Ramakrishna, also called Ramakrishna Paramahansa, born Ramakrishna Chattopadhay, was an Indian Hindu mystic. A devotee of the goddess Kali, Ramakrishna after adhering to various religious practices from the Hindu traditions of Vaishnavism, Tantric Shaktism, and Advaita Vedanta, as well as from Islam and Christianity, proclaimed that various world religions are "so many paths to reach one and the same goal", thus validating the essential unity of religions. His parable-based teachings espoused the ultimate unity of diverse religions as being means to enable the realization of the same God. He is regarded by his followers as an avatar or divine incarnation of God.
Shuddhananda who was the fifth president of the Ramakrishna Order, was a direct monastic disciple of Vivekananda. He joined the Ramakrishna Math in 1897. He became a trustee of Ramakrishna Math and a member of the governing body of Ramakrishna Mission in May 1903. He also took up the editorship of the Bengali magazine called Udbodhan for sometime. He was appointed as the secretary of the math and the mission in 1927 and as the vice president in 1937. In 1938, he became the president of the order. His tenure was short, as he died in 1938. He is renowned in the literary circles to have translated most of Vivekananda's original works from English to Bengali.
Swami Virajananda, born Kalikrishna Bose, was an initiated disciple of Sarada Devi and the sixth president of the Ramakrishna Order. Born as the son of Trailokyanath Bose and Nishadkalidevi, Virajananda was the first person to join the Ramakrishna Order after the direct disciples of Ramakrishna. In 1897, he was initiated into sannyasa by Vivekananda. From 1899 onward he served in Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati and became its president in 1906. He is recognised as a monastic disciple of Vivekananda.
Mahendranath Gupta, , was a disciple of Ramakrishna and a great mystic himself. He was the author of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, a Bengali classic; in English, it is known as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He was also an early teacher to Paramahansa Yogananda, a famous 20th-century yogi, guru and philosopher. In his autobiography, Yogananda noted that Gupta ran a small boys' high school in Kolkata, and he recounted their visits, as they often traveled to the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple together. Having a devotional nature, Gupta worshipped the Divine Mother in the form of Kali, and often reflected the wisdom of his guru Ramakrishna in his daily life and mannerisms. Yogananda reverentially regarded Gupta's spirituality, calling him an "Incarnation of purity" and "the greatest man of humility I ever knew."Paul Brunton also narratives a meeting with Mahendra, in his famous memoir, 'A search in secret India'.
Vedanta Societies refer to organizations, groups, or societies formed for the study, practice, and propagation of Vedanta, the culmination of Vedas. More specifically, they "comprise the American arm of the Indian Ramakrishna movement", and refer to branches of the Ramakrishna Order located outside India.
Balaram Bose was one of the prominent householder disciples of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He was the son of Radhamohan Bose. He is often referred in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna often visited his house and participated in kirtana and other devotional functions. Sri Maa Sarada Devi and some other devotees of the master, including Swami Adbhutananda lived in the house of Balaram Bose after the master's death. He was a great philanthropist and donated regularly to government and civilian organizations.
Adbhutananda, born Rakhturam, was a direct monastic disciple of Ramakrishna, a Yogi of nineteenth century Bengal. He is familiarly known as Latu Maharaj among the followers of Ramakrishna. Adbhutananda was the first monastic disciple to come to Ramakrishna. While most of Ramakrishna's direct disciples came from the Bengali intelligentsia, Adbhutananda's lack of formal education made him unique amongst them. He was a servant boy of a devotee of Ramakrishna, and he later became his monastic disciple. Though unlettered, Adbhutananda was considered as a monk with great spiritual insight by Ramakrishna's followers, and Vivekananda regarded him as "the greatest miracle of Ramakrishna".
Pravrajika Mokshaprana, born Renuka Basu, was the second President of the Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission. In Hinduism, Sri Sarada Math is the monastic Order for women established as an independent counterpart to the Ramakrishna Order.
Gauri Ma, born Mridani, was a prominent Indian disciple of Ramakrishna, companion of Sarada Devi and founder of Kolkata's Saradeswari Ashram.
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar is a residential boys' senior secondary school in Deoghar, Jharkhand, India, established in 1922. It is the oldest institute of Ramakrishna Mission, and used to be visited by brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda. Swami Jayantananda is the present secretary, and Swami Divyasudhananda is the current principal of the school.
Yogin Ma, born Yogindra Mohini Biswas, was one of the principal female disciples of Sarada Devi, the wife and spiritual consort of the Hindu mystic Ramakrishna. Together with Gopaler Ma, she was a constant companion of Sarada Devi, revered as the holy mother in the monastic order of Ramakrishna.
Swami Yogananda was a disciple of Ramakrishna, the 19th-century mystic. He took his formal initiation from Sarada Devi, the "holy mother" of Ramakrishna Order and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna. He was the first vice-president of Ramakrishna Mission. He belonged to the family of Sabarna Roy Choudhury, an aristocratic family of erstwhile Bengal. He had a very short life, but he played a very important role during the formative years of Ramakrishna Mission. He was also a dedicated and devoted attendant to Sarada Devi during her stay in Calcutta after Ramakrishna's death. He was one of the disciples whom Ramakrishna referred to as "Iswarakoti" or the "ever perfect soul".
Saradananda, also known as Swami Saradananda, was born as Sarat Chandra Chakravarty in 1865, and was one of the direct monastic disciples of Ramakrishna. He was the first Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, a post which he held until his death in 1927. He established the Udbodhan house in the Bagbazar area of Calcutta, which was built primarily for the stay of Sri Sarada Devi in Calcutta, from where he used to publish the Bengali magazine Udbodhan. There he wrote Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga in Bengali, on the life of Ramakrishna, which was translated into English as Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master. He is believed to be reincarnation of Saint Peter and he allegedly went into Samadhi when he was in the Saint Peter Church and said that "I remembered my past" and wrote in his diary that "Saint Peter again."
Golap Ma was a direct householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th-century mystic and saint, and a foremost companion of Sri Sarada Devi, his spiritual consort and the Holy Mother of Ramakrishna Order, along with her other companion, Yogin Ma. Her real name was Annapurna Devi, or Golap Sundari Devi. She was also referred to as a "grief-stricken Brahmani" in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. She played a very important role in the early development of the Sri Ramakrishna movement and stayed, until her death, in Udbodhan, the house where the Holy Mother stayed in Calcutta. She was popular as Golap Ma among the devotees of the Ramakrishna Order.
Gopaler Ma was a devotee and a householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, the saint and mystic from Bengal. Her birth name was Aghoremani Devi, but she came to be known as Gopaler Ma among the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, owing to her intense motherly love for Sri Ramakrishna as "Gopala" or baby Krishna. She was famous for her divine visions of Lord Krishna as a baby and her devotion to the ideals of Sri Ramakrishna. In her later years, she was very close to Swami Vivekananda and Sister Nivedita. She spent the last few years of her life with Sister Nivedita.
Achalananda, popularly known as Kedar Baba, was a direct monastic disciple of Vivekananda and the founder of Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service, in Varanasi. He initially worked as a policeman, but was then influenced by the ideology of Vivekananda.
Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, translated by Swami Jagadananda, is an English translation of the Bengali biography Sri Ramakrishna Leela Prasanga, of Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th-century Indian saint and mystic. Its Bengali original was written by Swami Saradananda, which is based on interviews of persons who knew or interacted with him. It is therefore a first-hand source. The original Bengali version published was composed in five volumes and was the first full-scale biography of the saint. This is an eyewitness account and therefore carries more credibility than later books on Sri Ramakrishna. The English translation was first published in 1952. The original Bengali book was written from 1909 to 1919, over a period of ten years, in order to repay the debt incurred for constructing Udbodhan House for Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi.
Swami Prakashananda (1874–1927) was a monastic disciple of Vivekananda and a monk of the Ramakrishna Order who played a major role in propagating and promoting the Vedanta philosophy and Vivekananda's message in India and America. He came to the US in 1906 to serve under Trigunatitananda, a direct disciple of Ramakrishna at the Vedanta Society of San Francisco, later renamed as Vedanta Society of Northern California, and later became its president.
Vimalananda (1872–1908) was an Indian spiritual writer who was one of the monastic disciples of Vivekananda and an early monk of the Ramakrishna Order. He was involved in the publication of Prabuddha Bharata. He was actively involved in running day-to-day operations of the Advaita Ashrama at Mayavati during the early days of the Ashrama. He also inaugurated the Ramakrishna Math at Ulsoor in Bangalore in 1906. He died in 1908 at the Mayavati Ashrama.
Sri Sarada Math is named after Sri Sarada Devi, the consort of Sri Ramakrishna, and founded on 2 December 1954. Built by a group of eight sadhavis, as per the instructions given by Swami Vivekananda, it serves as a monastic order for women. Headquartered at Dakshineshwar, Kolkata, the organisation has branch centres all over India, in Sri Lanka and Australia. The nuns of this order use the title "Pravrajika" before their ordained name, and are usually addressed as "Mataji" meaning 'revered mother'.
