Sri Ramakrishna brought with him sixteen eternal companions to exemplify the different paths by which the Ultimate can be realized. The diligent steady of their lives will illumine our own progress in the spiritual field.
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