Today is the auspicious appearance day of Sri Advaita Acarya, a great day for all Gaudiya Vaishnavas. He is not less than the one responsible for the appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, therefore we have a great debt upon him. If there was no Advaita Acarya, there would be no ISKCON, no Gaudiya Math, no sankirtan movement. Indeed, without him would be no material world at all and we would not have our opportunity of going back to Godhead.
To understand Advaita Acarya we need to go back in time, more specifically back to before the beginning of time. A “time” before either time or the material world itself existed. At them, there was only Lord Maha Visnu laying down in the causal ocean. Understanding the desire of the souls living there to execute activities, He glances unto the material energy. This glance of Maha Visnu becomes Lord Sadha Shiva, who carries all the souls in direction to the material nature and impregnates her, creating the conditions for the creation of all the material universes.
In the border between the spiritual world and the material world, there is a planet that is half luminous and half dark. The luminous side lies on the Brahmajoti, the spiritual side, while the dark side lies on the material world. Lord Sadha Shiva lives in the luminous side, where he performs kirtana with his associates and makes plans on how to liberate all the conditioned souls. Lord Sadha Shiva is a Vishnu Tatva expansion, therefore he is in one sense no different than Lord Mahavishnu Himself. He is not in contact with the material energy.
Lord Sadha Shiva expands himself into Lord Shiva, who lives on the dark side of the planet with Durga Devi. By the contact with the material energy, part of his qualities are covered, and he becomes Shiva Tattva. This original Lord Shiva expands himself into different forms, one for each universe. This is the Lord Shiva we know, the best of Vaishnavas, who appears when Lord Brahma becomes angry with the Kumaras.
Lord Advaita Acarya is the incarnation of Lord Sadha Shiva, therefore He is counted amongst the Vishnu Tattva expansions. As Lord Sadha Shiva is nondifferent from Lord Maha Vishnu, Advaita Acarya is also described as the incarnation of Maha Vishnu.
He comes with the purpose of liberating the suffering souls of Kali-Yuga. When He realizes that it would not be possible to do that alone, He prays for the advent of Lord Caitanya, worshipping the Lord with Tulasi manjaris and ganga watter. It’s described that his cries were so loud that they pierced the covering of the Universe and went all the way to Goloka, where they were heard by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Advaita Acarya is 52 years old when Mahaprabhu appears, but He is described as very beautiful and effulgent, looking like a golden mountain, with tilaka on His forehead, a garland of Tulasi around His neck, broad chest, long arms like the trunk of elephants. He stays in the world until his 125 birthday, actually outliving Mahaprabhu.
He was initiated by Madhavendra Puri and acted in the most ideal way thorough all His life, giving us the example of ideal conduct. Because of this, He is given the title “Acarya”. As described in the Caitanya Caritamrta: “Because He is nondifferent from Hari, the Supreme Lord, He is called Advaita, and because He propagates the cult of devotion, He is called Ācārya. He is the Lord and the incarnation of the Lord’s devotee. Therefore I take shelter of Him.” (Adi 1.13)
