Ishvara Puri

(c. 1500) Ecstatic devotee (bhakta) of the
god Krishna, who is famous as the guru
of the Bengali saint Chaitanya. Little is
known about Ishvara Puri’s background,
although his surname “Puri” indicates
that he took formal ascetic initiation in
the Puri branch of the Dashanami
Sanyasis. After meeting Ishvara Puri in
1508 in the pilgrimage town of Gaya,
Chaitanya was fired with devotion to
Krishna, and he began to perform the
public ecstatic recitations of Krishna’s
name that have become an established
element in the religious life of the community that claims him as its founder,
the Gaudiya Vaishnavas. See also ISKCON.