Swami Brahmananda (1863 – 1922) was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna who regarded him as his spiritual son. Also known as Raja Maharaj or simply ‘Maharaj’, Swami Brahmananda was the first president of the Ramakrishna Order. A man of deep meditative temperament and down-to-earth wisdom and humour, Maharaj quietly carried the mantle of guiding the fledging Ramakrishna Order in its first 21 years as also provided spiritual guidance to numerous spiritual aspirants, monastic and lay, who came in touch with him.

This biography of Swami Shivananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, is our honest attempt to portray the life and work of this “Great Soul”—our humble and worshipful tribute to his sacred memory. For a number of years we had the blessed privilege of enjoying the Swami’s holy association, even as we received his fostering love and care. Our sketch is therefore the combined fruit of personal impressions and patient study and research. While delineating the Swami’s life and personality, we have tried to capture him in his many spiritual moods, keeping in view the typical man of God that he always was.

Swami Ramakrishnananda or Shashi Maharaj was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Having spent more than a decade in the Baranagore Math, the first monastery of Ramakrishna Order, Shashi Maharaj came to Madras in 1897 at the instance of Swami Vivekananda. Enduring many hardships and overcoming numerous obstacles, he founded the Ramakrishna Math at Mylapore in Madras. His unequalled devotion to Sri Ramakrishna, pure life, saintly personality, and love and concern for others left an indelible impression on all those who came in touch with him. This book contains the available reminiscences of the monks and devotees who came in touch with him. Besides reminiscences, the book has all the letters Swami Vivekananda wrote to Shashi Maharaj, as also several appendices. Enriched with numerous pictures of Shashi Maharaj and the places and people associated with him.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa Deva represents the very core of the spiritual realizations of the seers and sages of India. He reached a depth of God consciousness that transcends all time and place and has a universal appeal. Seekers of God of all religions feel irresistibly drawn to his life and teachings.Religion is not just a matter for study,it is something that has to be experienced and to be lived,and this is the field in which Sri Ramakrishna manifested his uniqueness…Sri Ramakrishna faithfully practiced the spiritual disciplines of different religions and came to the realization that all of them lead to the same goal. In the present-day world,threatened by divisive strife and religious intolerance, Sri Ramakrishna’s message of harmony and his belief in serving Man in order to serve God gives us hope and shows the way. SRI RAMAKRISHNA FOR YOU is a concise but comprehensive and profusely illustrated compilation of his timeless sayings, teachings and conversations along with recollections of his contemporaries and disciples and tributes from his admirers all of whom have been phenomenal thought leaders from across the world.

Invitation to Holy Company is the work of a life long Sannyasin, recording his intimate experiences with ten of the direct monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, who may be designated as the Great Master’s Apostles. It is hoped that the study of these accounts will induce readers to learn more of these great direct disciples, about whom there is an abundance of good literature in English at present.

This is the biography of Mrs. Charlotte Elizabeth Sevier, one of the foremost Western disciples of Swami Vivekananda. Obeying the command of her guru, she left her own home in England, and, along with her husband, devoted her life to establish and nurture the Advaita Ashrama at Mayavati in the lofty heights of Himalayas, dedicated to the practice of Advaita Vedanta. Published by Advaita Ashrama, a branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India, this groundbreaking work is the first biography of Mrs. Sevier, and underscores the struggles, achievements, and convictions of this great woman, who was truly the 'Mother of Mayavati'.

This book released on the occasion of Swami Yatiswaranandaji’s 125th birth year, gives a glimpses of his life and teachings including rare photos of Swami Yatiswaranandaji.

Here in these pages is given a vivid and realistic pen-picture of a unique personality—unique because she was nun, wife and mother at the same time. The Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, the divine consort of Sri Ramakrishna, is here presented, in all her rustic simplicity, which breaks the barriers of commonality by its artless naturalness inspired by a universal love which made no distinction between friend and foe, the small and the great, the ignorant and the wise, but enfolded every living being in the charming fragrance of motherliness that her personality exuded. Swami Saradeshananda, the recorder of these precious reminiscences, is a disciple of the Mother, who had opportunities to serve her very intimately and thus hear those conversations and witness those small events that took place in the village of Jayarambati. He has therefore drawn a pen-picture of the Mother with a wealth of details, thus giving a realistic presentation of the concept of Universal Motherhood in human terms.

Swami Adbhutananda was a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Although he never underwent any formal education and did not know how to read and write, he was held in high respect for his spiritual achievements, pure life, simplicity and the insights into spiritual life. This book, a translation from the original Bengali ‘Sri Sri Latu Maharajer Smritikatha’, is a charming account of Swami Adbhutananda’s association with Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda and other disciples, as also provides intimate glimpses of his austere life, devotion to God, dispassion towards the world and intense spiritual practices.

Swami Akhandananda, whose reminiscences are recorded herein, was one of the sixteen direct Sannyasin disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Gangadhar Ghatak, as he was known in his pre-monastic life, was born in 1864. He happened to meet the Great Master in 1883 at the young age of nineteen and had the benefit of his holy company for more than three years till the Master’s demise in 1886. The story of his intimate contact with the Master and his spiritual development through that, are told in his own inimitable manner in the first chapter of this book. In the Master’s company, a transformation soon came over his views on religion. His deeply religious nature had till then expressed itself in his strict adherence to the rigorous rules of asceticism prescribed by Hindu orthodox. He bathed several times a day, ate only self-cooked food once, studied the Gita and other scriptures, and practised meditation.