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.
The animal has its happiness in the senses, the human beings in their intellect, and the gods in spiritual contemplation. It is only to the soul that has attained to this contemplative state that the world really becomes beautiful.
-Swami Vivekananda