Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna (1836-86) was a Bengali mystic, a devotee of the Goddess Kali, who also venerated his wife, Sarada Devi, as Holy Mother. In his spiritual experience, he claimed to have had the supreme mystical “God-realization” of many religious traditions and affirmed their unity. His disciple Vivekananda (1863-1902) was very different in temperament, more an activist and intellectual. After Vivekananda’s success at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions, he founded both the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in America and the Ramakrishna Mission in India in the name of his spiritual master.