VAISHNAVITES (Bengal). Chaitanya, the founder of the great Vaishnava sect of Bengal, was the son of a high-caste Brahman of Nadiya, the famous Bengal seat of Sanskrit learn ing, where he was born in 1485, two years after the birth of Martin Luther, the German reformer. Having married in due time, and a second time after the death of his first wife, he lived as a "householder" (grihastlia) till the age of 24, when he re nounced his family ties and set out as a religious mendicant (vairagin), visiting during the next six years the principal places of pilgrimage in northern India, and preaching with remarkable success his doctrine of Bhakti, or passionate devotion to Krishna, as the Supreme Deity. He subsequently made over to his prin cipal disciples the task of consolidating his community, and passed the last twelve years of his life at Puri in Orissa, the great centre of the worship of Vishnu as Jagannatha, or "lord of the world," which he remodelled in accordance with his doctrine, causing the mystic songs of Jayadeva to be recited before the images in the morning and evening as part of the daily service; and, seeking to humanize divine adoration by bringing it into accord with the experience of human love. To this end, music, dancing, sing ing-parties (sankirtan), theatricals—in short anything calculated to produce the desired impression—would prove welcome to him. His doctrine of Bhakti distinguishes five grades of devotional feeling in the Bhaktas, or faithful adherents: viz., (santi) calm contemplation of the deity; (dasya) active servitude; (sakhya) friendship or personal regard ; (vatsalya) tender affection as between parents and children; (madhurya) love or passionate attachment, like that which the Gopis felt for Krishna. Chaitanya promoted the celebration on an imposing scale of the great Puri festival of the Ratha-yatra, or "car-procession," in the month of Ashadha, when, amidst multitudes of pilgrims, the image of Krishna, together with those of his brother Balarama and his sister Subhadra, is drawn along, in a huge car, by the devotees.
This festival was, and is, attended by people from all parts of India, without distinction of caste or sex. All classes, even Mohammedans, were admitted by Chaitanya as members of his sect. The ordinary form of worship is very simple, consisting mainly of the constant repetition of names of Krishna, or Krishna and Radha, which of itself is considered sufficient to ensure future bliss. The partaking of flesh food and spirituous liquor is strictly prohibited. By the followers of this sect, also, an extravagant degree of reverence is habitually paid to their gurus or spiritual heads. Indeed, Chaitanya himself, as well as his immediate disciples, have come to be regarded as complete or partial incarnations of the deity to whom adoration is due, as to Krishna himself ; and their modern successors, the Gosains, share to the fullest extent in the devout attentions of the worshippers.
Chaitanya's movement was directed against the vile practices of the Saktas (q.v.) then very prevalent in Bengal, but his own doc trine of divine, though all too human, love was by no means free from corruptive tendencies. Whilst in Chaitanya's creed, Krishna, in his relations to Radha, remains at least theoretically the chief partner, an almost inevitable step was taken by some minor sects in attaching the greater importance to the female element, and in this way making Krishna's love for his mistress the guid ing sentiment.