CAITANYA. For half a millennium, Caitanya has been revered by millions of Hindus, especially in eastern India, as a unique human manifestation of the divine Kṛṣṇa. He is understood to be Kṛṣṇa come to bestow devotion (bhakti) and salvation (uddhāra/nistāra) upon even the lowliest of persons, while combining in himself the fair complexion and devotional sentiments of Rādhā, his divine mistress. Caitanya is a popular shortened form of Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya (whose consciousness is of Kṛṣṇa), the religious name taken at his ascetic initiation (saṃnyāsa) by Viśvambhara Miśra (1486–1533), an ecstatic devotee and Vaiṣṇava revivalist. To his devotees, Caitanya is the paradigm of an emotionally intense, loving devotion (prema-bhakti) to Kṛṣṇa—which humans may aspire to emulate while never reaching the perfection of their divine/human exemplar. He is also the object of their devout adoration, affirmed...