The nineteenth century saw India face a great crisis. With the British conquest of India came the invasion of Western civilization upon the country. Awed by the material power of the conquering nation, Indians hailed everything Western as a thing to be welcomed. In the meantime, Christianity one of the greatest proselytizing religions of the world-began to work silently for a through cultural conquest of the land.

At this psychological moment appeared Sri Ramakrishna, an embodiment of the spirit of India’s culture and religion. He opened the eyes of the Indians to the beauty, grandeur and strength of Hinduism at a time when their faith in them greatly slackened.

Ramakrishna was born on February 18, 1836 in the village of Kamarpukur in the district of Hooghly in Bengal, of a pious Brahmin family. His parents named him Gadadhar. From his very birth, Gadadhar cast a spell not only over his parents and relatives, but also over his neighbors. He began to show wonderful intelligence and memory even at the early age of five. The precocious boy learnt by heart the names of his ancestors, hymns to various gods and goddesses, and tales from the great national epics. His father sent him to the village school where he made fair progress and directed all his attention to the study of the study of the life and character of spiritual heroes. A constant study of these subjects often made him forgetful of the world and threw him into deep meditation. As Gadadhar grew older, he began to have trances whenever his religious felings were roused. On account of family circumstances, he came to Calcutta where he was entrusted with the duties of a priest. At that time there was living in Calcutta a rich widow of great piety named Rani Rasmani. She built a Kali temple at Dakshineswar where Gadadhar felt quite at home and found greater opportunities to pursue his spiritual practices. Gadadhar was married at a young age to a girl-wife, Sarada Devi, who later became known as the ‘Holy Mother’ to the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna.

Ramakrishna had a catholic spirit from the very beginning. He made no distinction between one form of God and another. The realization of one aspect of the Reality inspired him to take up another and to follow it with unflinching devotion till that aspect of Truth revealed itself. Referring to this period of his life Sri Ramakrishna often said afterwards, "No sooner was one state transcended than another took its place. Before that whirlwind, the sacred thread was blown away, and even the wearing cloth hardly remained ……. The idea of caste lost all meaning for me ……".

Ramakrishna entered into Mahasamadhi and departed from the world on August 16^th, 1886. Some sayings of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

1. God is formless and God is with form too, and He is That which transcends both form and formlessness. He alone can say what else He is.
2. It is ignorance and folly to attempt to circumscribe god. He is both attribute less and with attributes at one and the same time. He is also beyond both. Take the instance of ice, water and vapor.
3. God with form is visible, nay we can touch Him, as one does his dearest friend.
4. As long as the sound of a bell is audible, it exists in the region of form; but when it is no longer heard, it is form less. Similarly, God is both formless and with form.
5. The sunlights up the earth, but a small cloud hides it from our view. Similarly, the insignificant and all-witnessing Satchidananda.
6. When shall I be free? When ‘I’ vanishes. ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ is ignorance; ‘Thou’ and ‘Thine’ is knowledge.
7. By acquiring the conviction that all is done by the will of God, one becomes only a tool in His hands. Then one is free, even in this life.
8. If you want in right earnest to be good and pure, God will send you the right teacher. Earnestness is the one thing necessary.
9. As a boy holding a post whirls about it with headlong speed without fear of falling, so perform your worldly duties, fixing your hold firmly upon God, and you shall be free from danger.
10. A person living in society, especially as a householder, should make a show of the spirit of resisting will for purposes of self-defence, but at the same time, try to avoid paying back evil for evil.
11. He born to no purpose who, having the rate privilege of being born a man, is unable to realize God in this life.
12. You cannot get butter by crying yourself hoarse, "there is butter in the milk". If you wish to make butter, you must turn the milk into curds, and churn it well. Then alone you can get butter. So if you long to see God, practise spiritual exercises.
13. You will see God if your love for Him is as strong as that of the attachment of the worldly-minded person for things of the world.
14. The darkness of centuries is dispersed as soon as a single light is brought into the room. The accumulated ignorance and misdoings of innumerable births vanish at one glance of the gracious eyes of God.
15. Pray to Him in any way you will. He is sure to hear you, for He hears even the footfall of an ant.