Kathamrita
The 5 volumes of Kathamrita for display at Kathamrita Bhavan.
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| Author | Mahendranath Gupta |
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| Country | India |
| Language | Bengali |
| Genre | Spirituality |
| Publisher | Kathamrita Bhavan |
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Publication date
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1902, 1904, 1908, 1910 and 1932 |
Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita (Bengali: শ্রীশ্রীরামকৃষ্ণ-কথামৃত, Śrī-Śrī-Rāmakṛṣṇa-Kathāmṛta, The Nectar of Sri Ramakrishna's Words) is a Bengali five-volume work by Mahendranath Gupta (1854–1932) which recounts conversations and activities of the 19th century Indian mystic Ramakrishna, and published consecutively in years 1902, 1904, 1908, 1910 and 1932. The Kathamrita is a regarded as a Bengali classic and revered among the followers as a sacred scripture. Its best-known translation into English is entitled The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942).
Mahendranath Gupta (famously known simply as "M.") was a professor at Ripon College and taught at a number of schools in Kolkata. He had an academic career at Hare School and Presidency College in Kolkata. M had the habit of maintaining a personal diary since the age of thirteen. M met Ramakrishna in 1882 and attracted by Ramakrishna's teachings, M would maintain a stenographic record Ramakrishna's conversations and actions in his diary, which finally took the form of a book Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. Initially when M began writing the diaries, he had no plans of publication. Regarding his methodology M wrote, "I wrote everything from memory after I returned home. Sometimes I had to keep awake the whole night...Sometimes I would keep on writing the events of one sitting for seven days, recollect the songs that were sung, and the order in which they were sung, and the samadhi and so on." In each of his Kathamrita entries, M records the data, time and place of the conversation. The title Kathamrita, literally "nectarine words" was inspired by verse 10.31.9 from the Vaishnava text, the Bhagavata Purana.
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