Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a beautiful child, frolicsome, grew up to be a great devotee of Lord Krishna, revived Vrindavan to its lost glory; reasons enough to be considered as the reincarnation of Lord Krishna.
Profile
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born on 18th February as the second son of Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Devi in the village of Dhakadakshin (now in Bangladesh). As a baby he was known as Gaur Hari for he was very beautiful and people used to visit the house just to see the baby. As he grew up, he showed he was an extremely intelligent child. He learnt Bengali very early and in his eight year he was taught Sanskrit by GangadasPandit and he became an expert in two years. Since then he has had many discussions and debates with learned people in Smriti, Nyaya, grammar and rhetoric.He quickly became popular for his erudition. When he was fourteen he was married to Lakshmi Devi who did not live long. He was married again to Vishnupriya. A little later his father died and when he went to Gaya to do the rites for his father he met IshavaraPuri who gave him the Gopala mantra which brought about a change in him. Gaur Hari who went to Gaya as a Vedantin came back as a Krishna Bhakt (devotee). The whole village was shocked with this transformation. Soon he felt he belonged to the world and did not want to be tied to just his village. He took sanyasa from Swami KeasavaBharati much to the angst of his mother and wife. From then his life was filled with devotion to Lord Krishna. ChaitanyaMahaprabhu’s death is shrouded in mystery. There are many theories but one that can be accepted is that in one fainting fit he did not come to consciousness. The disposal of the body is not known, there is no Samadhi for him. So like many saints it is believed he just disappeared which was in 1533.
Philosophy Propounded
GaudiyaVaishanvism is the philosophy propounded by ChaintanyaMahaprabhu. Love for Krishna and his story was his mission.
Work Done to Spread the Philosophy
ChaintanyaMahaprabhu had many disciples and he went around the streets goading people to sing the glories of Krishna. After sanyasa he went all over the country and got some Ramanuja devotees to change over to GaudiyaVaishanavism. He travelled in the forests of Vrindavan and spotted all the places where Krishna lived. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’sGaudiya Vaishnavism is now spread all over the world more popularly known as Krishna Conciousness.
