RĀMAKRṢṆA PARAMAHASSA. — His true name was Gadādhār Chatterji. He was born into a poor Brahmin family at Hoogly in Bengal on 20 February 1834 (according to others, 18 February 1836) and died on 15 March 1886.
At the age of seventeen, after his father’s death, he accompanied his elder brother, Pandit Rām Kāmār, to Kāśinesvar near Calcutta, where the latter was to serve as a priest in a temple dedicated to the goddess Kālī, revered as the divine mother by a Hindu sect. Gadādhār became his assistant. Gifted with a strong memory, he acquired a broad religious education and displayed uncommon outward signs of piety. To bring him back to normal life, he was married to a six-year-old girl; however, according to Hindu custom, she was to remain in her father’s house until the age of eleven or twelve. At that time, a Brahmin female ascetic (Sanyāsini) taught him the discipline of Yoga according to the Śākta school. His true spiritual guide, however, was a certain Totā-puri, who instructed him in the Vedānta of Śaṅkara and initiated him into the life of a Sanyāsī, leading him to the highest degree of Samādhi. He then took vows of absolute renunciation and celibacy, forgetting that he was already married, and from his Guru he received the name R. The epithet Paramaḥamsa, meaning “celestial swan,” was later given to him by his devotees.
Ecstasies and alleged visions of Kṛṣṇa himself became increasingly frequent, to the point of seriously endangering his health. To the great scandal of his devotees, he then practiced Muslim asceticism and later turned to Christianity, showing intense love for Jesus. Yet he remained a perfect Hindu, and his religious experiences claimed to demonstrate that all religions are true and capable of leading souls to the divine. The intensity of his religious manifestations and his love for the poor won him many disciples, who collected his dialogues and discourses. At the initiative of Narendra Nāth, known as Vivekānanda, they formed the religious association called the “R. Mission,” which today is one of the most powerful missionary organizations of Hinduism.