Born in 1836 as Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya, Ramakrishna was a prominent 19th-century sage, yogi, mystic, and religious leader from the Bengal region of India. He was a devotee of Goddess Kali and served as the priest at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple located on the eastern bank of Hooghly River in present-day Kolkata.
From a young age, Ramakrishna used to experience deep spiritual ecstasies but with time these experiences became more and more intense. At the age of 23, he married Saradamoni Mukhopadhyaya (Sarada Devi), who was just 5-years-old at that time. They stayed apart till she came of age and then joined Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar Temple, but the marriage was never consummated. Ramakrishna saw her as an embodiment of Kali and used to perform Shodashi Puja for her. Sarada effortlessly became a follower of Ramakrishna’s spiritual ideologies.
Initially, from being an ardent Kali devotee, Ramakrishna, later on, explored several other religious traditions and practices including Yoga, Yog Tantra, Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Advaita Vedanta. With these explorations, he concluded that all the spiritual practices lead to the same experience of reality, which is the existence of the supreme being in all living beings.
He went on to establish the monastic Ramakrishna Order and his teachings were further spread across the world through the life work of his chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda. Ramakrishna Mission, based in Belur near Kolkata is still an active center for spiritual transformation. Ramakrishna took Mahasamadhi (the process of exiting the body by will, in a state of complete consciousness) in 1886. It is believed that just before his death, he transferred his mystical powers to Vivekananda and asked him to take care of the other disciples.