Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1833–86) was perhaps the most well-known saint of 19th-century India and a key figure in the Bengali Renaissance. His philosophy had a profound impact on intellectuals even beyond the country’s borders. Philologist and Orientalist Friedrich Max Müller, inspired by this philosophy—primarily based on the Vedanta—applied it in his study of ‘the science of religion’. He, therefore, delved deeper into the essence of the language of Ramakrishna’s sayings. He was born by birth, Ramakrishna was given the religio-theological title of honour ‘Paramahamsa’, as he was identified as ‘the enlightened one’ who had experienced God. He observed different religious rituals alike, and believed that ‘A truly religious man should think that other religions also are paths leading to the truth….’ He perceived God as a parent who knew how ‘the same fish may be made to taste differently’ for the children according to their tastes and temperaments. His earthy aphorisms, comprising parables and metaphors, narrated in rustic Bengali, translated Hindu philosophical concepts and reached out easily to the masses. The present book is one of the early documentations by a Western scholar of Ramakrishna’s life and sayings as were collected by his followers after his death.