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Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya
The lineage of Mahāprabhu Śrī Caitanya, his eternal associate Nityānanda, and the Six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana — a tradition of ecstatic love of the Divine that has shaped devotion for five centuries.
01
1486 – 1534 · Navadvīpa · Purī
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu
Born in Māyāpur, he took sannyāsa at twenty-four and spent the last eighteen years of his life in Puri, in constant sight of Śrī Jagannātha. He inaugurated the movement of saṅkīrtana — the public chanting of the divine names — and taught the philosophy of acintya-bheda-abheda: inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference between the soul and the Lord. King Pratāparudra was his intimate disciple.
02
1474 – c. 1540 · Ekacakra · Bengal
Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu
The eternal companion of Mahāprabhu, considered non-different from Baladeva. It was Nityānanda who preached the mercy of Caitanya throughout Bengal, especially converting Jagāi and Mādhāi — two drunkards who became devotees after being embraced by him.
03
1489 – 1564 · Rāmakelī · Vṛndāvana
Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī
Once a minister of the Sultan of Bengal named Sākar Mallik, he renounced everything at Mahāprabhu's instruction. In Vṛndāvana he composed the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu — a rasa-śāstra of devotion — and revealed the transcendental līlās of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in the Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi.
04
1488 – 1558 · Rāmakelī · Vṛndāvana
Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī
Elder brother of Rūpa, and once Dabir Khās, the chief minister. He wrote the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta and the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, the code of daily conduct for Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas. He lived his last years at the Madana-mohana temple in Vṛndāvana.
Guru-Paramparā
The lineage,
from Kṛṣṇa to the present.
- 01
Śrī Kṛṣṇa
- 02
Brahmā
- 03
Nārada
- 04
Vyāsa
- 05
Madhvācārya
- 06
Padmanābha Tīrtha
- 07
Nṛhari Tīrtha
- 08
Mādhavendra Purī
- 09
Īśvara Purī
- 10
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu
- 11
The Six Goswāmis of Vṛndāvana
- 12
Śrīnivāsa Ācārya · Narottama Dāsa · Śyāmānanda