Advaita Acharya

Advaita Acharya Biography

Advaita Acharya was a notable disciple and companion of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who founded Gaudiya Vaishnava sect and believed to be the incarnation of Lord Krishna. Acharya has also known as the guru of Haridasa Thakur. His real name is Kamalaksha Bhattacharya, born in Bengal in the year 1434, 50 years before Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He is one among the 5 noted disciples of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, collectively known as Pancha Tattva. The other four members are Sri Nityananda Prabhu, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Gadadhara Pandita and Sri Srivasa who formulated and provided the basic rules and instructions of Gaudiya Vaishnavism which is followed till now.

He was born at Navagrama-Laur village in the present-day Sylhet District of Bangladesh in 1434. He spent most of his adult life in the town of Shantipur. He was married and had 6 sons. He spent his youth life teaching Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavata Purana and promoting Bhakti Yoga. Many of the works which recorded the biography of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu have mentioned the life of Advaita Acharya too. The most important works are Balyalilasutra, Advaitasutrakadacha, Advaitaprakasha, Advaitamangala and Advaitavilasa which recorded many of his activities. These works belong to either Bengali or Sanskrit.

Though he spent a normal family life in the youthful days, towards the end of his life he became dissatisfied by the pursuit of materialistic goals. He found that only prayers can bring happiness to his life and thus he turned towards a spiritual life. Acharya prayed to God for many months in the form of his Shaligram Shila with sacred Tulasi leaves and Ganges water. He got answers at the end of the 13^th month, exactly on the same day when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born. Later he became a close associative of both Chaitanya and Nityananda in their mission of spreading the Hare Krishna mantra.

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Updated: March 12, 2014