The lineage
The teachers
In the Vaishnava tradition knowledge is not invented: it is received from a teacher, who received it from theirs. That chain is called paramparā. These are the links you will hear named most often.
Why the chain matters
Krishna explains it in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.2): this science was handed down from teacher to disciple, and when the chain was broken, the knowledge was lost. That is why a Vaishnava does not only ask what someone teaches, but from whom they learned it.
The teacher, or guru, does not add ideas of their own. Their merit is to hand on the teaching intact and to live it. The Gaudiya tradition goes back, through Madhva, to Brahmā, the first created being, whom Krishna instructed directly.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (1486–1534)
He was born in Navadvīpa, in Bengal, and as a young man was a brilliant scholar. At twenty-four He took up the renounced order and devoted the rest of His days to spreading the chanting of God’s names, first throughout India and then from the city of Purī.
He left very little in writing, just eight verses, the Śikṣāṣṭakam, but He asked His disciples to develop the teaching. His followers consider Him Krishna Himself, who came as a devotee to teach by example. Remembered on 3 March 2026. About Gaura Pūrṇimā.
Nityānanda Prabhu
Caitanya’s inseparable companion. While Caitanya travelled, Nityānanda took the chanting through the villages of Bengal, house by house. He is considered Balarāma, Krishna’s brother, and mercy in person. Remembered on 30 January 2026. About Nityānanda Trayodaśī.
The six Gosvāmīs of Vrindavan (16th century)
Caitanya sent six of His disciples to Vrindavan, Krishna’s land, with three tasks: to find the holy places that had been lost, to build temples and to set down in writing the theology of devotion. They did it while living with extreme austerity, and their books are still the foundation of the tradition.
- Rūpa Gosvāmī: the leader. He wrote the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, the great treatise on devotion.
- Sanātana Gosvāmī: his elder brother. Before giving everything up he had been a government minister.
- Jīva Gosvāmī: nephew of both and the great philosopher of the group.
- Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī: only son of an extremely wealthy family, a model of renunciation.
- Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī: famous for the way he recited the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
- Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī: he established the standards of temple worship.
Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī
In his old age he wrote the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the biography of Caitanya that is also the fullest exposition of His teaching. For Gaudiyas it is, together with the Gītā and the Bhāgavatam, one of the three fundamental books. Remembered on 23 October 2026.
Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura and the poets
Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura put the theology of the Gosvāmīs into simple songs, in Bengali, that anyone could understand. Many of those sung in temples today are his. Remembered on 1 February 2026.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī and Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa
In the 17th and 18th centuries these two teachers defended and systematised the tradition. Baladeva wrote the commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra that gave the Gaudiyas recognition as a philosophical school in their own right.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura (1838–1914)
A magistrate in the British government of India, father of a large family and author of more than a hundred books. He found a tradition in decline and revived it: he located the birthplace of Caitanya, wrote for the educated public of his time and was the first to send books about Caitanya to Western universities. He foretold that one day people of every country would chant the names of God together. Remembered on 24 September 2026.
Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī
An ascetic who could neither read nor write and lived by begging, revered for his devotion. He was the teacher of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. Remembered on 20 November 2026.
Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura (1874–1937)
Son of Bhaktivinoda, a scholar and tireless organiser. He founded the Gauḍīya Maṭh, with dozens of centres across India, used the printing press as his main tool and opposed the idea that devotion depended on caste of birth. He asked his disciples to take the teaching to the English-speaking world. Remembered on 6 February 2026.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda (1896–1977)
A disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta, from whom he received that instruction at their first meeting, in 1922. He fulfilled it forty-three years later: in 1965 he travelled to New York and the following year founded ISKCON. In twelve years he translated and commented on the Bhagavad-gītā, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and opened more than a hundred temples on every continent. Remembered on 5 September 2026.
More in What is Hare Krishna and in the festival of his appearance.
Frequently asked questions
What does “Gosvāmī” mean?
Literally, “master of the senses”. It is the title of someone who has renounced worldly life and has self-mastery.
Why do so many names appear in the calendar?
Because the day of the appearance and the day of the departure of each teacher in the lineage are remembered. It is a way of keeping the chain alive: every few days there is someone to be grateful to.
Do you need a teacher?
To start chanting and reading, no. The tradition teaches that anyone who wants to advance seriously needs the guidance of a living teacher, from whom they receive initiation. Finding one takes time and should not be forced.