuga.
The accounts of Caitanya's childhood depicted to be reminiscient of Kr̥ṣṇa's childhood exploits. 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 Viṣṇupriyā, the daughter of paṇḍit Sanātana Miśra. Viśvambhara, also known as Nimāi Paṇḍit, was a promising Sanskrit scholar and once defeated Keśava Bhaṭṭa of the Nimbārka school in a debate on Sanskrit prosody in an example of "superhuman erudition".
In 1508-1509 he left Nabadvip to go to 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. After this meeting Viśvambhara abandoned all scholarly and domestic pursuits and had no interests except an intense desire to hear and speak of Kr̥ṣṇa. Within a year he took a vow of saṃnyāsa (renunciation) and changed his name to Kr̥ṣṇa Caitanya under his guru Keśava Bhāratī. His mother then asked him to at least live in the city of Puri so that he would not be too far from Bengal.
After becoming a renunciate he spent his time converting and instructing followers in the tenets of Kr̥ṣṇa bhakti and engaging in communal saṁkīrtana. Sources state he defeated and converted theological opponents (particularly followers of Advaita Vedānta) via debate or divine intervention in the typical Indian hagiographical pattern of digvijaya. He spent two months in Vrindavan in c. 1515 where he instructed Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmi; additionally the visit serves to confirm Caitanya's identity as Kr̥ṣṇa as he has raptures upon recognizing sites familiar to Kr̥ṣṇa. The last two decades of his life were spent in Puri where his ecstatic seizures yearning for Kr̥ṣṇa and his consorts, mainly Rādhā, intensified. He died c. 1528-1534.
Works on Chaitanya:
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.
Chaitanya's influence on the cultural legacy in Bengal, Odisha and Manipur, 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".
Noted Bengali biographical film on Chaitanya, Nilachaley Mahaprabhu (1957), was directed by Kartik Chattopadhyay (1912–1989). A Bengali film based on Chaitanya's demise, Lawho Gouranger Naam Re, will be directed by Srijit Mukherji where Parambrata Chatterjee will be seen portraying Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.