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.

He had a walk with Swami Premananda, a brother-disciple, and gave him instructions on the future of the Ramakrishna Math.

On the other bank of the river, Ramakrishna had been cremated sixteen years before.

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

Several of the monks had only seen Ramakrishna a few times.

Ramakrishna reportedly had experiences of similar nature a few other times in his childhood — while worshipping the goddess Vishalakshi, and portraying god Shiva in a drama during Shivaratri festival.

Ramakrishna reportedly had a vision of the goddess Kali as the universal Mother, which he described as "... houses, doors, temples and everything else vanished altogether ; as if there was nothing anywhere!

Rumors spread to Kamarpukur that Ramakrishna had become unstable as a result of his spiritual exercises at Dakshineswar.

By the time his bride joined him, Ramakrishna had already embraced the monastic life of a sannyasi ; as a result, the marriage was never consummated.

According to the Bhairavi, Ramakrishna was experiencing phenomena that accompany mahabhava — the supreme attitude of loving devotion towards the divine – and quoting from the bhakti shastras, she said that other religious figures like Radha and Chaitanya had similar experiences.

Ramakrishna acknowledged the left-hand tantric path, though it had " undesirable features ", as one of the " valid roads to God-realization ", he consistently cautioned his devotees and disciples against associating with it.

According to Ramakrishna, towards the end of this sadhana, he had a vision of Sita, the consort of Rama, merging into his body.

According to Ramakrishna, he had an intense vision of two young boys merging into his body.

Ramakrishna said that he " devoutly repeated the name of Allah, wore a cloth like the Arab Moslems, said their prayer five times daily, and felt disinclined even to see images of the Hindu gods and goddesses, much less worship them — for the Hindu way of thinking had disappeared altogether from my mind.

" According to Ramakrishna, after three days of practice he had a vision of a " radiant personage with grave countenance and white beard resembling the Prophet and merging with his body ".

Ramakrishna describes of a vision in which the picture of Madonna and Child Jesus became alive and had a vision in which Jesus merged with his body.

In 1875, Ramakrishna met the influential Brahmo Samaj leader Keshab Chandra Sen. Keshab had accepted Christianity, and had separated from the Adi Brahmo Samaj.

Formerly, Keshab had rejected idolatry, but under the influence of Ramakrishna he accepted Hindu polytheism and established the " New Dispensation " ( Nava Vidhan ) religious movement, based on Ramakrishna's principles —" Worship of God as Mother ", " All religions as true " and " Assimilation of Hindu polytheism into Brahmoism ".

Newspapers reported that Ramakrishna was spreading " Love " and " Devotion " among the educated classes of Calcutta and that he had succeeded in reforming the character of some youths whose morals had been corrupt.

Ramakrishna also had interactions with Debendranath Tagore, the father of Rabindranath Tagore, and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a renowned social worker.

Ramakrishna was skilled with words and had an extraordinary style of preaching and instructing, which may have helped convey his ideas to even the most skeptical temple visitors.

During Ramakrishna's last days, Narendra and some of the other disciples received the ochre monastic robes from Ramakrishna, forming the first monastic order of Ramakrishna.

Shortly before his death in 1886, Ramakrishna gave the ocher cloths to his young disciples, who were planning to become renunciates.

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.

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

From Madurai, he visited Rameswaram, Pondicherry and Madras and there he met some his most devoted disciples, who played important roles in collecting funds for his voyage to America and later in establishing the Ramakrishna Mission in Madras.

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

He moved about in India for a few years, with a Bengali novice Buddhist, the future Buddharakshita, as his companion, meditating and experiencing for himself the company of eminent spiritual personalities of the times, like Mata Anandamayi, Ramana Maharishi and Swamis of Ramakrishna Mission.

Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar ( 1837 – 1925 ) and Justice Ranade ( 1842 – 1901 ) were the pioneers of Prarthana Samaj, an organisation for general, social and religious reform.

Ramakrishna attended a village school with some regularity for 12 years, he later rejected the traditional schooling saying that he was not interested in a " bread-winning education ".

Ramakrishna was 23 at this point, but the age difference was typical for 19th century rural Bengal.

During the practise of this bhava, Ramakrishna dressed himself in women's attire for several days and regarded himself as one of the Gopis of Vrindavan.

Totapuri stayed with Ramakrishna for nearly eleven months and instructed him further in the teachings of advaita.

Ramakrishna said that this period of nirvikalpa samadhi came to an end when he received a command from the Mother Kali to " remain in Bhavamukha ; for the enlightenment of the people ".

Ramakrishna said that for several days he was filled with Christian thoughts and no longer thought of going to the Kali temple.

According to the biographers, for hours Ramakrishna would reminisce about his own eventful spiritual life, tell tales, explain Vedantic doctrines with extremely mundane illustrations, raise questions and answer them himself, crack jokes, sing songs, and mimic the ways of all types of worldly people, keeping the visitors were enthralled.

In preparation for monastic life, Ramakrishna ordered his monastic disciples to beg their food from door to door without distinction of caste.

The principal source for Ramakrishna's teaching is Mahendranath Gupta's Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita and is regarded as a Bengali classic.

During the 1937 Parliament of Religions, which was held at the Ramakrishna Mission in Calcutta, Tagore acknowledged Ramakrishna, whose birth centenary was being celebrated, as a great saint because “ the largeness of his spirit could comprehend seemingly antagonistic modes of sadhana, and because the simplicity of his soul shames for all time the pomp and pedantry of pontiffs and pundits .”

" Vivekananda criticized his followers for " brazenly " projecting Ramakrishna as an avatara and miracle-worker.

Sometimes a human is venerated at a Hindu shrine along with a deity, for instance the 19th century religious teacher Sri Ramakrishna is venerated at the Ramakrishna Temple in Kolkata, India.

Down to his last five pence, he made his way to the Ramakrishna Mission of London where the residing Swami gave him money for a hotel room for the night.