Sri Gadhadhara Pandit Tirobhava Tithi -- June 19th 2012

Srila Prabhupada explains the divine position of Sri Gadadhara Pandita

In the beginning of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī writes, "I offer my respects to my spiritual masters." He uses the plural here to indicate the disciplic succession. It is not that he offers obeisances to his spiritual master alone but to the whole paramparā, the chain of disciplic succession beginning with Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself. Thus the guru is addressed in the plural to show the author's highest respect for all the Vaiṣṇavas. After offering obeisances to the disciplic succession, the author pays obeisances to all other devotees, Godbrothers, the expansions of Godhead and the first manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's energy. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu (sometimes called Kṛṣṇa Caitanya) is the embodiment of all of these; He is God, guru, devotee and the expansion of God. As His associate Nityānanda, He is the first manifestation of energy; as Advaita, He is an incarnation; as Gadādhara, He is the internal potency; and as Śrīvāsa, He is the marginal living entity. 

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 1975 Edition : Cc. Introduction : In the beginning of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 1975 Edition : Cc. Introduction :

Thus Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī discusses Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu as Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Lord Nityānanda as Balarāma, the first expansion of Kṛṣṇa. Advaitācārya, another principal disciple of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu's, is accepted as an expansion of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Thus Advaitācārya is also the Lord, or, more precisely, an expansion of the Lord. The word advaita means "nondual," and His name is such because He is nondifferent from the Supreme Lord. He is also called ācārya, teacher, because He disseminated Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In this way He is just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Although Lord Caitanya is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself, He appeared as a devotee to teach people in general how to love Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, Advaitācārya appeared just to distribute the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. 

Thus He is also the Lord incarnated as a devotee. In the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, Kṛṣṇa is manifested in five different features, and He and His associates appear as devotees of the Supreme Lord in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda, Advaitācārya, Śrī Gadādhara, and Śrī Śrīvāsa. In all cases, Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the source of energy for all His devotees. Since this is the case, if we take shelter of Caitanya Mahāprabhu for the successful execution of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are sure to make progress. One devotional song by Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura states, "My dear Lord Caitanya, please have mercy upon me. There is no one who is as merciful as You. My plea is most urgent because Your mission is to deliver fallen souls, and no one is more fallen than I. I beg priority.
Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 1975 Edition : Cc. Introduction :

Lord Caitanya always chants the holy name of Kṛṣṇa and describes it also, and because He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, whoever meets Him will automatically chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa and later describe it to others. He injects one with transcendental Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which merges the chanter in transcendental bliss. In all respects, therefore, He appears before everyone as Kṛṣṇa, either by personality or by sound. Simply by seeing Lord Caitanya one at once remembers Lord Kṛṣṇa. One may therefore accept Him as viṣṇu-tattva. In other words, Lord Caitanya is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself.

Sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam further indicates that Lord Caitanya is Lord Kṛṣṇa. His body is always decorated with ornaments of sandalwood and with sandalwood paste. By His superexcellent beauty He subdues all the people of the age. In other descents the Lord sometimes used weapons to defeat the demoniac, but in this age the Lord subdues them with His all-attractive figure as Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that His beauty is His astra, or weapon, to subdue the demons. Because He is all-attractive, it is to be understood that all the demigods lived with Him as His companions. His acts were uncommon and His associates wonderful. When He propagated the saṅkīrtana movement, He attracted many great scholars and ācāryas, especially in Bengal and Orissa. Lord Caitanya is always accompanied by His best associates like Lord Nityānanda, Advaita, Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 1975 Edition  The External Reasons for Lord Caitanya's Appearance  Adi 3.52

advaita ācārya, nityānanda, śrīnivāsa

gadādhara, dāmodara, murāri, haridāsa

āra yata caitanya-kṛṣṇera bhakta-gaṇa

bhakti-bhāve śire dhari sabāra caraṇa

SYNONYMS

advaita ācārya—Advaita Ācārya; nityānanda—Lord Nityānanda; śrīnivāsa—Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita; gadādhara—GadādharaPaṇḍita; dāmodara—Svarūpa Dāmodara; murāri—Murāri Gupta; haridāsa—Haridāsa Ṭhākura; āra—other; yata—all;caitanya-kṛṣṇera—of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya; bhakta-gaṇa—devotees; bhakti-bhāve—with a devotional attitude; śire—on my head; dhari—I take; sabāra—of all of them; caraṇa—the lotus feet.

TRANSLATION

Bowing down with devotion, I hold on my head the lotus feet of Advaita Ācārya, Nityānanda, Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita,Gadādhara, Svarūpa Dāmodara, Murāri Gupta, Haridāsa and all the other devotees of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya..

PURPORT

The author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta teaches us that we must offer our respectful obeisances to all such pure confidential devotees of Lord Caitanya if we indeed want to know Him in truth.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 4: The Confidential Reasons for Lord Caitanya's Appearance : Adi 4.227-228

  In his Anubhāṣya commentary Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura describes the Pañca-tattva as follows: The supreme energetic, the Personality of Godhead, manifesting in five kinds of pastimes, appears as the Pañca-tattva. Actually there is no difference between them because they are situated on the absolute platform, but they manifest different spiritual varieties as a challenge to impersonalists to taste different kinds of spiritual humors (rasas). In the Vedas it is said, parāsyaśaktir vividhaiva śrūyate: "The varieties of energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are differently known." From this statement of the Vedas one can understand that there are eternal varieties of humors, or tastes, in the spiritual world. Śrī Gaurāṅga, Śrī Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita, Śrī Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa are all on the same platform, but in spiritually distinguishing between them one should understand that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the form of a devotee, Nityānanda Prabhu appears in the form of a devotee's spiritual master, Advaita Prabhu is the form of a bhakta (devotee) incarnation,Gadādhara Prabhu is the energy of a bhakta, and Śrīvāsa is a pure devotee. Thus there are spiritual distinctions between them. The bhakta-rūpa (Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu), the bhakta-svarūpa (Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu) and thebhakta-avatāra (Śrī Advaita Prabhu) are described as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, His immediate manifestation and His plenary expansion, and They all belong to the Viṣṇu category. Although the spiritual and marginal energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu, they are predominated subjects, whereas Lord Viṣṇu is the predominator. As such, although they are on the same platform, they have appeared differently in order to facilitate tasting of transcendental mellows. Actually, however, there is no possibility of one being different from the other, for the worshiper and the worshipable cannot be separated at any stage. On the absolute platform, one cannot be understood without the other.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta - 1975 Edition : Cc. Lord Caitanya in Five Features : Adi 7.5