The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
The Gospel of Ramakrishna, 1942 edition.
AuthorMahendranath Gupta
TranslatorSwami Nikhilananda
LanguageEnglish
GenreSpirituality
PublisherRamakrishna-Vivekananda Center
Publication date
1942
Publication placeIndia
Pages1062
ISBN978-0-911206-01-2
OCLC19930528

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is an English translation of the Bengali religious text Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita by Swami Nikhilananda. The text records conversations of Ramakrishna with his disciples, devotees and visitors, recorded by Mahendranath Gupta, who wrote the book under the pseudonym of "M."[1] The first edition was published in 1942.

Swami Nikhilananda worked with Margaret Woodrow Wilson, daughter of US president Woodrow Wilson. Margaret helped the swami to refine his literary style into "flowing American English". The mystic hymns were rendered into free verse by the American poet John Moffitt. Wilson and American mythology scholar Joseph Campbell helped edit the manuscript.[1] Aldous Huxley wrote in his foreword, "...'M' produced a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity."[2][3]

Nikhilananda wrote that he had written an accurate translation[4] of the Kathamrita, "omitting only a few pages of no particular interest to English-speaking readers"[1] and stating that "often literary grace has been sacrificed for the sake of literal translation."[1] Although Nikhilananda's translation of the Kathamrita is the best known, the first translation published by Swami Abhedananda 35 years earlier.[5]

  1. ^ a b c d Nikhilananda, Swami (1942). "Preface". The Gospel of Ramakrishna. Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math.
  2. ^ Gospel of Ramakrishna page v
  3. ^ Lex Hixon. "Introduction". Great Swan. p. xiii.
  4. ^ Neevel, Walter G; Bardwell L. Smith (1976). "The Transformation of Ramakrishna". Hinduism: New Essays in the History of Religions. Brill Archive. p. 61. ISBN 90-04-04495-7.
  5. ^ The Gospel of Ramakrishna (New York: The Vedanta Society, 1907).