Gadādhara-prāṇanātha—Lord Caitanya, the life and soul of Gadādhara Paṇḍita.Prabhupada ›Glossary›-G-›Gadadhara-prananatha-Lord Gadadhara-prananatha-Lord Caitanya, the life and soul of Gadadhara Pandita. Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/glossary/g/gadadhara-prananatha-lord-caitanya-the-life-and-soul-of-gada Previous: Four Vaisnava Sampradayas and Siddhantas-There are four Vaisnava schools (sampradayas) of Vedanta. These are 1) the Sri Sampradaya, whose acarya is Ramanuja; 2) the Brahma Sampradaya, whose acarya is Madhva; 3) the Rudra Sampradaya, whose acarya is Visnusvami, and 4) the Kumara Sampradaya, whose acarya is Nimbarka. Opposed to these is the non-Vaisnava Vedantist school of Saṅkaracarya. Every Vedantist school is known for its siddhanta or essential conclusion about the relationships between God and the soul, the soul and matter, matter and matter, matter and God, and the soul and souls. Saṅkaracarya's siddhanta is Advaita, nondifference (i.e. everything is one, therefore these five relationships are unreal). All the other siddhantas support the reality of these relationships from various points of view. Ramanuja's siddhanta is Visistadvaita, qualified nondifference. Ma-dhva's siddhanta is Dvaita, difference. Visnusvami's siddhanta is Suddhadvaita, purified nondifference. And Nimbarka's siddhanta is Dvaita-advaita, difference-and-identity. The Bengali branch of Madhva's sampradaya is known as the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya, or the Caitanya Sampradaya. In the 1700's this school presented Indian philosophers with a commentary on Vedanta-sutra written by Baladeva Vidyabhusana that argued yet another siddhanta. It is called acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, which means simultaneous inconceivable oneness and difference. In recent years this siddhanta has become known to people from all over the world due to the popularity of the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Acintya-bhedabheda philosophy maintains the same standpoint of difference as Madhva's siddhanta on the five-fold relationship of God to soul, soul to matter, matter to matter, matter to God and soul to soul. But acintya-bhedabheda-tattva further teaches the doctrine of sakti-parinama-vada (the transformation of the Lord's sakti), in which the origin of this five-fold differentiation is traced to the Lord's play with His sakti or energy. Because the souls and matter emanate from the Lord, they are one in Him as His energy yet simultaneously distinct from Him and one another. The oneness and difference of this five-fold relationship is termed acintya or inconceivable because, as Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport to Bg. 18.78, Nothing is different from the Supreme, but the Supreme is always different from everything. As the transcendental origin and coordinator of His energies, God is ever the inconceivable factor. See Advaita, Dvaita, Mayavadi philosophy, Six systems, Vedanta, Vedanta-sutra. Next: Gadadhara-a name for the Personality of Godhead meaning "He who wields a club [in one of His four hands];" an intimate associate of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.