Ramakrishna Paramahangsa (contd-2)

In 1855 Ramkumar was appointed as a priest of the Kali temple at Dakshineswar, founded by Ranirasmoni. Ramakrishna along with Hriday, his nephew, became assistant to Ramkumar. Ramakrishna was given the task of decorating the deity . When Ramkumar died in 1856, Ramakrishna took the charge of being the priest.

In 1859 Ramakrishna was married with Saradmani Mukhopadhyay daughter of Ramchandra Mukherjee of Jayrambati, three miles to the north-west of Kamarpukur. At the time of marriage she was of 5 and Ramakrishna was 23.Sarada stayed at Jayrambati and joined Ramakrishna at the age 18 at Dakshineswar when Ramkrishna was 36. By the time she joined him, Ramkrishna had already embraced the monastic life of a sanyasi, as a result the marriage was never consummated.

After his marriage Ramkrishna returned to Calcutta and resumed the charges of the temple again, and continued his sadhana  He continued his sadhana under teachers of tantra, Vedanta, and Vaisnava.

In 1861, Ramkrishna accepted Bhairavi Brahmani, a middle aged female asceticas a teache.

I 1864, he practiced vatsalye bhava under a Vaisnava guru Jatadhari.  

In 1865, Ramkrishna initiated into sannyasa by Tota Puri, an itinerant monkwho trained Ramkrishna in Adaita Vedanta,

the Hindu philosophy which empasises non-dualism.

Tota Puri stayed with Ramkrishna for about 11 months.

In 1866, Govinda Roy, a hindu guru who practiced Sufism, initiated Ramkrishna into Islam.

At the end 18873he started the practice of Christianity, when his devotee Shambhu Charan Mallikread the Bible to him.

In 1875, he met the influential Brahmo Samaj leader Kesab Chandra Sen. He also had interaction with Devendranath Tagore and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. He had also met swami Dayananda.

Vijay Krshna Goswami, Pratap Chandra Majumdar, Sivnath Sashtri Trilakyanath sanyal began visiting him during 1871-1885Mozoomdar wrote the first English biography of Ramkrishna , entitled The Hindu Saint    in the Theistic Quarterly Review in 1879 which played a vital role in introducing Ramkrishna to Westerners like the German indologist Max Muller. News papers reported that Ramkrishna was spreading love and Devotion among the educated classes of Calcutta and he had sicceeded in reforming the character of some youths whose morals had been corrut.Amongst the European who were influenced by Ramkrishna was Principal Dr. W.W.Hastie of the Scottish Church College, Calcutta who prompted some of his students including Narendranath Dutta to visit Ramakrihna.

Most of the prominent disciples of Ramkrishna came between 1879-1885 and were influenced by his style of preaching and instruction.