Perhaps the greatest saint if not the greatest leader, of the Bhakti movement was Chaitanya. There had been Vaishnavism in Bengal long before his birth. But the activities of Chaitanya who is the founder of modern Vaishnavism in Bengal gave a great inpetus to Vaishnavism and made it popular all over Bengal and Orissa.
Chaitanya’s original name was Vishwambhar and he was born at Navadwip in February 1486. The boy was given the name of Nimai. His father Jagannath Mishra was a religious and scholarly man and his mother Shachi too was deeply religious and pious.
Vishwambhar was sent to a private school to learn and afterwards entrusted to a well-known Pandit, Ganga Das, for higher studies. He was an exceptionally brilliant student and is said to have mastered the Sanskrit language and literature, grammar and logic, at the early age of fifteen.
Shortly after he completed his education, he was given the title of Vidyasagar (the ocean of learning). While he was a student, his father died. He was married to a girl named Lakshmi but she died of snake-bite.
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He married again and this lady survived her husband’s sanyas and death. He was not yet 22 when he received diksha (initation) from a saintly man, named Ishwar Puri, whom he met at Gaya during a pilgrimage.
The motive which influenced him to adopt asceticism was probably diverse and complex; at best, it is left obscure. Chaitanya settled permanently at Puri where he died.
After sanyas he felt himself free from all worldly bounds and his heightened emotions and ecstasies became marked. He said, “I shall wander from house to house giving the holy name of God to all.
The Chandals, lowest caste, women and children all will stand with wonder and love to hear his name. Even boys and girls will sing his praise.” Chaitanya loved God as no man before or after him ever loved.
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He preached the religion of intense faith in one Supreme Being whom he called Krishna or Hari. He was free from ritualism, and his worship consisted in love and devotion, song and dance, so intense and full of emotion that devotees felt God’s presence in a state of ecstasy.
He was a great exponent of Krishnite form of Vaishnavism. He adored Krishna and Radha and attempted to spiritualise their lives in Vrindaban. He preached to all irrespective of caste and creed. His influence was so profound and lasting that he is considered by his followers as an incarnation of Krishna or Vishnu.
Chaitanya accepted that Krishna alone is the most perfect God. Vaishnavism, as preached by Chaitanya, created an unprecedented sensation and enthusiasm in Bengal and its neighbouring religions like Orissa and Assam.
Although Chaitanya had many followers, he did not seem to have directly organized them into a sect or cult. It was his followers and devoted disciples, who after the master’s death, systematised his teachings and organized themselves into a sect called Gaudiya Vaishnavism.