Chaitanya was born at Navadwipa in 1486. His father Jagannatha Misra was a religious and scholarly man and his mother Sachi was also a pious and religious minded lady. Chaitanya as a boy was an exceptionally brilliant student. At the early age of 15 he had mastered Sanskrit language, literature, grammar and logic. At the age of 22 he renounced the world and at the age of 30 he permanently settled at Puri. He wandered about the country, preaching the doctrine of love and the worship of Krishna. Thousands of residents of Bengal became his followers. Love was a great passion with him that the thought of Krishna playing upon his flute in the wild woods of Vrindavan threw him into an ecstasy.

According to Chaitanya Krishna dwells in every soul and, therefore, gives respect to others, without seeking anything for himself. He laid stress on humility and said that a Vaisnava should be absolutely without pride. His heart was full of compassion for the poor and the weak. He used to melt with pity as he saw the sorrows of mankind. He denounced caste and proclaimed the universal brotherhood of man and the worship of Hari as the only means of attaining the highest bliss. He asked his followers to teach the lowest Chandala the lesson of devotion. It was why the high and the low, the Brahmins and the Sudra listened to his message and followed him. For him Vaisnavism was a living force, a rule of life, and not merely a religious principle to be practiced by ascetics and recluses.

Chaitanya`s concern was to exalt the superiority of Krishna over all other Hindu deities. His cult of Krishna was also a movement of Hindu reformation, freeing Hinduism from Brahmanical oppression. He did not try to reform Hinduism by adopting any of the attractive features of Islam. He adored Krishna and Radha and attempted to spiritualize their lives in Vrindavan. Radha was conceived as the eternal enjoyed and Krishna as the eternal enjoyer. Radha was conceived not as the wife of Krishna but the beloved of Krishna. He introduced devotional music or kirtan. Every participant in the kirtan was carried away by the torrent of religious excitement. In kirtan all the disciples of Chaitanya whether one was a Brahmin or a low caste Hindu participated. He recognized that the Sudras were equally capable of developing spiritual personality. The followers of Chaitanya passed through the streets of Navadwip singing and dancing in a procession and devotional songs were sung in every house in Bengal. Thus Kirtans cemented the bond of unity amongst different castes. Thus it was a revolutionary movement, which brought about unity in Hindu society. But it was a revivalist movement, as it did not borrow any ideas from Islam.

Chaitanya had found the caste system very derogatory and also eating into the vitals of our social fabric. He and his followers were determined to root out the evil from the society. One of Chaitanya`s close associates whom he entrusted the work of social reform was Nityananda. The latter allowed many low caste persons to become Chaitanya`s followers. As a result of removal of caste distinction, many non-Brahmins gave spiritual initiation even to Brahmins in the post-Chaitanya age.