Wie trouwde met Ramakrishna?

Sri Ramakrishna, geboren in West Bengalen als Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya (Kamarpukur, 18 februari 1836 - Calcutta, 16 augustus 1886), wordt beschouwd als de grootste Hindu mysticus van de 19e eeuw. Zijn leven is een lichtend voorbeeld van Godrealisatie.

Volgens Ramakrishna is Godrealisatie het doel van het menselijk leven. Als eerste predikte hij dat daartoe niemand zich tot een andere religie hoeft te bekeren, maar dat elke religie, mits oprecht gevolgd, tot God leidt.

Zijn voornaamste en bekendste monnik-discipel was swami Vivekananda (Calcutta, 12 januari 1863 - Howrah, 4 juli 1902).

Ramakrishna's boodschap wordt, behalve in India, wereldwijd verspreid middels een aantal (Ramakrishna-Vivekananda) Vedanta Centra, met name in de Verenigde Staten en in Europa.

Sri Sarada Devi (Bengali: সারদা দেবী; ; 22 December 1853 – 20 July 1920), born Kshemankari / Thakurmani / Saradamani Mukhopadhyay, was the wife and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth-century Hindu mystic. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother (Sri Sri Maa) by the followers of the Sri Ramakrishna monastic order. The Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission situated at Dakshineshwar is based on the ideals and life of Sarada Devi. She played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.

Sarada Devi was born in Jayrambati, a village that became part of Bankura District in the state of West Bengal, India. She was married to Ramakrishna in 1859 when she was only five years old and Ramakrishna was 23 years old, but remained with her family until she was 18, when she joined Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar Kali temple. According to her biographers, both lived "lives of unbroken continence, showing the ideals of a householder and of the monastic ways of life". After Ramakrishna's death, Sarada Devi stayed most of the time either at Joyrambati or at the Udbodhan office, Calcutta. The disciples of Ramakrishna regarded her as their own mother, and after their guru's death looked to her for advice and encouragement. The followers of the Ramakrishna movement and a large section of devotees across the world worship Sarada Devi as an incarnation of the Adi Parashakti or the Divine Mother.