Caitanya Mahaprabhu (also spelled
Chaitanya) was an
ascetic Hindu monk and social reformer in
16th century India (present-day
Bangladesh.) He was later deified and is thought by some
Hindu denominations to be an
avatar of
Vishnu. Founder of the
bhakti yoga[?] movement (also known today as the
Hare Krishna movement,) his spirtiual mission was to clean the effects of desire from the Temples of India by leading joyous pilgrims throughout the land singing, dancing, and chanting.
Caitanya's movement reached the Western world four centuries later in 1965, when Prabhupada A.C. Bhaktivedanta landed by freighter in New York harbor. He founded ISKCON in 1966.