14. Female devotees We have already seen that Śrī Ramakrishna’s realization lifted him above all sex-consciousness and enabled him to approach men and women with the innocence and simplicity of a child. He looked upon every woman as the living embodiment of the Divine Mother. Women devotees who flocked to him for spiritual guidance and help in God-realization felt not

15. Last days The closing years of Śrī Ramakrishna’s life, though full of pathos, were as sublime and graceful as the mellowed beauty of a glorious sunset. Dakshineswar, once a silent and solitary retreat, was now the resort of hundreds of earnest souls who crowded his small room from morning till night to receive spiritual guidance. Śrī Ramakrishna, without the

16. End of the drama At the Cossipore garden was played the last act of the Master’s life on the physical plane. On the eve of his exit from the arena of the world, the Master showed himself at his highest, and making Narendra Nath the fit instrument for the propagation of his ideas, entrusted to him the charge of

17. After the passing Close contact for so long with such burning renunciation and godliness made it impossible for the young disciples to return to the world. Though they were without resources, Surendra Nath Mitra, a householder disciple of the Master, came forward with the necessary pecuniary assistance and encouraged them to found a home where the brotherhood would live

18. Some Sayings You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars in the heaven of day? So, O man, because you behold not God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God. God is formless and God is