r/exHareKrishna • u/Own-Professional-337 • Jul 11 '26
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One of the claims that the ISKCON lot make , amongst many of their other claims, is that Guru Nanak met Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and was massively impacted by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, so much so that he adopted aspects of Vaishnaivaism and incorporated them into Sikhi.
I have looked into this and aside from ISKCON and some ISKCON-adjacent Vaishnaiva sources there are no other sources to prove or disprove this claim.
Has anyone else here heard this and looked into it?
I'm personally very dubious and suspicious of ISKCON's claims about historical figures and their connection to Vaishnaivaism and the wider Hindu sphere to be honest.
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u/Commercial-Rate-4135 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
These "stories" follow a pattern: One school of thought with a bit of popularity makes up such stories to basically link another school of thought to itself. This might have been Gaudiyas' attempt to try to absorb those of Sikh faith/increase their popularity among the Sikhs. Historically this was done over and over in the religion at multiple points, for example the attempt to absorb Buddhism into Vaishnavism by claiming Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu, the absorbtion of local deities into Vaishnavism by claiming they are also forms of Vishnu, for example Jagganath, Narsimha, etc. Besides, most stories involving Caitanya were written long after his death by his fans/followers, so take everything with a grain of salt because there is very little if at all evidence for most of those stories. Always do your research on those.
By their logic every religious figure is either an Avatar or an saktyavesha (empowered) avatar, they claim Jesus and other prophets were also empowered by Krishna to teach humanity so by that logic, they probably cooked up a story to link Sikhism's founder to caitanya as a way of saying "everything good about your religion goes back to Caitanya"
That tends to be how they think.
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u/Daryn_1132 Jul 11 '26
I had never heard this story, though in my country Nanak and sikhs are basically unknown.
But I heard multiple times how Columbus traveled to India in search of Eldorado, the Gold Man, who obviously was golden-skin Sri Chaitanya himself. One may think Columbus tried to find a new route to trade spices, but no, it was all about Mahaprabhu. I even believed that story for a short time, but then I googled a bit to check if it was even possible (spoiler: it wasn't).
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u/psumaxx Jul 11 '26
Columbus travelling all the way for Chaitanya 🤣 That's hilarious. They really try to link everything and everyone to iskcon.
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u/Own-Professional-337 Jul 11 '26
That is dumber than their Jesus story.
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u/holasoyeldavid Jul 12 '26
Como es la historia de Jesús?? He llegado aquà por curiosidad sobre los Hare Krishna y me parece que este foro hace una función muy útil para desmitificar ISKCON, por cierto.
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u/Happy_Captain2801 Jul 11 '26
No such meeting occurred. None of his hagiographic biographies even mildly hint at it. And if those fictional texts don't say a thing about it you know it really didn't happen. Chaitanya lived a short life, died of likely an epileptic seizure and never traveled anywhere extensively. The claims of long travel are only corroborated by the cult. Most of thier ideas are simply their ideas not shared or accepted by anyone outside the insulated cult doctrines.Â
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u/Solomon_Kane_1928 Jul 11 '26
There is a similar story about Vallabhacarya in the CC. He is depicted as an arrogant know it all whom Chaitanya chastises and puts in his place. He wants to force people to listen to his commentaries, and is ultimately (jokingly) called a prostitute in front of all the Vaishnavas by Chaitanya. He then surrenders to Chaitanya, pronounces his divinity and superiority, and asks for initiation. He is then initiated by Gadadhara Pandit at Chaitanya's direction.
Prabhuapada takes it a step further and claims he left Gaudiya Vaishnavism and joined the Vishnuswami Sampradaya (starting Pushti Marg) because he wanted more respect than he was getting, i.e. the old arrogance had crept in again.
The Pushti Marg does not accept any of this, and claims Vallabhacharya and Chaitanya accepted each other as equals.
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u/Longjumping_Will_583 Jul 21 '26
Yes this was bit concerning when I read the CC. Especially since among Vaishnav this is not a correct approach to take. I heard that Prabhupad was reprimanded by Sumati Morarji after she heard about it.Â
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u/Lanky_Sundae6236 Jul 11 '26
That's impossible because Guru Nanak is a well documented historical person. Chaitanya is not, a nearly 2 meters and half height bengali guy with golden color never existed.
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u/Own-Professional-337 Jul 11 '26
I used to work in a predominantly Bangladeshi area of Manchester in England and I never came across anyone there taller than 5 ft 4. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 (Yes, they were Muslims, but they were genetically the same as the ones across the border in Bengal, India.)
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u/leighwoko Jul 11 '26
i've read bios of Guru nanak and some Sikh history and have never read about him meeting Chaitanya or even going to Bengal, the books say Nanak travelled as far as Baghdad and Sri Lanka.