Gaudiya-vaishnav.

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Which subscribes to the [link to en.wikipedia.org] Acintya Bheda Abheda philosophy that was elaborated on by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

A school of Vedanta representing the philosophy of inconceivable one-ness and difference, in relation to the power creation and creator, (Krishna), svayam bhagavan. and also between God and his energies within the Gaudiya Vaishnava religious tradition.

In Sanskrit achintya means 'inconceivable', bheda translates as 'difference', and abheda translates as 'one-ness'. This philosophy was taught by the movement's theological founder Chaitanya Mahaprabhu(1486 - 1534) and differentiates the Gaudiya tradition from the other Vaishnava Sampradayas.

It can be best understood as integral monism, as a position between the opposites of absolute monism of Adi Sankara's Advaita, and the dualist monism of Ramanujacarya's Vishishtadvaita.


Caitanya's philosophy of acintya-bheda-abheda-tattva completed the progression to devotional theism. Ramanuja had agreed with Sankara that the Absolute is one only, but he had disagreed by affirming individual variety within that oneness. Madhva had underscored the eternal duality of the Supreme and the Jiva: he had maintained that this duality endures even after liberation. Caitanya, in turn, specified that the Supreme and the jivas are "inconceivably, simultaneously one and different" (acintya-bheda-abheda). He strongly opposed Sankara's philosophy for its defiance of Vyasadeva's siddhanta.

– Satsvarupa dasa Goswami