Sri Ramakrishna: A Biography

Summary

The biography of Sri Ramakrishna is the story of an intense search for God. Sri Ramakrishna was not satisfied until he realized God to be real with every fiber of his being. He ultimately saw God more intensely than he saw the world. Sri Ramakrishna talked with God as a young child speaks to the mother throughout the day. In him, there was only the thought of God, and he saw God everywhere and in everything. The Nobel Laureate Romain Rolland described Sri Ramakrishna’s life as the fulfillment of the spiritual aspirations of three hundred million Hindus for the last two thousand years. Mahatma Gandhi said, “No one can read the story of his life without being convinced that God alone is real and all else is illusion.”

Swami Nikhilananda was a disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, the wife and spiritual companion of Sri Ramakrishna. He was a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order of India, and founder in 1933 of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York. As a gifted speaker, he taught classes and spoke on spiritual life and the harmony of religions in New York until his passing away in 1973. He was a beloved teacher to many spiritual aspirants, and also to students of philosophy, history, and religion. Nikhilananda had the rare privilege of intimately associating with many of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. His translations of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and his biographies of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, and Swami Vivekananda, are considered modern classics of spiritual literature.