Acaryas, gurus and sadhus
Guru parampara is like a river carrying the Ganges water of sacred truths through time and place. A spiritual seeker can approach this river from the point where he is, that is to say he can access this transcendental flow of conceptions by approaching a guru who is in the seeker’s own time and place. “Approach a living guru who has realized the truth”, says Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, “Genuflect, serve him, and inquire from him about that truth.”
The Gaudiya Vaishnava school of philosophy is one of the major Vaishnava schools in the world. The Padma purana mentions four main Vaishnava schools, which originate from Sri Krishna, the Supreme Lord. These are the Sri (Lakshmi), Kumara, Brahma and Rudra, founded by Ramanuja, Nimbaditya, Madhva and Vishnuswami-Vallabhacharya. The Gaudiya Vaishnava school takes its roots from the Brahma-Madhva sampradaya (community).
The disciplic lineage of the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Vaishnava parampara is:
1. Krishna 11. Jnanasindhu
2. Brahma 12. Dayanidhi
3. Narada 13. Vidyanidhi
4. Vyasa 14. Rajendra
5. Madhva 15. Jayadharma
6. Padmanabha 16. Purushottama
7. Narahari 17. Brahmanya Tirtha
8. Madhava 18. Vyasa Tirtha
9. Aksobhya 19. Lakshmipati
10. Jaya Tirtha 20. Madhavendra Puri
The Gaudiya-Vaishnava sampradaya begins from Madhavendra Puri, who was a disciple of Lakshmipati from the Madhva sampradaya.
21. Isvara Puri, Nityananda, Advaita
22. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
23. The six Goswamis of Vrindavan (Rupa and Sanatana Goswami, Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami, Jiva Goswami, Gopala Bhatta Goswami, Raghunatha dasa Goswami)
24. Krishna dasa
25. Narottama Das Thakura
26. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura
27. Baladeva Vidyabhushana
28. Jaganatha Das Babaji Maharaja
29. Bhaktivinode Thakura
30. Guarakisora Das Babaji Maharaja
31. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Gosvami Prabhupada
32. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
and ISKCON Gurus.................and many others bona fide gurus....