Caitanya, Sri Krishna

(born 1485, Navadvipa, Bengal, India—died 1533, Puri, Orissa) Indian Hindu mystic. Born into a Brahman family, he became a teacher. While on a pilgrimage to perform his father's death-anniversary ceremony, he had a profound religious experience, and he returned home indifferent to worldly matters. Disciples joined him in worship that consisted of choral singing of the name of God, often accompanied by dance movements and ending in trance states. He took his new name on initiation as an ascetic in 1510. In his lifetime his following came to constitute a major sect of Vaishnavism (see Caitanya movement). According to tradition, he died when he walked into the ocean while lost in a devotional trance.