Appearance Day of Sri Nimbarkacarya

What is the Appearance Day of Sri Nimbarkacarya?

The Appearance Day of Sri Nimbarkacarya is the day devotees remember the birth of the great Vaishnava acarya Sri Nimbarka. In 2026 it is on Tuesday, 24 November, the day of the Kartika full moon.

Significance

Sri Nimbarkacarya belongs to the Kumara sampradaya, the line of disciplic succession that comes from the four Kumaras. It is one of the four Vaishnava sampradayas that Srila Prabhupada called original and authorized. He wrote many books on dvaitadvaita-vada, the teaching that the soul is both different from and one with the Lord. He is believed to have lived around the 11th and 12th centuries and spent most of his devotional life at Nimbagrama near Govardhana.

Srila Prabhupada explained why there are four:

There were four listeners when Krishna instructed Arjuna, so there are four bona fide Visnu sampradayas.

Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Madhavananda, 25 April 1972

How to observe it

On an acarya's appearance day devotees hear his life and teachings, offer him respectful obeisances and chant the holy names. This year the day is shared with Sri Krsna Rasayatra, Tulasi-Saligrama Vivaha and the last day of Bhisma Pancaka.