Narendranath Datta was born on January 12th, 1863, in Calcutta, into an upper-middle-class Kayastha family in Bengal, he was educated at a Western-style university where he was exposed to Western philosophy, Christianity, and science. Social reform was given a prominent place in Vivekananda's thought, and he joined the Brahmo Samaj a Hindu reformsit organisation, dedicated to eliminating child marriage and illiteracy and determined to spread education among women and the lower castes. He later became the most notable disciple of Ramakrishna, who claimed to demonstrate the essential unity of all religions. Always stressing the universal and humanistic side of the Vedas as well as belief in service rather than dogma, Vivekananda attempted to infuse vigour into Hindu thought, placing less emphasis on the prevailing pacifism and presenting Hindu spirituality to the West.
He was an activating force behind the Vedanta (interpretation of the Upanisads) movement in the United States and England. In 1893 he appeared in Chicago as a spokesman for Hinduism at the World's Parliament of Religions and so captivated the assembly that a newspaper account described him as "an orator by divine right and undoubtedly the greatest figure at the Parliament." Thereafter he lectured throughout the United States and England, making converts to the Vedanta movement.
On his return to India with a small group of Western disciples in 1897, Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission at the monastery of Belur Math on the Ganges River near Calcutta. Self-perfection and service were his ideals, and the order continued to stress them.
He attempted to combine Indian spirituality with Western material progress, maintaining that the two supplemented and complemented one another. His Absolute was man's own higher self; to labour for the benefit of mankind was the noblest endeavour.
He died on July 4th, 1902, in Calcutta at the age of 39.
Ramakrishna was born as Gadadhar Chatterji on February 18th, 1836, in Hooghly, Bengal. He was the son of a poor Brahman family, he had little formal schooling. All his life he spoke a coarse dialect of Bengali and knew neither English nor Sanskrit. At the age of 23 he was married to Sarada-devi, age five; the marriage was never consummated, because one of his principles was celibacy. Sarada-devi later was deified and is still considered a saint by the Ramakrishna sect, which calls her the Divine Mother.
Rather than learning about God from books, he wished to realize him through the way he lived and worshipped. Moderation was alien to his nature, and he oscillated between exaltation and deepest gloom. He became God-intoxicated at the age of seven, apparently falling into a mystical trance. So much legend surrounds him as a revered figure, however, that the true man is somewhat obscured. Only the essence of his philosophy is quite clear.
Ramakrishna fought against sexual passion and money. He believed that those twin evils caused men to fail in achieving spiritual enlightenment. Later in life, his objection to gold became so intense that it was said to have an allergic effect upon him, and finally he could not touch metal of any kind. He rejected the idea of caste, repudiating any kind of artificial social division. He died on August 16th, 1886, in Calcutta at age 50.
The Ramakrisha Mission was founded in Calcutta by Vivekananda in 1897 to spread the teachings of Vedanta as embodied in the life of his master Ramakrishna and to improve the social conditions of the Indian people. In Ramakrishna's lifetime there grew about him a small but devoted band of disciples, among whom the young Vivekananda was outstanding and was chosen by Ramakrishna as his successor. These disciples were the nucleus of the Ramakrishna math ("monastery") established at Belur, on the banks of the Ganges near Calcutta, and consecrated in 1898. The Shri Sarada Math, begun in Calcutta in 1953, was made a completely separate organization in 1959, following the earlier wishes of Vivekananda; it and its sister organization, the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, now operate a number of centres in different parts of India. Several Ramakrishna Mission centres specifically serving women were turned over to the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission.
The Vedanta Society of the City of New York, incorporated in 1898, is the oldest branch of the mission in the U.S. It grew out of classes held by Vivekananda while on a visit to the U.S. to appear before the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. The activities of the order spread rapidly during the next half century. In the 1980s the order operated 13 branches in the United States and had centres in Bangladesh, Singapore, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, France, Switzerland, Argentina, and the United Kingdom. The centres in Western countries do not carry on social service work but are devoted exclusively to promulgating Ramakrishna's teachings. In India nearly 90 math and mission centres carry on various philanthropic activities, including medical service, educational work, publications, and relief work.
The above potted biographies do not discuss the truly awesome strangeness of Ramakrishna who was at one time the lion of Bengali society despite his peasant coarseness and earthiness and his overt passionate love for Vivekananda as a young man. He was accused of being transvestite for his living out of his role as a woman devotee and his immmersion in the role of Muslim, Christian, etc though sometimes perfunctory was at others times complete. There are and have been many Divine Mothers in India.
Vivekananda's gospel also bore very little resemblance to that of his master and this caused much controversy amongst Ramakrishna's immediate group of disciples, now it is on longer commented on.
There is Ramakrishna Home Page.
Bibliography:
The books published by the Ramakrishna Math are too numerous to list, a selection includes the many books by swamis Vivekananda, Prabhavananda (long time head of the LA temple) etc, etc.
Teachings of Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda
My Guru and His Disciple
Christopher Isherwood
Vedanta for the West
Carl T. Jackson
An interesting book which relates Vivekananada's travels and travails in the USA and his interactions with his early US disciples.