Devotees after the death of Ramakrishna

Sri Ramkrishna's illness lasting for about a year proved to be a signal, as it were, for his picked, young disciples to tear themselves away from their home life and be eventually banded together into an incipient holy brotherhood after their pre-eminent leader Narendranath. They came obviously to nurse their beloved Guru, but stayed on to be drilled into monastic life. It was in the Cossipore Garden House that one day Sarat Chandra with most of his comrades received from Sri Ramakrishna the och re cloth, the distinct garb of a Hindu monk.It was under the instruction of their Master that they began to beg their food like a Sannyasin in order to practise complete resignation to Providence as well as to purge their minds of deep-rooted egoistic tendencies. 
In this way the lofty aim of realizing God was rooted deeply in their minds. The world and its humdrum affairs had no attraction to them. and this state of their minds became more intense after the Master passed away in  Aug 1886. Soon after that, a monastery was started for them in a rented house  at Baranagar, not far from Cossipore Garden House.

( Standing ,left-tright, Swamis Sivananda, Ramakrishnananda, Vivekananda, Premananda, Deben Majumdar, Mahendranath Gupta, ,M, Trigunatitananda, Mustaphi; Sitting left to right, Niranjananda, Saradananda, Brahmananda, Abhedananda.)Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar is the place famous for long Spiritual practice by the great Apostles of Sri Ramakrishna Deva and known as the nucleus of Ramakrishna Sangha. Swami Vivekananda and his 14 (fourteen) brother disciples lived here in a dilapidated abandoned garden house from 1886-1892 and started the First Monastery of Ramakrishna Order. The way of their passing those days renouncing the world in every sense, delving deep in meditation amid severe austerity and penance for long five-years (1886-1892), is an inspiration to the mankind. The great ideal for unselfish ‘Love and Service’ to the society as manifested by Sri Ramakrishna, was kindled in this place by these youth disciples. Swami Vivekananda set out for His historical ‘Bharat Parikrama’ in the year 1889 from Baranagar Math hired at a rent of Rs. 10/- only pm , not far from the garden house. 

Baranagar Math — 1886-1892)

Baranagar Math is the First Monastery of Ramakrishna Order.
In the spiritual history of the world Baranagar Math is the only example where apostles of the Incarnation of God practised unprecedented Spiritual Discipline, Meditation and Austerities in such a congregation at one place.
Baranagar Math is that very place from where Swami Vivekananda set out for His historical Bharat Parikrama in 1889.
The way Swamiji and his brother-disciples lived in the Baranagar Monastery, their days of unparalleled austerity, their spiritual practices, renunciation and dispassion will remain written in letters of gold in the history of Ramakrishna Order. All these formed the cornerstone of the Order and the Baranagar Math was built on this solid foundation.
The love with which Sri Ramakrishna initially united these young speakers of God together, strengthened into fraternity here. Under the leadership of Swamiji, as the monks came by steps to appreciate the catholicity of Sri Ramakrishana’s ideas, they gradually prepared themselves for the liberation of their own and welfare of the world around. This readiness in the face of much strong opposition and their evergreen alertness resulted in their all-round growth– spiritual, mental and intellectual.
All these intense austere life at Baranagar Math was accompanied by concern for the entire world at large. The realization and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, the avatar of this age, are as deep as the ocean and infinite as the sky. The inmates of the Math had, by then, realized that the advent of Sri Ramakrishna was not for the sake of India alone, but for entire humanity.

“As many faiths, so many paths” – the fundamental realisation of Sri Ramakrishna, the Guru of Swami Vivekananda, which was practised by the apostles at Baranagar Math through observing the teachings of Buddha, Mohammad, Jesus Christ and other Religious great personalities. Swami Vivekananda preached the Universal Religion and propagated the great message of harmony and equal validity of all the religious faiths. Sri Ramakrishna realised the ultimate truth from varied religions through His spiritual practices in His life time..