The more 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' spreads in the world, the greater number of people ask: Who is this Ramprasad, whose songs Sri Ramakrishna so often sang? This small book is designed to be a modest answer to the above question.Sri Ramprasad (1723-1803), the melodious mystic of Bengal, belongs to that wonderful galaxy of Indian mystics whose approach to the Divine found expression and consummation in songs and melodies which form a part of the spiritual heritage of India. In this book an attempt has been made to portray the inner moods, the beauty and grandeur of the spiritual emotions of this great saint.
Those who die, merely suffering the woes of life like cats and dogs, are they human beings? The worthy are those who, even when agitated by the sharp interaction of pleasure and pain, are discriminating and, knowing them to be of an evanescent nature, become passionately devoted to the Atman. This is all the difference between human beings and animals.
-Swami Vivekananda