page_title: Mahendranath Gupta
section_title: Meetings with Ramakrishna
hierarchical_section_title: Mahendranath Gupta / Life / Meetings with Ramakrishna
caption_attribution_description: English: Group photo of devotees and disciples of Ramakrishna. First Row (L to R): Akshay Kumar Sen, Girish Chandra Gosh (center), Swami Adbhutananda, Mahendranath Gupta. Second Row: Kaliprasad Gosh (behind Akshay Kumar Sen), Devendranath Mazoomdar (behind Girish Chandra Gosh to the left), Swami Advaitananda (behind Girish Chandra Gosh to the right).
context_page_description: 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."
context_section_description: As an adult, Mahendranath, like some of the other disciples of Ramakrishna, was connected with the Brahmo Samaj for several years. Mahendranath had lost his mother at a very early age and was experiencing domestic friction in the joint family. As the friction within the joint family increased, Mahendranath decided to commit suicide. At this critical juncture, Mahendranath's nephew took him to the temple garden of Dakshineswar Kali Temple, where Ramakrishna, a mystic and the chief priest of the Kali temple lived. It was here that Gupta met Ramakrishna for the first time and this meeting was a turning point in his life. Years later, when Mahendranath was asked about the greatest day in his life, he said, "the day I had my first darshan of Thakur [Ramakrishna] in February 1882." According to other traditional accounts, Mahendranath related that he may have met Ramakrishna for the first time when he was four years old and became separated from his mother while visiting the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. He began crying, and a blissful and youthful man came up and consoled him. He believed it to be Ramakrishna, who was then a priest at the Kali temple.
caption: Girish Chandra Ghosh, Swami Adbhutananda, Mahendranath Gupta and other disciples and devotees of Ramakrishna
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