Ramakrishna

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Ramakrishna ( Gadādhar Chattopādhyāya; 1836–86). Hindu ascetic and mystic. Born in a Bengali village, at 19 he became the priest of Kālī at Dakshineśwar, near Calcutta, and lived there for almost all the rest of his life, exploring a wide range of religious experiences. Ramakrishna drew around himself a band of English-educated young Bengalis, who saw in him a living symbol of their ancient religious tradition and a sign of its renewed vitality in the modern world. He came to be regarded by some as an avatāra (manifestation) of God. To these disciples he expounded his teaching, mainly in stories and short sayings. After Ramakrishna's death, his disciple, Vivekānanda, drew together many of his other followers in a movement which is now world-wide, the Ramakrishna Mission, basing it upon his own interpretation of his master's teaching.

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