Talk:Ramakrishna

message: The section is WAY to much for Tota Puri. He was one of Ramakrishna's gurus, but has a massive presence in the section about Ramakrishna's sadhana. Need to move much (almost all) to a Tota Puri article. I've encountered this Toda Puri empathisis before, including claiming that Puri was his only guru, which runs contrary to RK's whole outlook on the various religions and teachers. Puri wasn't the first or last. 
Any others feel this way? Ellis408 (talk) 16:14, 23 July 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I too feel this way. The section on Tota Puri blocks the reader from the rest of the article following it by it's sheer size. RamasSquirrel (talk) 02:39, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: I am also in favor for creating another article for Tota Puri as currently there is none. RamasSquirrel (talk) 02:41, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tota Puri 

message: This is about a change to the birth name of Ramakrishna. I changed this:
::Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Bengali: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, romanized: Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; pronounced [ramɔkriʂno pɔromoɦɔŋʃo] ⓘ, 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhay...
To this:
::Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Bengali: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, romanized: Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; pronounced [ramɔkriʂno pɔromoɦɔŋʃo] ⓘ, 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Ramakrishna Chattopadhay...
It is quite common for Bengalis to use nicknames - even various nick names for the same people. Research into original documents has brought forward information that was unavailable or overlooked before. Here was the line of thinking about the Ramakrishna birth name:
Most books just quote earlier books about Ramakrishna, that his childhood name was Gadadhar - but without a reference or primary source. A few books claim that the name Ramakrishna was given by Tota Puri during an initiation. Other's claim the name was given by Mathur Babu (the Rani's son-in-law and manager of the temple), again without primary sources.
However, in M's Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, he quotes a deed  signed in 1861 by the Rani Rasmani (who owned Dakshineswar, the temple where Ramakrishna lived for over thirty years) that in 1858 "Ramakrishna" was paid a monthly stipend of 5 rupees and 3 pairs of cloth. Tota Puri didn't come to the temple until 1864. 
In Swami Phabhananda's book, More About Ramakrishna, the first chapter is titled Who Gave the Name Ramakrishna and When?, he points out that the family was devoted to the Hindu deity Rama (the family deity was Sri Raghubir, an epithet of Rama), and the male children of Khudiram and Chandramani were all given names that started with Ram or Rama: Ramkumar, Rameswar, and Ramakrishna. 
Also, Ramakrishna confirmed this himself, as recorded in the original "M" diaries, recently translated by Swami Chetanananda from copies of the hand written Bengali originals, "I was a pet child of my father. He used to call me Ramakrishnababu."
Note: Prabhananda was the historian of the Ramakrishna Order and for a long time was head of the Institute of Culture in Calcutta, where visiting scholars can study and access the archives of the Order.Biography of Swami Prabhananda For more than 40 years, Chetanananda has been re-translating key books of the Order's history and writing about Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi and their disciples, referring to the most authoritative sources in the original Bengali, adding to, and correcting, the Order's history.Profile of Swami Chetanananda and the St. Louis Vedanta Society in the St. Louis Post Dispatch Vedanta Society of St. Louis
Ellis408 (talk) 08:17, 28 February 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Can anyone give any relevant reference about his birth name? Maybe from Kathamrita. I think it was Gadadhar which is commonly accepted.Mikemarssss (talk) 11:14, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: The references are listed below. It seems that the Order is correcting the record, based on research and recent translations. Gadadhar was certainly his boyhood nickname. The male given names seems to back this up - Ramkumar, Rameswar, and Ramakrishna. And when Ramakrishna joined Ramkumar at Dakshineswar, he would have used his proper name, not a boyhood nickname. Thank you Ellis408 (talk) 08:17, 28 February 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ramakrishna's Given Name