Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

The Story

Born in a poor Brahmin village family in 1836, young Gadadhar was a dreamy boy who fell into trances at the sight of birds and clouds. At Dakshineswar, where his elder brother placed him as a priest, he began a spiritual life of such intensity that he wept for the Mother Goddess with the anguish of a child for its mother — until he saw her in a blaze of light.

His experience was not limited to his own faith: he practised the Muslim and Christian paths too, and found them all leading to the same God. 'As many faiths, so many paths,' he taught. His simplicity and his parables — 'the river of knowledge must pass through the sieve of the heart' — made him the most beloved teacher of his time.

His disciples included the young Narendranath, who doubted everything — and whom Ramakrishna loved as a son, convincing the agnostic through his own life that God was real. He died of throat cancer in 1886, leaving the movement that would become the Ramakrishna Mission — and a message of the unity of all religions.