The Adi-lila explains Caitanya's unique theological identity as an Avatar of Krishna in the mood of Radharani ( a combined avatar of both personalities ), his personal lineage, his closest childhood companions and their paramparas ( desciplic succession ), and the characters of his devotional associates.

The Antya-lila gives a survey of the devotional plays composed by Rupa Goswami, activities of various devotees and occasional critics and their interactions with Caitanya ; Caitanya ’ s interactions with Raghunatha dasa Goswami, and Jagadananda ; Caitanya's increasing experience of the searing agony of separation from Krishna ( viraha or vipralambha bhava ) and concludes with the famous Siksastaka ( eight verses of poetic instruction ), the only thing personally written by Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu himself.

" Caitanya's philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva completed the progression to devotional theism.

From the beginning of Sri Caitanya's bhakti movement in Bengal, devotees, including Haridasa Thakur and others, whether Muslim or Hindu by birth, have been participants.

In Vaishnavism, specifically Gaudiya Vaishnavism, one of the four regulative principles forbids the taking of intoxicants, including alcohol.

When Krishna is recognized to be Svayam Bhagavan, it can be understood that this is the belief of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Vallabha Sampradaya, and the Nimbarka Sampradaya, where Krishna is accepted to be the source of all other avatars, and the source of Vishnu himself.

Proponents of the Gaudiya and Nimbarka schools of Vaishnavism give the highly esoteric nature of Radha's relationship to Krishna as the reason why her story is not mentioned in detail in the other Puranic texts.

Radha's love for Krishna is held within Gaudiya Vaishnavism as the most perfect primarily because of its endless and unconditional nature.

* Gaudiya Vaishnavism

* Gaudiya Vaishnavism

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ( also transliterated Caitanya, IAST ) ( 1486 – 1534 ) was a Vaishnava saint and social reformer in eastern India ( specifically present-day Bangladesh and states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Assam, and Orissa of India ) in the 16th century, worshipped by followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism as the full incarnation of Lord Krishna.

Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Iṣṭa-devatā ( also as Svayam Bhagavan in Gaudiya Vaishnavism ).

: See also Vaishnavism, Krishnaism, Gaudiya Vaishnavism and Hare Krishna Ekasarana Dharma

* Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, immersed into deeper and deeper stages of ecstasy towards Krishna during the last 24 years of his life.

In Gaudiya Vaishnavism, aarti refers to the whole puja ritual, of which offering the lamp is only one part.

For example, Hindu deities have 108 names, while in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, there are 108 gopis of Vrindavan.

She was thoroughly conversant with the texts of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and practiced Tantra.

( February 6, 1874 – January 1, 1937 ), was a preacher of Gaudiya Vaishnavism throughout India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

His father was the Vaishnava scholar Sri Kedarnath Dutta, later known as Bhaktivinoda Thakur, the first to present the teachings of Chaitanyite Vaishnavism to the English speaking world and was a notable Gaudiya Vaishnava Theologian.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati adjusted the traditions of Gaudiya Vaishnavism to conform with the technological and social conditions of the twentieth century.

Of this group, one gopi known as Radha ( or Radhika ) holds a place of particularly high reverence and importance in a number of religious traditions, especially within Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Kirtan became more common with the spread of Gaudiya Vaishnavism by ISKCON's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in the 1960s.

Mills also posited that Kula Shaker's music should follow a more spiritual and mystical direction in future, in line with his own growing interest in the philosophy of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

** Svayam Bhagavan or Supreme Personality of Godhead, in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the divine person from whom all emanates

Within Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Vallabha sampradaya, Nimbarka sampradaya and among Ramanandis, the chanting of the names of Krishna and Rama to be superior to that of Vishnu.

** Gaudiya Vaishnavism ( includes ISKCON, the Hare Krishna movement ), adheres to the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ( Gaurangacharya )

Radha is almost always depicted alongside Krishna and features prominently within the theology of today's Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, which regards Radha as the original Goddess or Shakti.

One of her names, Hara ( mentioned in Narada-pancaratra 5. 5. 59 ), in vocative Hare, forms a part of the Hare Krishna ' Maha-Mantra ', one of the most popular Vedic mantras, especially among certain sects of Gaudiya Vaishnavas ( some other sects among Gaudiya Vaishnavas explain that the word " Hare " in the mantra is the vocative form of " Hari ", which is also a name of God ).

However, within Gaudiya Vaishnavism it is bhakti in its purest state ( or " pure love of God ") which is given as the ultimate aim, rather than liberation from the cycle of rebirth.

A particularly distinct part of the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy espoused by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the concept of Achintya Bheda Abheda, which translates to " inconceivable oneness and difference " in the context of the soul's relationship with Krishna, and also Krishna's relationship with his other energies ( i. e. the material world ).

Over the three centuries following the disappearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition evolved into the form in which we largely find it today in contemporary India.

Although sharing a common set of core beliefs, there are a number of philosophical differences which distinguish Gaudiya Vaishnavism from other Vaishnava schools:

Fifty years after the disappearance of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Narottama organized annual festivals in Bengal, which served to keep the Gaudiya philosophy unified.

Jiva Gosvami had stated in his Paramatma Sandarbha, forming part of six principal Sandarbhas, or philosophical treateses of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, that, " Seeing that the imperfect scriptures in the modes of passion and ignorance bring only a host of troubles, and also seeing that the original Vedas are very difficult to follow properly, and thus being very dissatisfied with both of these, the all-knowing scripture authors affirm the superiority of the Pancaratras, which describe the pure absolute truth, Narayana, and the worship of the Lord, which is very easy to perform.

" In the same Sandarbha Jiva Gosvami states that god himself, Svayam Bhagavan, had spoken the Narada Pancaratra, which is accepted as a pramana by Gaudiya scholars.

This name is a Vaishnava name ( a name relating to Lord Krishna / Vishnu or a Gaudiya Vaishnava saint ), and is followed by " Dasa " for men and " Dasi " for women ( both terms mean " servant ").

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness ( ISKCON ), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization.

According to Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, consciousness is not a product of matter ( this is common for all spiritual traditions ), but is instead a symptom of the soul.

Many Gaudiya Vaishnavas will live for at least some time in their life as monks ( brahmacharya ), and the majority of senior gurus live as renunciates ( sannyasa ) after the age of 50 years.

), also known as Thakura Mahasaya is a Gaudiya Vaishnava saint who was responsible for spreading Vaishnava bhakti throughout Orissa in and outside of Bengal in India.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur ( September 2, 1838 – June 23, 1914 ), a prominent figure among the Gaudiya Vaishnavas of Bengal, was born Kedarnath Datta in the town of Birnagar, Bengal, India.

Bhaktivinoda married and had several children, including Bimal Prasad ( later Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura ), the founder of the Gaudiya Math and the guru of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Around this time ( 1718 CE ), a branch of the Sri ( Ramanuja ) Sampradaya known as the Ramanandi sect, in the court of the king Sadacari Raja at Jaipur, Rajasthan, complained that since the Gaudiya Vaisnavas had no commentary on the Vedanta Sutra, they were not qualified to worship the Deity and therefore the worship should be turned over to the Sri Sampradaya.

CE ) was the author of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, a hagiography on the life of the mystic and saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ( 1486 – 1533 ), who is considered by the Gaudiya Vaishnava school of Hinduism to be an incarnation of Radha and Krishna combined.

* Gaudiya Vaisnava Abhidhana ( Bengali ), Compiled by Haridasa Dasa, Haribol Kutir, Navadvipa, W. Bengal, 1957.

The Caitanya Caritamrta is one of the primary biographies detailing the life and teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu ( 1486 – 1533 ), a Vaisnava saint and founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya.

By the time of the founder's death ( 1 January 1937 ), the Gaudiya Math had established 64 branches.