* 1836 – Sri Ramakrishna, Indian Bengali guru of Swami Vivekananda ( d. 1886 )

His guru, Ramakrishna, taught him Advaita Vedanta ( non-dualism ); that all religions are true and that service to man was the most effective worship of God.

Though Narendra did not accept Ramakrishna as his guru initially and revolted against his ideas, he was attracted by his personality and visited him frequently.

In time, Narendra accepted Ramakrishna as his guru and completely surrendered as disciple.

In 1864, Ramakrishna practiced vātsalya bhāva under a Vaishnava guru Jatadhari.

In 1866, Govinda Roy, a Hindu guru who practiced Sufism, initiated Ramakrishna into Islam.

On Swami Vivekananda's guru, Ramakrishna, Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem: " To the Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Ramakrishna Deva ".

The house of 3, Gour Mohan Mukherjee street, Kolkata, where Vivekananda was born, now it is maintained by the Ramakrishna Mission.

" During his final days, Ramakrishna asked Narendra Nath to take care of other monastic disciples and in turn asked them to look upon Vivekananda as their leader.

Swami Vivekananda and other disciples of Ramakrishna in Baranagar Math, in 1887

During this period, Vivekananda returned to Baranagar Math a few times, because of ill health and to arrange for monetary funds after Balaram Bose and Suresh Chandra Mitra, the disciples of Ramakrishna who sponsored the Math had died.

In July 1890, accompanied by the fellow monk Swami Akhandananda ( also a disciple of Ramakrishna ), Vivekananda visited the Himalayas.

On 1 May 1897 at Calcutta, Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission — the organ for social service.

Swami Vivekananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission is one of the greatest Hindu missionaries to The West

Roy, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were all influenced by the Hindu school of Advaita Vedanta, which, arguably, emphasises unity over diversity.

For writer Stephen Prothero, many perennialist thinkers ( including Armstrong, Huston Smith and Joseph Campbell ) are influenced by Hindu reformer Ram Mohan Roy and Hindu mystics Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda.

Both Roerichs became avid readers of the Vedantist essays of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, and the Bhagavad Gita.

Ratnam grew up in Chennai, doing his schooling there completed his graduation with a degree in commerce at Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College which is affiliated with Madras University, Chennai and then obtained an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, after which he worked as a management consultant before becoming a filmmaker.

His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda – both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu renaissance during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had sixteen disciples ( other than Swami Vivekananda ) who became monks of the Ramakrishna Order ; they are often considered his apostles.

" This prompted some of his students, including Narendranath Dutta ( later Swami Vivekananda ), to visit Ramakrishna.

* Monastic disciples who renounced their family and became the earliest monks of the Ramakrishna order — Narendranath Dutta ( Swami Vivekananda ), Rakhal Chandra Ghosh ( Swami Brahmananda ), Kaliprasad Chandra ( Swami Abhedananda ), Taraknath Ghoshal ( Swami Shivananda ), Sashibhushan Chakravarty ( Swami Ramakrishnananda ), Saratchandra Chakravarty ( Swami Saradananda ), Tulasi Charan Dutta ( Swami Nirmalananda ), Gangadhar Ghatak ( Swami Akhandananda ), Hari Prasana ( Swami Vijnanananda ) and others.

According to traditional accounts, before his death, Ramakrishna transferred his spiritual powers to Vivekananda and reassured Vivekananda of his avataric status.

Ramakrishna asked Vivekananda to look after the welfare of the disciples, saying, " keep my boys together " and asked him to " teach them ".

Ramakrishna also asked other monastic disciples to look upon Vivekananda as their leader.

The Ramakrishna Math and Mission is one of the main organizations founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1897.

Other organizations include the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society founded by Swami Abhedananda in 1923, the Ramakrishna Sarada Math founded by a rebel group in 1929, the Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission formed by Swami Nityananda in 1976, and the Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission founded in 1959 as a sister organization by the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

* 2011 – Nataraja Ramakrishna, Indian dancer and composer ( b. 1923 )

* 1837 – Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, Indian scholar and orientalist ( d. 1925 )

Chennai, Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1998.

Koneru Ramakrishna Rao, a past President of the Parapsychological Association, has written that the lack of any agreed-upon theory of parapsychology is one reason for the general skepticism of the scientific community regarding the existence of paranormal phenomena.

* 1925 – Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, Indian actress, singer, and director ( d. 2005 )

* August 16 – Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Indian spiritual figure ( b. 1836 )

* February 18 – Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Bengali religious leader ( d. 1886 )

He was the chief disciple of the 19th century saint Ramakrishna and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.

His first introduction to the saint Ramakrishna occurred in a literature class in General Assembly's Institution, when he heard Hastie lecturing on William Wordsworth's poem The Excursion.

" trance " in the poem, Hastie suggested his students to visit Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar to know the real meaning of trance.

This prompted some of his students, including Narendra, to visit Ramakrishna.

Narendra's meeting with Ramakrishna in November 1881 proved to be a turning point in Narendra's life.

Though at first Narendra could not accept Ramakrishna and his visions, he did not neglect him.

Instead, he tested Ramakrishna, who faced all of Narendra's arguments and examinations with patience —" Try to see the truth from all angles " was his reply.

During the course of five years of his training under Ramakrishna, Narendra was increasingly ready to renounce everything for the sake of realising God.

In 1885, Ramakrishna developed throat cancer and he was transferred to Calcutta and later to Cossipore.

Narendra's spiritual education under Ramakrishna continued.