Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism

Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism — A school of Vaiṣṇava theology and devotional practice founded by Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu (1486–1534) in the Gauḍa region of Bengal. It holds Kṛṣṇa — not Viṣṇu — as the supreme, self-sufficient Godhead (svayaṁ bhagavān), with all other divine forms understood as His expansions. Philosophically grounded in the doctrine of acintya-bhedābheda (inconceivable simultaneous difference and non-difference) systematized by Jīva Gosvāmī, it affirms that the individual soul (jīva) and Kṛṣṇa are neither wholly identical nor wholly distinct. The tradition's theology was given its definitive scholastic form by the Six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana — most notably Rūpa, Sanātana, and Jīva — whose works establish śuddha-bhakti (pure devotion) as the sole means and highest end of human existence, surpassing even liberation. The supreme expression of bhakti is mādhurya-rasa, the conjugal love of the gopīs, particularly Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, who is venerated as the embodiment of Kṛṣṇa's hlādinī-śakti and the ideal of perfect devotion.